Some places, the ones where we send our young children, the places where we treat our pain, and those where we invest our shared resources, should be free from polarizing content. Schools, hospitals, and clinics, and yes, if it’s public and taxpayer-funded – even Kulturhuset – have no place for Quran burnings, no place for NMR marches, and absolutely no place for polarizing political propaganda. Not even if 15-year-olds created it.
An article from Kvartal (January 22) tells of an incident in the Stockholm suburb of Husby last spring. High school students from a local school exhibited paintings they created in the foyer of Kulturhuset, which is owned by the City of Stockholm and shares premises with Husby’s public culture school. The paintings were the result of lessons on post-colonial theories and art at the students' school. A few hours after they were displayed, the paintings were taken down. Kulturhuset stated that the paintings were “strongly anti-Israeli” and “bloody, political, and violent.”
Reactions were swift. The school's principal defended the students' right to express their opinions, and the art teachers felt that the decision was a form of censorship. Lars Nittve, former director of Stockholm’s Modern Art Museum and London’s Tate Modern, wondered how “scary” drawings and paintings could be, and Makode Linde criticized concerns over art that distanced itself from the “ongoing genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine.”
Some of the paintings that provoked reactions were published in the media: a Palestinian flag over a map of Israel, and images depicting slavery and colonialism in Africa. One painting was not mentioned. This painting depicts one image of three men standing over a fourth man who is lying down, and another of two faceless soldiers leaning on a Palestinian flag. It’s unclear whether the flag is covering anything, but it is obvious who the soldiers are – they have armbands, similar to the ones Nazi soldiers wore with swastikas. On the armbands, there is an Israeli flag.
According to the Kvartal article, there is no documented evidence from Kulturhuset that anyone was upset by the exhibition.
However, it wasn’t hard to find such a person. “I came to Kulturhuset and saw that paintings were being hung on the wall. When I looked at them, my heart ached, I felt cold, and I started trembling with shock over seeing the hatred,” said a person with Jewish background who was at Kulturhuset when the paintings were hung up and chose to remain anonymous because he is worried about his safety.
For those who are not familiar with Middle Eastern politics, it might seem strange, but a map of Israel covered by a Palestinian map is as loaded and shocking as a map of Poland covered by a Nazi flag or a map of Ukraine covered by with a Russian flag. It symbolizes ethnic cleansing for Israelis. Paintings depicting Israeli soldiers as murderers support the narrative that Israel is the aggressor and the Palestinians are the victims, while ignoring the October 7 massacre, Israeli hostages, and rocket attacks on Israel. The context of post-colonialism challenges Israel's legitimacy as a state and its right to exist.
It doesn’t matter if these claims are true or whether such opinions should be allowed to be expressed. This is not about censorship or freedom of speech. Yes, students should be encouraged to think critically and creatively. Yes, we must encourage an open public debate. But the issue here is a different one – the relationship between publicly funded institutions and controversial political content.
Kulturhuset manager, Malin Dahlberg, pointed out that there is a responsibility to create a safe and comfortable environment in public spaces. According to her, removing only the most problematic paintings would be insulting to those who created them, which is why all the paintings were taken down. Leaving them up could also expose the students to a media storm that no 15-year-old could handle.
Dahlberg is right.
Sweden is a polarized country where people have strong opinions and personal connections to the conflict in Gaza. People are bombarded with extreme views on social media. Some believe it is an Israeli genocide, while others see it as an Islamist holy war of extermination against Israel. Many have relatives affected by the violence. Many are angry and scared.
These people have something in common. They all need healthcare, education, and welfare. We must be able to offer safe spaces for this. There are many places for political activism – squares for demonstrations, galleries for political art, youth movements for youth activism, organizations for humanitarian work, and media for political debates.
Some places, the ones where we send our young children, the places where we treat our pain, and those where we invest our shared resources, should be free from polarizing content. Schools, hospitals, and clinics, and yes, if it’s public and taxpayer-funded – even Kulturhuset – have no place for Quran burnings, no place for NMR marches, and absolutely no place for polarizing political propaganda. Not even if 15-year-olds created it.
דיויד סטברו 