The Tamesis
After canceling a Venice Biennale pavilion displaying Gaza-related artwork, South Africa blamed its surprise decision on an unidentified foreign country seeking to use the pavilion to gain “agency,” according to a statement released this weekend. South African officials then reportedly named the country Qatar, according to an article in an Israeli publication network news Tuesday.
Although the report relied primarily on unnamed diplomatic sources in South Africa, the report quoted Israel’s visiting ambassador to South Africa, David Saranga, as saying that the situation demonstrated “how countries with significant resources can conduct influence operations against Israel in the cultural sphere.”
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art news The Ministries of Culture of South Africa and Qatar were contacted for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
South Africa’s culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, never mentioned Qatar in his statement about the pavilion, which is themed in a Gabrielle Goliath performance about the killing of women and queer people in South Africa, the German-led genocide in Namibia in the early 20th century and Israel’s war in Gaza. Part of the performance included performers reading verses from Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed along with her son in an Israeli airstrike in 2023.
this Everyday maverick According to the report, McKenzie warned Goliath that the performance was “highly divisive” and raised concerns about Abu Nada’s poetry section. Afterwards, Goliath claimed to be under scrutiny, asking: “Whose life can be displaced, raped, killed, denied?”
McKenzie sought to deflect accusations of censorship, attributing his decision to a feud with the South African Art Journal, a non-profit organization established in 2025 to support the South African pavilion. He claimed that during the funding stage, Art Journal told him that a “foreign country” had “promised to purchase the artwork in question after the Biennale”. McKenzie said in a statement that this “raises alarm as South African platforms are allegedly being used as proxies by foreign powers to support geopolitical messaging regarding Israel’s actions in Gaza.”
A spokesman for Art Journal did not respond. art newsRequest for comment.
In her statement, McKenzie questioned why the unnamed country didn’t simply “rent its own space and fund its own messaging to convey its feelings about Israel and Gaza.” If he was referring to Qatar, the country is actually planning to build its own permanent pavilion in Giardini, Venice. Qatar, which accuses Israel of leading genocide in Gaza, has not yet detailed its participation in the 2026 art show or when the permanent pavilion will be completed.
Although network news The report praised McKenzie for “taking a balanced stance on Israel,” and past statements show that he issued passionate statements in support of Israel and dismissed the concerns of pro-Palestinian activists before October 7, 2023.
In August 2023, amid criticism from the South African branch of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, McKenzie described himself as “a friend of the Israeli people”, telling members of the branch to “find day jobs like the rest of us”. He claimed that supporters of BDS are “shysters,” a term some say is rooted in anti-Semitism.
McKenzie has since said “there is no genocide” in Gaza, asked South Africa to drop the case it filed against Israel with the International Court of Justice in December 2023, and claimed South Africans were wrongly focusing on Palestine when they should be more concerned about crimes in their own country. He also said that in 2024, “My Bible commands me to stand with Israel. My Bible tells me that if you curse Israel, you curse yourself. I will listen to the Bible.”
Mackenzie is chairman of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), a right-wing party founded in 2013. South Africa is currently led by the Government of National Unity (GNU), which was formed after the African National Congress (ANC), the party that led the anti-apartheid movement, lost its absolute majority in the 2024 elections. McKenzie is the only Palestinian Authority politician to hold a cabinet-level position in the National Unity Party, which is still dominated by the ANC.
His decision on the Venice Biennale drew sharp condemnation from the left-wing Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second-largest political party. “This is interference, plain and simple,” the Democratic Alliance said in a statement over the weekend. “This sets a dangerous precedent where cultural expression is subject to political sanction.”
According to South African media reports GovernmentThe Democratic Alliance has since made a formal complaint to McKenzie.
