After the cancelation of a Venice Biennale pavilion that was to feature a Gaza-related artwork, South Africa laid the blame for its surprise decision at the feet of an unidentified foreign nation that sought to use the pavilion for “proxy power,” per a statement issued this weekend. South African officials reportedly then went on to name that country as Qatar, according to an article published by the Israeli publication Ynetnews on Tuesday.
Though it relied largely upon unnamed diplomatic sources in South Africa, the report quoted David Saranga, Israel’s visiting ambassador to South Africa, who alleged that the situation was evidence of “how influence operations against Israel are carried out in the cultural sphere by states with significant resources.”
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ARTnews has reached out to the South African and Qatari culture ministries for comment, which did not respond by press time.
Gayton McKenzie, the South African culture minister, never mentioned Qatar in his statement about the pavilion, which was to feature a Gabrielle Goliath performance that would address the killings of women and queer people in South Africa, a Germany-led genocide in Namibia in the early 20th century, and Israel’s war in Gaza. Part of the performance would have involved performers reading words by Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed, along with her son, during an Israeli airstrike in 2023.
The Daily Maverick reported that McKenzie had warned Goliath that the performance was “highly divisive,” raising concern about the section with Abu Nada’s poetry. Goliath has since claimed censorship, asking: “Whose lives are available to be displaced, raped, killed, disavowed?”
McKenzie has sought to deflect allegations of censorship, attributing his decision to a rift with Art Periodic South Africa, a nonprofit formed in 2025 to support the South African Pavilion. He claimed that, during the funding stages, Art Periodic had told him that a “foreign nation” had “undertaken to purchase the artworks concerned following the conclusion of the Biennale.” McKenzie said in his statement that this “raised alarm, as it was being alleged that South Africa’s platform was being used as a proxy by a foreign power to endorse a geopolitical message about the actions of Israel in Gaza.”
An Art Periodic spokesperson did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment.
McKenzie questioned in his statement why the unnamed country did not simply “rent its own space and fund its own message to convey its feelings about Israel and Gaza.” If he were referring to Qatar, the nation is, in fact, planning its own permanent pavilion in Venice’s Giardini. Qatar, which has accused Israel of leading a genocide in Gaza, has not yet detailed its participation in the 2026 art exhibition or stated definitively when the permanent pavilion will be completed.
Though the Ynetnews report praised McKenzie for his “balanced positions on Israel,” past statements show that he issued passionate statements in support of Israel and dismissed concerns from pro-Palestine activists before October 7, 2023.
In August 2023, McKenzie labeled himself a “friend of the Israeli people” amid criticism from the South African division of the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, whose members he told to “go and find day jobs like the rest of us.” He claimed BDS supporters were “shysters,” using a term that some say is rooted in antisemitism.
Since then, McKenzie has stated that there is “no genocide” in Gaza, demanded that South Africa drop its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice that was filed in December 2023, and claimed that South Africans are misguidedly focusing on Palestine when they should be more attuned to crime in their own country. He also said, in 2024, “My Bible commands me to stand with Israel, my Bible tells me if you curse Israel you are cursing himself. I will listen to the Bible.”
McKenzie is the president of Patriotic Alliance (PA), a right-wing political party that was formed in 2013. South Africa is currently headed by the Government of National Unity (GNU), which formed after the African National Congress (ANC), the political party that led the anti-apartheid movement, lost its absolute majority in the 2024 elections. McKenzie is the only PA politician with a cabinet-level post in the GNU, which is still dominated by the ANC.
His decision on the Venice Biennale drew sharp condemnation from the left-wing Democratic Alliance, the second-largest political party in South Africa. “It was interference, plain and simple,” the Democratic Alliance said in a statement over the weekend. “It sets a dangerous precedent in which cultural expression becomes subject to political approval.”
According to the South African publication Polity, the Democratic Alliance has submitted a formal complaint against McKenzie.