Jewish artists launch guerilla art project during Art Basel Miami Beach to bring attention to rape victims in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack

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By Mara Siegler

The Israel-Hamas war is a hot-button issue in South Beach during Art Basel Miami Beach.

An anonymous group of Jewish artists, and artworld pros, have launched a guerilla art project that’s been popping up around Miami, aimed at amplifying the voices of Israeli rape victims from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

The roving works features bold white type on a red background with messages including, “Rape is not resistance,” “May your daughters never be raped while the world justifies it,” and, “The UN says rape is a war crime. Except in Israel.”

The project, “A Message to Miami,” has been projected on a truck traveling the city, on the Red Cross building and on a building at the intersection of highly trafficked Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue.

Images were also projected during a Wednesday night party at the Bass Museum, but the pop-up project was shut down by a member of the museum staff within an hour.

We are told the interaction was not hostile, and the projectionist left immediately. 

One member of the collective explains of the projected images, “If we had put up posters we have no reason to believe people would respect those posters.”

The anonymous artist, who said they’re a survivor of assault, tells us, “Miami Art Basel is a time where there are fellow artists, curators, fashion people, DJs and a lot of different industries… we wanted to harness that opportunity to say something.”

“We never expected to have to convince the art community that rape should be condemned, that rape is not a weapon of [resistance], or that it happened,” the person continued.

“Because the art world had positioned itself as inclusive and a space of activism and consent and language. I feel so let down by this community.” 

The group is critical of organizations it says were slow or absent when responding to the reports of rapes that took place on Oct. 7.

The artist noted, “It’s the same beast as Holocaust denial, and it’s happening now. It’s a distrust of Jews and dehumanizing of Jews — and that’s antisemitism.”

She continued that on the other hand, “The level of gaslighting and re-traumatizing is incredibly intense. You have people sharing they know and believe, but that these Israelis deserved it, which is akin to saying ‘she was wearing lipstick’ and ‘she was wearing a short skirt.’ In no uncertain terms is rape the fault of the victim, but I saw intellectuals pontificating on how they had it coming from them.”

There has been mounting evidence of widespread rape with testimonies from medics, witnesses, and Hamas footage.

Israel’s justice ministry has said “victims were tortured, physically abused, raped, burned alive, and dismembered,” reports Reuters, which also states that, “Police say they have over 60,000 ‘visual documents” including videos from Go-Pro cameras worn by attackers, CCTV footage and images from drones.”

There have been reports of broken pelvises from rape and of a gunman shooting a woman while raping her. 

During an event last week at the UN led by Sheryl Sandberg, there was horrific testimony by a volunteer who helped collect the remains of victims that women were shot in the vagina and there were “nails and different objects,” in the female organs of one victim.

Meni Binyamin, the head of the International Crime Investigations Unit of the Israeli police, said in an interview that it had documented “violent rape incidents, the most extreme sexual abuses we have seen,” reports the New York Times. 

Hamas has denied the allegations. 

Nearly two months after the attack, UN Women issued the statement, “We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks.”

Another organization, Kidnapped From Israel, has been displaying large milk cartons around the beach town with images of the Israeli hostages.

On Friday, pro-Palestinian protesters were spotted outside the Convention Center of Art Basel.

According to Artnet, peoples’ stance on the war has become a lightning rod in the art world.

“For the first time you are starting to hear: What’s your position on the Israel-Palestine situation?” Ralph DeLuca, a collector and advisor, told the publication.

“People want to know where the artists stand on this issue.”