Following an investigation into the exhibition, Kent Police said: “[We] received a report concerning artwork deemed to be offensive at an exhibition in Dane Hill, Margate, at 4.20pm on Saturday 21 March 2026.
"Enquiries have been carried out by officers, and no criminal offences were identified.”
The force added that the exhibit “does not include content that is directly abusive or insulting toward Jewish people as a group”.
An image from Matthew Collings: Drawings Against Genocide (Image: Zoe Strimpel)[Missing Credit]
Criticising the force’s decision, Sir Michael Ellis, who served as Attorney General for England and Wales between 2021 and 2022, told the JC: “Time and again, unmistakable acts of antisemitism around the country have been going unpunished by the police.
"The UK’s Jewish community already feels betrayed by the criminal justice system, and the police’s bizarre inaction in this latest case will further damage what little confidence they have left.
"The police have serious questions to answer over their handling of this case.”
The exhibition, which runs from March 21 to 29, was visited by JC writer and Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel on the weekend, who said she was “shocked” to see the room “full of the Star of David pasted around figures meant to be Israelis and the Jewish ‘lobby’ spewing blood”.
An image attacking CST by Matthew Collings (Image: Zoe Strimpel)[Missing Credit]
Collings – who in 2019 was prevented from standing as a Labour candidate after dismissing allegations of antisemitism in the party as a “witch hunt” and who once described former chief rabbi Lord Sacks as a “notorious hate-filled racist” – also branded Israel the “encapsulation of hell” and a “terror state” in the exhibition’s programme notes.
Fiona Sharpe, a spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, said: “It is inexcusable that Kent Police should dismiss out of hand the alarm and distress experienced by a Jewish person after viewing the grotesque artwork of Matthew Collings.
"Their role is to take any complaint of a hate crime seriously and to investigate it. If they are not trained to recognise antisemitic images and tropes, then they should be referred to experts who can assist them.
An image from Matthew Collings' Drawings Against Genocide featuring the swastika, Star of David, Donald Trump and references to Jeffrey Epstein (Image: Zoe Strimpel).[Missing Credit]
“This is why it is vital that all police forces have training in anti-Jewish racism - so that they do not make the mistake of calling Jew hate legitimate political commentary aimed at Israel.”
Ahead of Kent Police’s statement, Israel’s chargé d’affaires said Collings’ drawings were “crude, aggressive, and completely indefensible” and should be “treated with the full seriousness of the law”.
Thanet District Council took down the Margate show listing from its tourism website after a wave of complaints, distancing itself from the event and acknowledging it should not have been promoted in the first place.
Collings has contended that his artworks do not target Jewish people and are intended as criticism of the Israeli state and Zionism.
Specifically on the Sotheby’s drawing, he said that “nothing in the drawing says ‘Jews’ or claims Jews eat babies”, adding: “It makes a comment that the owner of Sotheby’s is a Zionist...the message is that Zionism is a brutal ideology.”
An drawing depicting Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary from Matthew Collings: Drawings Against Genocide (Image: Zoe Strimpel)[Missing Credit]