The premier of New South Wales has ruled out cutting funding for Sydney’s Biennale arts festival after Jewish groups condemned language used by US artist DJ Haram at an opening night event at the White Bay Power Station in Sydney.
At the centre of the controversy was the artist’s claim during her set that a “Zio-Australian-Epstein empire” was responsible for silencing dissenters. The words appear to link Israel to the convicted sex offender and New York financier Jeffrey Epstein and, critics say, feed into longstanding antisemitic tropes.
The comments were part of an extended performance that expressed solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, referenced “martyrs”, and condemned “global complicity” in an ongoing “genocide” against the people of Gaza. She also chanted the controversial phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
On Monday, Chris Minns described the words of New York-based Zubeyda Muzeyyen, who uses the stage name DJ Haram, as “horrid rhetoric” and “distressing”, given December’s terror attack at Bondi beach in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukah event.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailAccording to the Biennale of Sydney’s latest annual report, more than 50% of its funding is sourced through commonwealth, NSW, and City of Sydney grants. In 2024, it received $3.197m in government funding.
Minns on Monday rejected any suggestion that the state government should review its funding of the Biennale.
“Getting into a cycle where we threaten to pull arts and cultural funding has the perversely opposite view, opposite effect,” he said.
“What ends up happening is you shine a spotlight on the person who’s responsible for saying it, and it draws more attention, not less. So I don’t want to use it as a cudgel. We expect cultural and arts institutions to use taxpayer funds to represent every member of our community and not be a platform for hate.
“I expect that if they ask for future funding, that’s exactly what our institutions will ask of them.”
The NSW arts minister, John Graham, said on the weekend that the comments were “inflammatory and wrong” and the Biennale needed to “publicly spell out how it will make Jewish audiences feel welcome after these comments”.
On Monday, Graham’s office confirmed the minister was having “ongoing engagement” with the Biennale but would not give further details.
The event’s chief executive, Barbara Moore, its board chair, Kate Mills, and artistic director, Hoor Al Qasimi, used a spokesperson to issue two statements in the past three days. On Monday, they confirmed the Biennale was conducting a review into Muzeyyen’s statements made at the Friday night event.
The president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, said the Biennale board had “serious questions to answer” about how they allowed a festival “to become a platform for such hate”.
“References to the Zio-Australian-Epstein empire are pure antisemitism,” Ossip said in a statement.
“The fact that this dangerous rhetoric was propagated on the stage of an event which received significant NSW Government funding is scandalous.”
The co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, said the actual music from “a DJ no one has ever heard of” appeared to have been drowned out by the artist’s “slogans”.
“What is surprising is that the Biennale is happy to platform such lame antics,” Ryvchin said in a statement.
“It is no wonder donors, patrons and sponsors are deserting cultural institutions and the arts is now desperately underfunded.”
The Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia, Jillian Segal, said the remarks were upsetting to members of the Jewish community and the Biennale organisers had an obligation to understand the impact their performers were likely to have on social cohesion.
“No community should feel unwelcome or targeted at publicly funded cultural events,” she said in a statement.
The Biennale said on Monday that it would be “inappropriate to comment” on the internal review now under way.
“The Biennale requires all public discourse on our platforms to be lawful and in strict accordance with our code of conduct,” its statement said.
“We remain absolutely committed to our core mission of being a unifying force and ensuring our venues are inclusive and welcoming for all audiences.”
Guardian Australia has attempted to contact Muzeyyen for a response.
• This article was amended on 16 March to remove material that was added during the editing process.
