MIAMI BEACH – Dozens of activists gathered outside the Convention Center on the second public day of Art Basel Miami Beach, Dec. 7, to call on the city to get rid of Israel. On the sidewalk near the fair’s location, volunteers asked attendees to sign petitions calling for a boycott of Art Basel until Miami-Dade County and Miami Beach stop investing in bonds supporting the war in Gaza.
Organizers from local groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace South Florida, Al-Awda and Students for Justice in Palestine at Florida International University, used the international art fair as a platform to criticize the Miami Beach government, which doubled its investment in Israeli bonds last year to $20 million. They handed out informational leaflets with the headline “Our tax dollars are financing the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Nearby Palm Beach County recently voted unanimously to increase the cap on investments in the county the world’s largest investor in Israeli bondswith approximately $700 million of its $4.67 billion dollar portfolio allocated.
Organizers gathered at the art fair entrance at 2 p.m. and attempted to unfurl their “LET PALESTINE LIVE” banner on the steps of the Convention Center under the Art Basel sign, as they did last year.
But police vehicles were parked on Convention Center Drive and they were met by a dozen officers who told them that the area around Convention Center Drive was a “safety zone” open only to people with tickets to the event. The protesters quickly moved to the corner of 17th Street and Convention Center Drive, near Miami Beach City Hall.
Alan Levine, a local attorney and protester at the event, believes this was a violation of activists’ First Amendment rights. Hyperallergic that he plans to take legal action against the city.
“Obviously, if the event is held in a public place on a public street, we have the right to reach those who go in,” Levine said.
Police also demanded that protesters remove the poles holding up the sign, claiming these had to be a certain size to be allowed even after leaving the fair’s perimeter. At least 20 police officers wearing riot gear watched protesters from street parking lots as they chanted.
Miami Beach police have not yet responded Hyperallergic‘s request for comment.
Protesters like Zaina Alsous believed they could still achieve their goal of disrupting space.
“Miami is a working-class city, where many people, mostly immigrants, work for relatively low wages and high costs of living, while the wealthy fly in to buy art, stay in luxury hotels and then leave,” Alsous said. Hyperallergic. “I think anytime there’s a moment when a lot of wealthy people are using Miami for recreation, we have a responsibility to enrich that space and break it with the reality of what’s happening in the world.”
Earlier this week, organizers of the group held a similar demonstration at the “Great Elephant Migration” installation, designed by Shubhra Nayar, in the middle of the beach area. The nearby suburb of Bal Harbor was the first city in the country to pass an ordinance against the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, a type of law that is now becoming commonplace.
Organizers hope that protesting the biggest event of the year in Miami Beach will help them reach public commissioners and local residents to start a conversation about Israel’s continued attacks, which killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza And more than 700 in the occupied West Bankand how bond funds can be better used by the community for local projects.
Donna Nevel, organizer of Jewish Voice for Peace and longtime Miami Beach resident, sees this activism as part of a long tradition of activism on the beach.
“My family marched with Martin Luther King against segregation on Miami Beach. As a high school student, I marched with the farm workers during the grape boycott,” Nevel said Hyperallergic. “I am so proud to now be part of the movement calling for justice for the Palestinian people. It is my duty as a Jew not to speak in my name, never again.”
