UK News

The National Gallery has removed a picture from an upcoming major exhibition from its website over claims of antisemitic portrayal of Jews.

Albrecht Dürer's Christ Among the Doctors from 1509 depicts a story from the Gospel according to Luke of Jesus on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover, alongside a caricature of Jewish men from the synagogue.

The National Gallery had initially displayed the artwork prominently on its website advertising the upcoming exhibition without mentioning its portrayal of Jews. After the gallery was alerted to the fact by Jewish News reader Ralph Harris, it removed the picture online and highlighted the antisemitic representation in its gallery. A spokesperson said:

We are aware that the representation of the Doctors may cause offence and both the wall texts and the audio guide in the exhibition will acknowledge and address caricature and antisemitic portrayal in the painting.

We have removed the image and accompanying text from our online gallery of selected exhibited works as we felt that in this format there was not adequate space for the interpretation required for this work.

Police are investigating a banner unveiled by Crystal Palace fans before Saturday's football match with Newcastle.

The banner, depicting an image of Newcastle's new Saudi Arabian owners, PIF, about to behead a magpie as faceless fans in the background sang: We've got our club back, was unfurled by Palace supporters at Selhurst Park.

As well as the Premier League's chief executive, Richard Masters, giving a thumbs-up to a bag of money, it also listed offences that human rights organisations say the Saudi regime is responsible for, with a tick next to each one: terrorism, beheadings, civil rights abuse, murder, persecution and censorship.

A statement released by the Holmesdale Fanatics supporters group later said the Premier League had chosen money over morals in allowing the takeover.

A subsequent post from the official Croydon Metropolitan Police Twitter account read:

On Saturday 23 October police received a report of an offensive banner displayed by Crystal Palace fans. Officers are assessing the information and carrying out enquiries. Any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously.

Offsite Comment: Listen, it is not racist to criticise Saudi Arabia

23rd October 2021. See article from spiked-online.com by Brendan O'Neill