OVER 700 creatives and public figures accused the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) of anti-Palestinian censorship today after it removed two artworks from its Young Artists’ Summer Show.

One work, created by an 18-year-old artist, shows a photograph of a protester holding a placard reading “Jews say stop genocide on Palestinians: Not in Our Name.”

A drawing was submitted by a 16-year-old showing a swastika above a screaming woman wearing a headscarf.

Both were removed after the Board of Deputies of British Jews raised “significant concerns” about the works, describing them as containing “anti-semitic tropes and messaging.” 

In an open letter published by Artists for Palestine, visual artists and writers Rosalind Nashashibi, Adam Broomberg, Natasha Walter, Kamila Shamsie, Sabrina Mahfouz, Fatima Bhutto and Gillian Slovo are among those saying that the RA has “stigmatis[ed] the work of the young artists” and “colluded with the erasure of Jewish contribution to solidarity with Palestinians.”

Others who signed the letter include fashion designer Bella Freud, director Mike Leigh, musician Brian Eno and the Jewish Socialists’ Group. 

It adds: “Far from protecting Jews, the RA is lending support to a racist, anti-Palestinian campaign that aims to silence expressions of support for Palestinian people.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has asked its 330,000 supporters to email the chief executive of the Royal Academy. 

The PSC letter states that “in silencing solidarity for Palestine, the Royal Academy is complicit in shielding the state of Israel from accountability for its actions,” adding that it should not “be regarded as inherently illegitimate for artists to draw comparisons between one genocide and others in history.”