London activists replace Picasso's 'Motherhood' with 'Palestinian mother'

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - Two protesters from the group Youth Demand targeted a Pablo Picasso painting at the National Gallery Wednesday as part of a direct action campaign calling for a two-way arms embargo on Israel.

The demonstrators plastered a photograph of a Gazan mother and her child over Picasso’s 1901 painting Motherhood before pouring red paint on the gallery floor to symbolize the bloodshed in Gaza.

The pair, identified as 23-year-old NHS (National Health Service) worker Jai Halai and 21-year-old politics student Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, entered Room 43 of the National Gallery at just before noon.

They affixed the image — a powerful photograph taken by Anadolu's photo journalist Ali Jadallah — over the painting’s protective glass cover.

The image shows a distressed and bloodied mother holding her injured child after an Israeli airstrike at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in 2023.

Jai Halai, speaking at the protest, said: "I’m taking action with Youth Demand because at this point it’s been over a year of seeing my colleagues in the healthcare field decimated by bombs and bullets."

"We need a two-way arms embargo on Israel now; 87% of the British public support this, but our government continues to arm Israel. Direct action is our duty as young people. We must defend those without a voice today and protect our future."

Rosenfeld, a Jewish student at Greenwich University, expressed his moral obligation to speak out, saying: "As a Jew, I feel it’s my duty to call out the genocide being committed in Gaza. This is not being done in the Jewish name. When Keir Starmer says Britain stands with Israel, he’s wrong. We know very well this is not self-defense—this is genocide. The people of Britain say enough is enough."

A spokesperson for Youth Demand said: "Our government is arming Israel to carry out a genocide against Palestinians and is complicit in the killings in Lebanon. A two-way arms embargo is the least Britain can do to stop the displacement and destruction. Young people will continue to resist until justice is served."

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

More than 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 97,700 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.