Exclusive: Artist behind ‘antisemitic’ exhibition shared posts claiming Hamas had ‘nothing to apologise for’

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In December, he replied to a post asking “if all humans suddenly lost the ability to lie, what industry would collapse first?”. Collings wrote: “The Holocaust industry.”

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In an artwork and an online post from August, he attacked Jonathan Hall, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

Hall, who is not Jewish, revealed in 2019 that he volunteers to be part of the security team at his wife’s synagogue.

Depicting Hall with what appears to be blood dripping from his hands and mouth, Collings accused him of indulging in “vigilante fantasies by ‘guarding’ his local synagogue against non-existent attacks”.

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Meanwhile, in another post following Monday’s arson attack that destroyed four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, Collings wrote: “Anyone reckon false flag?”

And, in September, he posted: “To pretend ‘antisemitism’ is happening as a politician is at the very best to make it perfectly clear what your real politics are – nothing much – and what your real intentions are – opportunistic self promotion.”

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Collings was prevented from standing as a Labour candidate in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn after dismissing allegations of antisemitism in the party as a “witch hunt”.

Collings did not respond to requests for comment via his representation, the Vigo gallery, nor the Joseph Wales Studio in Margate, where his collection is currently being shown.

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Responding to allegations of antisemitism in the exhibit, Collings wrote: “I see my drawings are being criticised by right-wingers for being about ‘hate’. This is to distract from their real meaning.

"They are called Drawings Against Genocide. Their inspiration is Goya, and his series called ‘Disasters of War.’ He was horrified by inhumanity.

“Well, I want to stop Israel from murdering people. Israel created a narrative to defend not only this genocide it’s perpetrating now, but also all its historic atrocities. The message of the narrative is that anyone who criticises Israel is ‘antisemitic’.

"It is a bizarre and irrational Orwellian doublespeak fantasy, yet many believe it. The reality is that children are dying. Families are dying. Men and women are dying. And no one feels they can say anything because of this fake ‘antisemitism’ justification.”

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Collings also shared a post by the Art For a Free Palestine group, which claimed: “The Zionist Israeli lobby seeks to discredit voices like Matthew Collings as antisemitic. They have conflated Zionism with antisemitism… which mean simply if you say anything against Zionism, you are saying something also against Judaism. This is a blatant attempt to muzzle any criticism of Israel or Zionism, by saying it is ‘antisemitic’.”