On the second day of Art Basel, the contemporary art fair, a coalition of advocacy groups based in Miami held a protest outside of the Miami Beach Convention Center. The protestors called for the attendees to boycott the event until the city of Miami and Miami Dade County cancel their large investments in the country of Israel.
Using Art Basel To Draw Awareness
Art Basel is one of Miami’s biggest tourist attractions and this year’s event is the 22nd edition of the fair. Art Basel Miami Beach and Miami Art Week are estimated to generate between $400 million to $500 million in revenue annually.
Artist and technologist, Cristina Rivera, says organizers of the protest are using the event to amplify their concerns about Israel’s war in Gaza. According to the artist, advocates are demanding the divestment of Miami Beach’s investment in Israel Bonds. The city doubled that investment to $20 million last year. Opposition to the local policies the advocates associate with the ongoing violence in the Middle East is at the core of the protest.
South Florida’s Justice for Palestine chapter and a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) were among the four groups that organized Saturday’s protest.
Donna Nevel is an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace. She said in an interview, “I am so proud to now be standing with the movement to call for justice for the Palestinian people … It’s my obligation as a Jew to say not in my name, never again.”
Hayley Margolis is an activist with JVP. She hopes the demonstration “challenges the public’s complacency” around the carnage in Gaza. The message of the protest is that “business should not go on as usual at a fair as prominent as Art Basel,” she says.
The protest is part of the organization’s “Break the Bonds” campaign. The ongoing campaign is focused on pushing communities and municipalities to divest from Israel bonds. As of April, Palm Beach County has over $700 million invested in the bonds. Miami-Dade County has invested $76 million since October of 2023.
Activists unfurled a 50-foot banner reading “Let Palestine Live.” The banner was designed by Rivera and was also on display at another protest during Art Basel in Miami Beach last year. Fabricated by 13 queer artists with help from designer Chromat, who is based in Miami, the banner was supposed to cover the front of the convention center and also be visible from the air. There were around 30 to 50 protestors involved.
Responding to the Protest
A legal team and observers were in place to avoid conflict at the protest, and the organizers said they were not planning for arrests at the demonstration. Miami-based coalition members had been planning the protest for weeks.
By 2 p.m., there was a significant police presence. Ten officers were assigned to monitor the protest and prevent the demonstrators from entering and gathering in certain areas on the convention center grounds. Around 3 p.m., activists were moved to a “designated free speech space” located across the street from the main entrance to the fair. This move came after police threatened to arrest protestors. Approximately 20 officers in riot gear kept watch over the group of activists.
Precautions don’t always work at protests, and there have been incidents with the police. At last year’s Art Basel protest, two advocates were arrested. The participants were apprehended while crossing the street, and Rivera claimed that one of them was targeted for wearing a hijab.
At this year’s protest, activists wore keffiyehs and held up protest signs while chanting. They also handed out leaflets that read, “Our tax dollars are funding the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
A petition advocating for attendees to boycott Art Basel Miami Beach until the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County divest from their Israel bonds was circulated online on the platform Change.org.
