Context
A genocidal state
The guide states that Israel’s assault on Gaza and the West Bank continues through attacks on civilians, restrictions on humanitarian aid, detention, torture, and public claims of impunity.
Guide
2026 Campaign · Active
A Guide To Complicity And Protest
Boycott the Genocide Pavilion. No parties. No press. No artwashing. This guide identifies how cultural platforms, state pavilions, military networks, and official silence normalise genocide and occupation.
Campaign brief01
Boycott the Genocide Pavilion. No Artwashing.
As arts workers, ANGA refuses the presence of a genocidal apartheid state on the cultural world stage of the 61st Venice Biennale. Providing space for the Israeli pavilion at the Arsenale is framed here as accepting genocide, normalising the decimation of a population, denying human rights, and creating a precedent for justifying totalitarianism.
No parties. No press. No artwashing.
The guide demands the boycott and closure of the Israeli pavilion, a permanent and real ceasefire, an end to the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and an end to apartheid and occupation.
Background02
Context
Colonial expansionism
The PDF frames the wider war being waged by the US and Israel as growing from decades of occupation, normalisation, and the export of technologies and tactics of control.
Context
Artwashing genocide
The guide argues that the Biennale has handed Israel an international stage to culturewash occupation, and that legitimising the pavilion masks destruction as cultural production.
Pavilion
About the Genocide Pavilion
Israel’s national pavilion in the Giardini remains closed after ANGA’s 2024 campaign. For 2026, the Biennale has accommodated Israel’s participation inside the Arsenale.
Demand
Exclude the state, not individuals
Following PACBI principles, the guide does not call for the exclusion of individual artists. It demands the exclusion of the Israeli state and its representatives.
Call
Refuse complicity
The page is designed as a public-facing digital guide: a route into the PDF, a summary of its key claims, and a clear path to solidarity events and campaign materials.
Palestine solidarity in Venice03
Exhibitions, gatherings, and sites of resistance
9 May – 22 November
Gaza – No Words – See the Exhibit
Palestine Museum US presents Palestinian tatreez and the last chapter of the Gaza Genocide Tapestry as an official collateral event.
Palazzo Mora, Strada Nova, Cannaregio 3659 · 10:00 am–6:00 pm · Closed Tuesdays
3 May – 31 July
Taring Padi: People’s Liberation
Large-scale banners created for political education, propaganda, and mobilisation by Taring Padi with progressive organisations across four continents.
S.a.L.E. Docks, Dorsoduro 265 · Thu–Sun, 11:30 am–2:00 pm
3 May – 31 July
Mosaab Abusal: Geography of the Body
Recent charcoal works by Gazan artist Mosaab Abusal present the Palestinian body as a living archive: memory, evidence, territory.
S.a.L.E. Docks, Dorsoduro 265 · Thu–Sun, 11:30 am–2:00 pm
5 May – 31 July
Gabrielle Goliath: Elegy
An independent staging after the South African pavilion project was cancelled. Elegy addresses the Ovaherero and Nama genocide and the death of Palestinian poet Heba Abu Nada.
Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, Castello 3477 · Tue–Sat, 10:00 am–6:00 pm
Information about the genocide04
Official figures cited in the guide as of April 2026
The PDF notes that the following figures are likely a significant under-count, especially when including indirect deaths from hunger, disease, and lack of medical care.
72k+
reported deaths
180k+
possible true toll in public health estimates
10k
missing, many likely under rubble
250+
journalists killed
80%+
buildings damaged or destroyed
90%
population forcibly displaced
200+
cultural and heritage sites destroyed
10k+
Palestinians held in Israeli prisons
A history of Biennale protest05
1968
A turning point
The Biennale was occupied and disrupted by students, artists, and cultural workers opposing elitism, nationalism, capitalism, and imperial power. Prizes were abolished and the Biennale entered a long phase of politicisation.
1970s
Art as a political act
The guide highlights the 1970 US Pavilion boycott, the 1974 Freedom for Chile exhibition, and the 1976 solidarity action for Tel Al-Za’tar as moments when refusal, absence, and boycott became meaningful gestures.
1968–1993
South Africa and the apartheid boycott
Apartheid South Africa was suspended from the Biennale based on UN resolution 2396 and was not readmitted until apartheid rule was abolished.
2015
Migrant workers’ rights and occupation
Protests around Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Arsenale, and the Israeli Pavilion connected migrant worker exploitation with Palestinian workers’ struggles under Israeli occupation.
2024
Palestine and ANGA
ANGA’s campaign gathered over 24,000 signatures and helped create the pressure that led to the closure of the Israeli pavilion during the 2024 Biennale opening week.
The Biennale06
The Venice Biennale: complicit in genocide
The guide argues that the Biennale has been silent about Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians while making inconsistent institutional choices about inclusion and exclusion.
It contrasts the Biennale’s refusal to exclude Israel with its 2022 statement that it would not accept official delegations, institutions, or persons tied to the Russian government after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
ANGA’s position is that the question is not whether the Biennale lacks power, but how selectively that power is used.
Note: This guide identifies the principal supporters of the Palestinian genocide in 2026. ANGA acknowledges that information may be incomplete, as transnational networks within the military-industrial complex exceed territorial boundaries.
A guide to complicity: Giardini
AU
Australia
Named for its role in the global F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme and defence ties with Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
AT
Austria
Named for political support for Israel and suspension or freezing of aid to Palestinians and UNRWA during escalating violence.
CA
Canada
Named for prior military exports to Israel, even after later halting arms shipments over international humanitarian law concerns.
FR
France
Named for military and strategic ties with Israel, including ammunition deliveries and military equipment exports.
DE
Germany
Named as Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States, with support reinforced by Staatsräson and cultural repression.
EG
Egypt
Named for its control of the Rafah crossing and role as both gatekeeper of Gaza and diplomatic intermediary.
GB
Great Britain
Named for arms licensing, F-35 supply chains, and legal repression around protest actions targeting arms manufacturers.
HU
Hungary
Named for blocking or weakening EU statements critical of Israel, shielding Israel from coordinated European pressure.
IL
Israel
Named for the permanent pavilion’s closure in Giardini and the Biennale’s accommodation of Israel’s participation inside the Arsenale.
IT
Italy
Named for military-related shipments, fuel transfers, logistics infrastructure, and renewal of military and defence cooperation.
NL
Netherlands
Named for its role in the F-35 component supply chain and concerns about indirect routes despite court intervention.
QA
Qatar
Named for its dual role as mediator and host of Al Udeid Air Base within US-led regional security infrastructure.
US
United States
Named as Israel’s principal military backer through arms packages, aid, diplomatic cover, and repression of pro-Palestinian protest.
A guide to complicity: Arsenale
AR
Argentina
Named for explicit political alignment with Israel under Javier Milei, including symbolic diplomatic gestures and embassy relocation plans.
IL
Israel
Named as responsible for genocide in Gaza, apartheid, occupation, settlement expansion, and regional military operations.
IE
Ireland
Named for airspace and Shannon Airport logistics connected to US weapons transport, despite recognition of Palestine.
LU
Luxembourg
Named for financial and military links, including EU bond issuance for Israel and a NATO service centre contract with Elbit Systems.
PE
Peru
Named for strengthening military ties with Elbit Systems through artillery modernisation and long-term defence collaboration.
PH
Philippines
Named for longstanding diplomatic support, US-aligned security interests, and imports of Israeli weapons and surveillance systems.
PT
Portugal
Named for authorising US use of Lajes Air Base in the Azores and its logistical role in US-Israel regional operations.
SA
Saudi Arabia
Named for normalisation talks, security alignment, Israeli spyware purchases, and investment ties to US arms manufacturers.
ZA
South Africa
Named for the contradiction between its ICJ case against Israel and the cancellation of Gabrielle Goliath’s pavilion project.
AE
United Arab Emirates
Named for deepened military and technology ties with Israel and wider links to violence and impunity in Sudan.
UA
Ukraine
Named for diplomatic alignment with Israel while invoking international law and civilian protection in its own context.