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AnalysisArts & CultureAustralia

Police investigate Sydney Biennale DJ as concerns mount about anti-Israel bias

The hate-filled tirade comes in the context of a Biennale with a disproportionate number of pro-Palestinian artists and a notable absence of Jews or Israelis.
Michael Visontay
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_Bouchra-Khalili_The-Public-Storyteller_

Still from The Public Storyteller by Bouchra Khalili, one of the many Biennale artists whose work addresses pro-Palestinian narratives (Sydney Biennale)

Published: 19 March 2026

Last updated: 19 March 2026

The organisers of this year’s Sydney Biennale have given it the theme “Rememory”. It’s a painfully ironic choice because this Biennale is destined to be remembered - as an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish pile-on.

In the months leading up to last week’s opening of Australia’s largest art festival, concerns had been raised about the large proportion of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian artists invited to this year’s event – 40% of the program according to a prominent art critic.

One of them, the Hobart-based artist Feras Shazeen, had posted an image on Instagram that equated Jewish philanthropists, John Gandel and Morry Schwartz, with the leader of the Australian Neo-Nazis. Schwartz resigned from the Biennale board late last year ahead of the appointment of Hoor Al Qasimi as Artistic Director.

Last year, in a previous role as Artistic Director of the Sixth Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, the Emirati-born Al Qasimi spoke to the media wearing a T-shirt with the word “Palestine” across it. She went on to denounce “genocide” in Gaza, and thundered against “colonialism and occupation”.

These incipient fears about the Biennale were ratcheted up to another level at the opening night party last Friday when American pro-Palestinian DJ Haram let loose a tirade that  attacked those trying to silence dissent as the “Zio-Australian-Epstein empire”. She then led party guests in a chant of “long live the resistance”. Her remarks have triggered a NSW police investigation into potential breaches of racial hate laws.  

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip labelled the phrase “the Zio-Australian-Epstein empire” as “pure antisemitism”. He added that Haram’s cry of “glory to our martyrs” amounted to support for terrorism. 

It was clear that the worst expectations of the Biennale’s detractors had been realised.

Jillian Segal, the government’s antisemitism envoy, also had strong words. “The remarks made during the opening night of the Biennale of Sydney were upsetting to members of the Jewish community and others. No community should feel unwelcome or targeted at publicly funded cultural events.”

Jewish communal leaders weren’t the only ones to vent their outrage. “There’ll be plenty of excuses offered,” wrote art and cultural critic John McDonald, “but it was clear that the worst expectations of the Biennale’s detractors had been realised.”

The Biennale organisers said they were blindsided by DJ Haram’s remarks and would investigate her performance. "While the Biennale provides a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, we require all public discourse by our representatives and participating artists to be lawful and in strict accordance with our Code of Conduct. We are currently reviewing this incident internally,” a spokesperson told The Jewish Independent.

“The Biennale of Sydney did not commission, approve, or have prior knowledge of [DJ Haram’s] specific remarks. The views expressed by the artist are entirely her own and do not represent the views of the Biennale of Sydney, our Board, or our government and corporate partners.”

However, as John McDonald observed: “Only a conspiracy theorist would suggest that the Biennale commissioned DJ Haram’s remarks or had any advance warning of what she was about to do, but the merest glance at the artist’s track record should have set alarm bells ringing.”

Diasporas lacking Jews

Haram's remarks did not appear in a vacuum. McDonald identified 40% of the Biennale artists as anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian The Jewish Independent counted 26 of the 83 invited artists as having a pro-Palestinian attachment, either in their work or personal background.

Notably, there is not a single Israeli artist and just one Jewish artist, who is anti-Israel. This is particularly striking given that the Biennale positions itself as concerned with "diasporic communities" and the very word "diaspora" was coined to describe Jews, the world's oldest and most continuous diasporic community.

The Biennale has flatly rejected allegations of bias or inappropriateness. "The Biennale of Sydney selects artists based on artistic merit and their ability to contribute to the curatorial vision of Rememory,” it told TJI.

“The Biennale does not select or exclude artists based on their religion, cultural background, nationality, or political views. Participation is determined solely through a rigorous process grounded in artistic merit."

Art has become secondary to politics

Australian Jewish artists contacted by TJI said they were dismayed but not surprised by the Biennale’s overt political framing. “The issues that plague the Biennale are almost scripted at this point. The works and performances themselves, feel secondary to the politics,” said Melbourne artist Anita Lester, founder of a creative hub in Melbourne for Jews called Beit Sulam.

“These festivals are obsessed with cultural framing. There’s been a shift in the cultural space away from curiosity and toward alignment. Hiring a raging anti-Zionist as head curator should not create any surprises.

“The outcome of this posturing is an overwhelming amount of shitty art that hasn’t any depth. It’s art whose tension rarely lives inside the artwork but sits in the programming and the statements.”

The art world currently functions as a vehicle for ideological messaging, where art itself is entirely secondary.

Nina Sanadze, a Melbourne sculptor among those in the WhatsApp group whose details were doxed shortly after October 7, said the Biennale “places a clear emphasis on Arab and Muslim artists, who appear to comprise approximately 30% of the participants. In itself, this is not inherently controversial.

“What is highly questionable, however, is the timing of Hoor Al Qasimi’s selection as curator in the period following October 7, 2023. Given her publicly known background and views, the decision inevitably raises serious concerns and can reasonably be interpreted by many in the Jewish community as deliberately political and hostile.”

Sanadze, who established a gallery in Melbourne to showcase cancelled artists after her doxing, echoed Lester’s views about political framing. “The art world currently functions as a vehicle for ideological messaging, where art itself is entirely secondary. What should be a space for creative freedom is turning into a propaganda machine ruled by fear of dissent and rigid political orthodoxy, in which anti-Jewish and anti-Western narratives are central.

“Cultural narratives do not exist in isolation; they shape public discourse and influence the wider climate in which people live. The hostility toward Jewish creatives in cultural spaces sits squarely alongside real-world events and tensions, making events like the Sydney Biennale and the Venice Biennale feel volatile and deeply uncomfortable, particularly in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre.”

The best way to understand just how exclusionary the art world has become, she says, is to reverse the emphasis in this year’s event: “one need only imagine the reverse scenario: a Jewish curator organising a Biennale in which 30 percent of the artists were Jewish and everyone else had to share the same, openly declared political positions.” 

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About the author

Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay is Commissioning Editor of TJI and was Editor-in-Chief from 2017-22. Michael is a former Assistant Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and columnist with The Australian Jewish News. He has written six books, including Who Gave You Permission? with Manny Waks, and Welcome to Wanderland: Western Sydney Wanderers and the Pride of the West. His most recent book is Noble Fragments: the Maverick who broke up the world's greatest book (Scribe, 2024).

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