The manufacture and sale of a fighter jet entails a complex and shady web; such planes have wide supply chains and reach the market in lots destined for different client states. But research bodies put an incriminating figure on the contribution of UK arms manufacturers towards Israel’s aerial war on Gaza; The Ploughshares Project and Campaign Against Arms Trade both set a figure of 15 or 16 percent, on components of the f-35i joint strike fighter supplied by factories here. F35s have been used in civilian harm events in Gaza.
As a result of domestic manufacturers’ complicity with a genocide (described as such by the UN), many activists have targeted factories across Britain with symbolic and actual damage, which has resulted in the criminalisation of members of Palestine Action, deemed terrorists for a non-violent campaign of opposition to an Israeli war with bewilderingly international support from the UK, the US and various other western countries.
While all this means I’m straying from my lane as an art blogger, it is mentioned as background to the rest of this post, which concerns vandalism and a campaign of harassment against galleries which have bravely carried anti-war messages in the UK’s cultural climate of self-censorship and silence. Several actors from the far right and pro-Israel lobby appear to have targeted three North London galleries in the last six months. These forced the closure of a show at two branches of The Bomb Factory and the third closures of a solo show at Handel Street Projects in Marylebone.
To be clear, I am perhaps conflating two diverse aggressors. Handel Street was targeted by, so it seems, zionists. The Bomb Factory provoked the ire of some individuals more broadly opposed to a progressive, woke and/or pro-Palestine agenda. Veteran satirist Peter Kennard was one of those provocative artists with a work about the tens of thousands of children killled in Gaza.
Matthew Collings, meanwhile, has 21k followers on Instagram, who may be familiar with the rest of the story. Three less well-known art world figures, unimpressed by trenchant posts on IG, and prolific and critical drawings, about historical artists and contemporary politics, were to allegedly threaten artist, curator and building owner, all on the grounds of anti-semitism. Pictured above (in a work by Collings) is some contributory guerrilla signage which appeared nearby. While money is hardly the issue here, curator and gallery director Fedja Kilovac estimates that premature closure of a successful show cost him several thousands of pounds in lost sales.
This was also the London art scene’s loss. Collings will take his integrity elsewhere, to Margate, imminently, and to prospective venues in Europe. I wrote about his amazing show before it closed, and so did Waldemar Januszczak who suggested it deserved to win the Turner Prize. He said so in The Sunday Times, a British paper of record. This is not the first time that zionists have exerted influence over UK galleries, but what events at Handel Street Projects suggest is that even a small show, however brilliant, can become a target.
Meanwhile windows are smashed in further North London spaces. The Bomb Factory, in case its opponents hadn’t realised, is not manufacturing literal bombs. Attack an actual weapons factory in the UK, or express support for those who do, and you risk going to jail. These are such thorny times and feelings evidently run high, but the principle of artistic freedom calls for more respect.
It is linked to the principle of freedom for those living under siege and bombardment in wars that, even as Israel’s supporters cry self defence or anti-semitism, has now spread across the Middle East, killing families, destroying lives, flattening homes and erasing cultures. Since the F35 plays such a nefarious role here, disentanglement by the UK would save civilian lives. Why not that?
Matthew Collings: Drawings Against Genocide can be seen at Joseph Wales Studios, Margate, between 21st and 29th March 2026.
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