Burning Man has removed an artwork related to Palestine from its website days after a Change.org petition called to take it down, Hyperallergic reported. The petition’s authors said the work’s title, “From the River to the Sea,” means “language that advocates for the annihilation of Israel.” From the River to the Sea is a phrase that refers geographically to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area historically called Palestine,[ which today includes Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
The sculpture was conceived as a large fiberglass installation shaped like a watermelon, one of the foremost symbols of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
In a screenshot of the since-removed listing retrieved using Wayback Machine, the artwork description includes a quote by Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
Though the sculpture was never realized, a petition urging Burning Man organizers to remove the rendering and description from its website garnered over 1,250 signatures.
The petition’s author, called the work’s title “a battle cry that legitimizes violence against Jewish people”.
Burning Man spokesperson Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley said in a statement to San Francisco Gate that the work was removed because it was “likely not an actual art piece coming to Black Rock City” and was “intended to stir an emotional response within the Burning Man community.”
