More than 4,000 artists are calling for Israel to be excluded from one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious art exhibits.

Signatories to the letter said: “There is no free expression for the Palestinian poets, artists, and writers murdered, silenced, imprisoned, tortured, and prevented from travelling abroad or internally by Israel. There is no free expression in the war crime of cultural genocide,” Al Jazeera reported. 

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott, which endorsed the letter, says: “Any official representation of Israel on the international cultural stage is an endorsement of its policies and of the genocide in Gaza.”

PACBI argues that there are precedents: The Biennale banned apartheid South Africa from 1968 onwards, and in 2022 banned Russian artists connected to the government.