[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2060241559.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA major corporate sponsor of the Sydney Biennale, Australia\u2019s biggest art exhibition, has withdrawn following allegations of antisemitism involving a DJ in its program.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Tuesday, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies filed a police complaint over comments allegedly made by US electronic music producer Zubeyda Muzeyyen, who performs as DJ Haram, during a set at the Biennale\u2019s opening night party last week at White Bay Power Station, the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> reported. Muzeyyen is accused of having referred to a \u201cZio-Australian-Epstein empire,\u201d making a tribute to \u201cmartyrs\u201d and using the phrase \u201clong live the resistance\u201d\u2014which the complaint says is \u201ccommonly understood\u201d as a call for \u201cacts of political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThen, on Tuesday, the management consultant firm PwC, which had been listed as a \u201cstrategic partner\u201d for the Biennale\u2019s 25th edition, said that it was withdrawing from participation. In a statement, the company said that the decision was driven\u00a0by a belief that the Biennale was no longer\u00a0\u201cwelcoming and inclusive for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA\u00a0Biennale spokesperson responded to PwC\u2019s decision in a statement, first reported by local media, saying\u00a0\u201cWe are disappointed by this outcome, as the Biennale is committed to being a unifying force and providing an inclusive, welcoming environment for all audiences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTensions had been mounting between the\u00a0event\u2019s\u00a0organizers and segments of\u00a0Sydney\u2019s\u00a0Jewish community in the weeks leading up to the opening. One week before the opening, the Jewish Board of Deputies declined to attend a preview of the exhibition, citing\u00a0\u201cobjectionable\u201d\u00a0social media posts by\u00a0\u201ccertain participating artists\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0what it described as a\u00a0lack of Jewish representation in the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe complaint filed Tuesday was authored by Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip, who wrote that the reference to a\u00a0\u201cZio-Australian-Epstein empire\u201d\u00a0was\u00a0\u201ccapable of inciting hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule toward Jews or Jewish Australians on the grounds of race,\u201d\u00a0as defined by the NSW Crimes Act, the list of offences and corresponding punishments that forms much of\u00a0Australia\u2019s\u00a0criminal law.<\/p>\n \n\tNSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told ABC Radio<\/em> that his officers would review the allegations \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0important to remember that hate crimes and hate speech have a high legal threshold, and there is a reason for that,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cObviously, free speech is something we value in this country. We need to ensure an offence has\u00a0been committed; if so,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0take action.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA festival spokesperson said the event would fully cooperate with the police investigation:\u00a0\u201cIf any organization or member of the public believes that specific comments have breached the law, the appropriate course of action is to refer the matter to the relevant authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe incident in Sydney unfolds amid a fraught debate over freedom of expression in the art world, particularly over whether criticisms of Israel cross into antisemitism. This question has provoked incendiary debates at international exhibitions in recent years, most notably at the 15th edition of the European quinquennial Documenta. There, the inclusion of an artwork featuring an antisemitic caricature sparked a scandal that led the show to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which controversially links criticism of Israel or Zionism with prejudice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDocumenta\u2019s\u00a0newly instated Code of Conduct has already sparked protest. Last December, an exhibition of work by Marisa Merz, originally scheduled to open at the Fridericianum museum in Kassel, Germany, was canceled by the Italian\u00a0artist\u2019s\u00a0daughter, who said at the time, \u2018I am convinced that\u00a0art should not be restricted by borders and, above all, must be free of prejudice.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAmid Israel\u2019s ongoing military assault on Palestinian territories and the wider US\u2013Israel\u2013Iran conflict igniting across the region, controversy has touched the upcoming Venice Biennale as well. Earlier this week, the activist group Art Not Genocide Alliance released an\u00a0open letter\u00a0demanding that the\u00a0Venice Biennale\u00a0block\u00a0Israel\u00a0from participating in this year\u2019s exhibition, which opens in May. The letter has\u00a0been signed\u00a0by nearly 200 artists, curators, and arts workers associated with this year\u2019s\u00a0edition of the\u00a0Biennale.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe do this in support of our fellow artists and cultural workers in Palestine, in solidarity with Palestine, and in\u00a0profound hope of an end to Zionist genocide and ongoing apartheid, and the rebirth of a free Palestine,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n \n\tVenice Biennale organizers have also been urged to prevent Russia from participating in the exhibition, given its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which as of early 2026 has resulted in the death of more than 15,000 Ukrainian civilians.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement released on Tuesday, the organizers said that the Russia pavilion will continue as planned, citing its compliance it has with all sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. <\/p>\n \n\tMikhail Shvydkoy, Russia\u2019s delegate for international cultural exchanges and the country\u2019s former culture minister, told ARTnews<\/em> that, \u201cVarious sanctions may be devised, and official Western institutions may be prohibited from working with us, but no one can deprive Russia of the right to artistic self-expression.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/major-corporate-sponsor-withdraws-from-sydney-biennale-citing-alleged-hate-speech-1234777832\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2060241559.jpg?w=1024″] A major corporate sponsor of the Sydney Biennale, Australia\u2019s biggest art exhibition, has withdrawn following allegations of antisemitism involving a DJ in its program. On Tuesday, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies filed a police complaint over comments allegedly made by US electronic music producer Zubeyda Muzeyyen, who performs as DJ Haram, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1834520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1834520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1834520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1834520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1834520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}