Royal Academy condemned for exhibiting “antisemitic” art for second year running
Lawyers accuse RA of having "shamefully ignored the views of its Jewish and Israeli visitors"
The Royal Academy of the Arts has been condemned for exhibiting “antisemitic” art works in its summer exhibition for the second year in a row, with the country’s preeminent art institution accused of not taking Jewish visitor’s concerns into account.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the Royal Academy regarding two works submitted by Michael Sandle, an academy member, for the RA’s Summer Exhibition 2025.
The first work by Michael Sandle, showing what appears to be a Hamas terrorist next to an Israeli airforce pilot, is titled “Terrorist versus smiling mass murderer of innocents”, and is priced at £6,000.
A second work, which appears to be a slightly larger variant on the first piece and priced at £25,000, is titled “Apropos terror – a pilot doesn’t hear the screams of the women and children he is massacring with impunity.”
Last year, there was considerable anger within the Jewish community at another work submitted by Sandle, titled “The mass slaughter of defenceless women and children is not how you deradicalize Gaza”, depicting a faceless pilot in an aircraft emblazoned with a Star of David.
Two artworks submitted by students as part of the RA’s youth competition, one of which seemingly compared Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza to Nazism, were withdrawn from the RA’s exhibition, but Sandle’s work remained.
In a statement, UKLFI said it had written to the RA’s new chief executive, “explaining why the two drawings are antisemitic, and asking for their removal from the exhibition”.
It added: “The titles of both these drawings imply Israel is purposely slaughtering women and children, on a mass scale. This is far from the truth, since the Israeli army does all it can to avoid harming women and children, while targeting Hamas terrorists, who unfortunately use women and children and human shields… UKLFI explained that Israel has killed far fewer civilians in proportion to the number of terrorists that have been killed, than other countries during urban warfare. The proportion is 1 or 2 civilians to 1 terrorist. In other conflicts, 8 or 9 civilians are killed for every one terrorist. While every civilian that is killed is of course a tragedy, this is unfortunately inevitable during a war in urban areas.”
The legal organisation further stated that the pictures submitted by Sandle therefore, in their opinion, “‘apply double standards by requiring of Israel a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,’ which can be antisemitic according to example 8 of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism… The titles of Michael Sandle’s drawings… claim that Israelis (or Jews) are carrying out a mass murder of innocent women and children with impunity. Accusing Jews of murdering babies or children is an enduring blood libel. Michael Sandle should be aware that Israel aims to kill terrorists, not innocent children and others.”
A spokesperson for UKLFI said: “The Royal Academy has shamefully ignored the views of its Jewish and Israeli visitors, and once more displayed antisemitic, anti-Israel artworks. We hope that they will now remove these offensive items.”
The Jewish News understands the Royal Academy does not have the ability to block submissions from members of the academy; nor does it have the power to expel academy members. Such a power ultimately belongs to the Sovereign and has previously only been used when a member has been found guilty of a crime such as murder.
The Royal Academy said: “As the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show, the Summer Exhibition provides a unique platform for artists to showcase their works to an international audience.
“Each year, the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition is curated by a Committee of Royal Academicians and led by a co-ordinator, who is also a Royal Academician. All Royal Academicians are automatically entitled to submit up to six works. The rest of the exhibition is made up of artworks from artists specifically invited by the committee members and then open public submissions, which are judged and selected by the dedicated Summer Exhibition Committee to form the majority of the works in the show. This year there are over 1,700 works by emerging, amateur, professional and established artists.
“Works in the exhibition often reflect current societal and political topics. Inclusion of works in the Summer Exhibition should not be read as the RA supporting any particular artist’s point of view. We always take all concerns about artworks on display in the Summer Exhibition seriously, however our role, as an artist and architect led organisation is to allow all artists the ability to express themselves. The Royal Academy is an organisation led by artists and architects and is committed to freedom of expression.”
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