London Gallery Cancels Matthew Collings Exhibition After Legal Concerns Over Public Disorder Laws

A London gallery cancelled the scheduled May 2026 iteration of Matthew Collings's Drawings Against Genocide exhibition after UK Lawyers for Israel sent a letter claiming that many images were likely to breach public disorder laws. Delta House in London cancelled the show. UK Lawyers for Israel stated on its website that it welcomed the decision to cancel the exhibition at Delta House.

The exhibition had debuted earlier in 2026 at Joseph Wales Studios in Margate. It consisted of 130 drawings depicting violence against Palestinians. Since October 2023, approximately one third of Collings's more than 3,000 drawings, produced over the past six years since he moved away from art commentary and criticism, have focused on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.

Matthew Collings, an English artist in his 70s living in Norfolk, United Kingdom, responded directly to the accusations. “It’s very clear in the title what they’re against, they’re not against Jews. They’re against genocide.

The genocide isn’t committed by Jews. It’s committed by Zionists. It’s committed by Israel, which is a state that would not exist were it not for Zionism,” he stated. ” Of the 130 drawings in the exhibition, 30 feature recognisable public figures who are Jewish.

Collings stated that half of those 30 “are heroes in my eyes” including depictions of Moses teaching “Thou shalt not kill” and a tea party with Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, and Norman Finkelstein. One drawing depicts American comedian Jerry Seinfeld with demons and monsters as “artistic metaphors for Zionism, brutality, and violence”.

At the Margate opening, Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel staged an outrage stunt by accusing Collings of being anti-Semitic.

She told Collings at the show that the Israeli state “is also the Jewish state”. Strimpel appeared on GB News and said she wanted the police to “do something” after visiting the Margate show. Pro-Israel activists contacted Kent Police with claims that the Margate show was anti-Semitic.

Kent Police found that no criminal offences had taken place. In a letter to the complainant, Kent Police wrote: “The artwork is critical of the Israeli state and its actions but does not include content that is directly abusive or insulting towards Jewish people as a group.

” Kent Police received more than 1,000 nearly identical emails from pro-Israel senders protesting their decision on the exhibition.

The force investigated a possible distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack after receiving the emails. Matthew Collings and his partner received hundreds of thousands of emails after pro-Israel news outlets covered the case. UK Lawyers for Israel sent a letter dated March 22, 2026 to the Margate venue urging cancellation of the Drawings Against Genocide exhibition.

Anna Ost, senior legal officer at the European Legal Support Center (ELSC), noted that in the ELSC’s Britain’s Index of Repression, UK Lawyers for Israel appears 128 times, with 20 of these cases targeting artistic and cultural institutions. Ost told Al Jazeera she has seen similar silencing tactics before.

She said the Kent Police finding points to “another example of the pattern of legally baseless threats directed at suppressing pro-Palestine expression”.

Collings has upcoming shows scheduled throughout the UK and in Australia. Al Jazeera reported that Collings expressed disappointment in the art world despite support from pro-Palestine organisers. He said famous artists privately encourage him but hesitate to speak publicly.

“Wherever there is a battle lost, several are won,” he stated while putting down his sketching pencil at his home in Norfolk.