Uncategorized
Judy Chicago’s feminist art lands in Tel Aviv — igniting a boycott call and hard questions about Israel
(JTA) — TEL AVIV — Judy Chicago may not have been directly involved in organizing two new Tel Aviv exhibits of her work, but the question at the center of one of the shows could not be more relevant amid Israel’s war in Gaza: “What If Women Ruled the World?”
That’s the title of the Judy Chicago show that opened this fall at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It poses that question and other related ones, like “Would God Be Female?” and “Would There Be Violence?” on colorful art quilts. The questions are translated into Hebrew and Arabic, and visitors can record their responses.
“My motivation for bringing this project here, to a public space within the museum, was to shout in the loudest way we have at our disposal — where are the women who would end this war?” said Shahar Molcho, the exhibit curator, over the summer.
It’s a question that has echoed even after the ceasefire that began last month, as Israel’s male leaders have sparred over how to move forward and a new, all-male slate of leaders were chosen for Zionist institutions.
But some argued that the art exhibit should not go up. Just days before “What If Women Ruled the World?” was scheduled to open, a group of Israeli and Palestinian artists wrote to Chicago and her collaborator, artist Nadya Tolokonnikova, urging them to “not artwash the genocide and ongoing ethnic cleansing” in Gaza and the West Bank. The letter invoked Chicago’s feminism and said it would be hypocritical for her to display her work in Israel.
A second exhibit of Chicago’s artwork, on loan from a private collection and surveying the artist’s six-decade career, is on display at at Tel Aviv’s Nassima Landau Foundation through January 2026.
Chicago, 86, declined requests for comment from JTA and other news outlets. Tolokonnikova, a Russian musician and the founder of the feminist group Pussy Riot, told the online publication Hyperallergic that she agrees with the letter but has no control over where the project is shown.
The question of how the world would be different under women’s leadership frames the museum exhibit. But another question has dominated the discourse: Should international artists of Chicago’s stature be showing their work in Israel at all?
Molcho said she had anticipated backlash to the exhibit but was surprised that the condemnation came from Israeli artists, too, including those whose work is or has been on view at the museum, such as David Reeb and Guy Ben-Ner.
“Boycott is between Israel and the rest of the world, not amongst Israelis,” Ben-Ner, a signatory whose solo show at the museum ran through June 2023, told JTA.
The Israeli documentary filmmaker Barak Heymann had never heard of Judy Chicago but signed the letter opposing the exhibit. “Anyone who takes action with the intention to direct international attention at the genocide, and the demand to stop it now, will receive my automatic and almost blind support,” he said.
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is situated just a few hundred feet from Hostage Square, the site of mass demonstrations during the two-year Israel–Hamas war. Molcho said that she and other museum leaders have frequently joined anti-war protests at their doorstep.
State funding accounts for just 2% of the museum budget, with over 45% coming from the Tel Aviv municipality, Tania Coen-Uzzielli, the museum’s director, said.
Coen-Uzzielli said she opposes efforts to boycott Israeli cultural institutions, noting, “If we silence critical voices, we’re just playing the same game being played by those running our country. We should be promoting criticism, dialogue, participation. Culture, at its essence, is about conversation.”
Several signatories said they were unaware that just last year, Chicago herself loaned two preparatory studies she created while working on her 1992 stained glass window, Rainbow Shabbat, to Israel’s Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod, where they remain on display. Days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Chicago posted a photo of Rainbow Shabbat on Instagram, writing, “As the panels state: Heal those broken souls who have no peace and lead us all from darkness to light.”
The artist was not directly involved in bringing “What If Women Ruled the World?” to the Tel Aviv Museum. The exhibit is the result of a collaboration between the museum and the New York-based art tech company DMINTI.
This is Tel Aviv Museum’s culminating installation following a year of women-centered solo exhibitions. Inspired by a series of handmade banners Chicago created with the luxury goods brand Christian Dior for a 2020 haute couture show, the museum show comprises 11 art quilts, each posing a different question, a recording booth where “all who share feminist values” are invited to answer the questions, and a film about Chicago’s trailblazing career.
The post Judy Chicago’s feminist art lands in Tel Aviv — igniting a boycott call and hard questions about Israel appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Trump Says Gas Prices May Remain High Through November Midterm Election
U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters while Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio look on, as they attend a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the price of oil and gasoline may remain high through November’s midterm elections, a rare acknowledgement of the potential political fallout from his decision to attack Iran six weeks ago.
“It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same,” Trump, who is in Miami for the weekend, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” when asked whether the cost of oil and gas would be lower by the fall.
The average price for regular gas at US service stations has exceeded $4 per gallon for most of April, according to data from GasBuddy. Trump’s comments on Sunday came after weeks of asserting that the spike in prices is a short-term phenomenon, though his top advisers are cognizant of the war’s economic impacts, officials have said.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump announced on social media that the US Navy would blockade the Strait of Hormuz and intercept any ship that paid a crossing fee to Iran, after marathon talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan over the weekend did not yield a peace deal.
“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Any US blockade is likely to add more uncertainty to the eventual resolution of the conflict, which is currently subject to a tenuous two-week ceasefire. The new tactic is in response to Iran’s own closure of the strait’s critical shipping lanes, which has caused global oil prices to skyrocket about 50%.
UNPOPULAR WAR HITS TRUMP’S APPROVAL
The war began on February 28, when the US launched a joint bombing campaign with Israel against Iran. The scope quickly expanded as Iran and its allies attacked nearby countries, while Israel targeted Hezbollah with massive strikes in Lebanon.
The war has buffeted global financial markets and caused thousands of civilian deaths, mostly in Iran and Lebanon.
Trump’s political standing at home has suffered, with polls showing the war is unpopular among most Americans, who are frustrated by rising gasoline prices.
The president’s approval rating has hit the lowest levels of his second term in office, raising concern among Republicans that his party is poised to lose control of Congress in the midterm elections. A Democratic majority in either chamber could launch investigations into the Trump administration while blocking much of his legislative agenda.
US Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned the strategy behind Trump’s planned blockade.
“I don’t understand how blockading the strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
In a separate appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Warner said the blockade would not undermine Iranian control of the waterway.
“The Iranians have hundreds of speedboats where they can still mine the strait or put bombs against tankers in closing the strait,” he said. “How is that going to ever bring down gas prices?”
Although Trump has repeatedly said that the war would be over soon, Republican US Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that achieving US aims in Iran “could take a long time.”
“It’s going to be a long-term project,” said Johnson, who was not asked about Trump’s proposed blockade. “I never thought this would be easy.”
Uncategorized
Israel’s Ben-Gvir Visits Flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound
Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir walks inside the Knesset, in Jerusalem, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Pool via REUTERS
Israel’s far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Sunday, saying he was seeking greater access for Jewish worshipers and drawing condemnation from Jordan and the Palestinians.
The compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City is one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East. Known to Jews as Temple Mount, it is the most sacred site in Judaism and is Islam’s third-holiest site.
Under a delicate, decades-old arrangement with Muslim authorities, it is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there.
Suggestions that Israel would alter the rules have sparked outrage among Muslims and ignited violence in the past.
“Today, I feel like the owner here,” National Security Minister Ben-Gvir said in a video filmed at the site and distributed by his office. “There is still more to do, more to improve. I keep pushing the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) to do more and more — we must keep rising higher and higher.”
A statement from the Jordanian foreign ministry said it considered Ben-Gvir’s visit to be a violation of the status quo agreement at the site and “a desecration of its sanctity, a condemnable escalation and an unacceptable provocation.”
The office of Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said such actions could further destabilize the region.
Ben-Gvir’s spokesman said the minister was seeking greater access and prayer permits for Jewish visitors. He also said that Ben-Gvir had prayed at the site.
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office. Previous such visits and statements by Ben-Gvir have prompted Netanyahu announcements saying that there is no change in Israel’s policy of keeping the status quo.
Muslim, Christian and Jewish sites, including Al-Aqsa had been largely closed to the public during the Iran war. There was no immediate sign of unrest on Sunday after Ben-Gvir’s visit.
Uncategorized
Netanyahu Visits Troops Fighting Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Aug. 10, 2025. Photo: ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon on Sunday as military operations against Hezbollah-linked targets continue.
Netanyahu toured forward positions alongside Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, Eyal Zamir, and Northern Command Commander Rafi Milo, meeting troops and receiving operational briefings from commanders on the ground.
Speaking to soldiers, Netanyahu praised their performance and said operations in the Lebanese security zone were ongoing.
“The war continues, including within the security zone in Lebanon,” he said, adding that Israeli forces were working to prevent infiltration attempts and neutralize threats such as anti-tank fire and missiles.
He described the northern campaign as part of a broader regional struggle involving Iran and its allies, saying Israel’s adversaries were now “fighting for their survival” following sustained Israeli military pressure.