Berlin-based South African artist Candice Breitz has a clothing campaign to raise money for journalists and media workers in Gaza. All profits are donated to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) – a non-governmental professional organization they represent about four-fifths of Palestinian media workers. The PSJ was held in May awarded the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prizethe only award for journalistic freedom presented by the United Nations.
Since the Hamas attacks on October 7 last year, the Israeli army’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 134 Palestinian journalists and media workers, the report said. Committee to Protect Journalists. Breitz’s campaign, which launched last week, features black T-shirts, sweatshirts and other items with a design with blocked text reading: “Never again means never again” in a palette of blue and white, traditional colors in Judaism, and red and green, colors in the Palestinian flag.
The artist, who is originally Jewish shared the design on Instagram for Holocaust Remembrance Day in January. Each item is named after a prominent Jewish figure, such as a philosopher Nancy Fraserpoet Tomer Dotan Dreyfusand filmmaker Nan Goldin, who was arrested last month along with some 200 activists during a sit-in for Palestine outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Breitz said in an emailed statement that each figure “has faced scorn in Germany over the past year” for expressing support for Palestine, adding that the country’s “unhinged crackdown” on pro-Palestinian voices has not only affected Jews.
Over the past year, Breitz has been vocal about her condemnation of the German government’s support for Israeli attacks on Gaza, which has strained her relationship with cultural institutions across the country. Last November the Saarland Museum was confronted response when it canceled a presentation of Breitz’s 13-channel video installation TLDR in response to online comments, the artist had criticized Israeli violence in Gaza. The museum reported this in a statement to the newspaper Guardian that it “will not provide a platform for artists who do not recognize Hamas’ terror as an infringement on civilization,” nor will it collaborate with artists who “consciously or unconsciously suspend the clear distinction between legitimate and unlawful action.”
Four months after the cancellation the The museum’s director has resigned from her position.
“It is vital that we find ways to express our support for journalism on the ground, because it is vital that we continue to receive information from and about those most directly and grotesquely affected by the ongoing and widespread humanitarian catastrophe in the region. Breitz said in an Oct. 30 post Instagram post about the new campaign. She added that supporters can also contribute by ordering gift cards for loved ones ahead of the holidays.
