The Year in Censorship: An Irreparable Art World Schism Over Israel’s War in Gaza Intensified

Before 2024 even began, and arguably even before October 7, 2023, the art world was split on Israel and Palestine. But this year, the schism widened even further, until there was no room for nuanced debate. Suspicions of antisemitism and anti-Palestine sentiment proliferated in all corners, and looking to museums for guidance surely left some disappointed. Cultural institutions worldwide, from the Noguchi Museum in New York to Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland, and to Qatar’s Mathaf, were ac