An anti-Israel guerrilla art demonstration at the main train station in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that portrayed U.S. and Israeli leaders drinking the blood of Gazans is drawing criticism for channeling the blood libel levied against Jews throughout history.
“Seldom have we seen such a sickening display of full-throated antisemitism,” the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington said in a statement late Thursday.
The protest featured five people in suits wearing masks representing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump and other officials. They were covered in fake blood, sitting at a long table set with bloodied doll limbs, glasses of red liquid and plates of what looked like organ meat. Israeli flags acted as napkins as the participants mopped blood from their faces.
A sign in ornate font laid out a menu: “Starter: Gaza children’s limbs.” “Main: Stolen Organs.” “Dessert: Illegally harvested skin.” “Drink: Gaza’s spilled blood.”
Each place setting had a name, showing Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former President Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken. At Netanyahu’s seat, a place card showed “Mileikowsky,” his family’s name in Europe from before his father moved to pre-state Israel and adopted a Hebrew surname.
Jewish groups swiftly denounced the display, which was shared by both its supporters and critics on social media.
“Dressed up as ‘activism’ and ‘performance art,’ this was nothing less than the revival of one of the oldest and most dangerous antisemitic tropes in history,” said the American Jewish Committee in a statement. “Blood libel has fueled violence, persecution, and massacres of Jews for centuries. Seeing it resurface in our nation’s capital is both horrifying and unacceptable.”
The blood libel, which in its classic form holds that Jews kill non-Jewish children to use their blood in religious rituals, including to make matzah, was leveled routinely at Jews beginning in the Middle Ages. It has since been used to justify countless deadly pogroms and vigilante actions, while a blood libel charge tore apart an upstate New York town in 1928, and the trope featured prominently in Nazi propaganda.
Videos showed the display both inside and outside of Union Station, D.C.’s central station that sits opposite the U.S. Capitol. It drew laudatory posts from some passersby, with one representative Instagram account calling it “a popup protest using art as resistance.”
The AJC added, “At a time of rising antisemitism, leaders and authorities must condemn this display and ensure that public spaces are not used to spread dangerous hate.”
The display was the work of prominent local pro-Palestinian activists, with two — Hazami Barada and Atefeh Rokhvand — credited for the idea in social media posts. Barada and Rokhvand organized an early encampment in Washington, while Rokhvand’s Instagram bio says she is the founder of the D.C.-area direct action group Teachers Against Genocide. The account Dear White Staffers, which shifted during the Gaza war from advocating for Hill staffers to posting exclusively anti-Israel content, was also credited on Instagram.
Other participants posted online about their roles. One activist said he had learned new technical skills to be able to produce the display. Another lamented that he had to masquerade as Netanyahu.
The activists behind the display hinted on social media that more could be coming. Asked by one commenter why no American flag was included, one of the organizers wrote on Instagram, “Bibi wanted to be front and center today. Stay tuned to see what these 5 were doing before their Friendsgiving dinner!”
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