Video documentarian Samuel Seligson was apprehended by the New York Police Department (NYPD) earlier this week. He was accused of perpetrating a hate crime of a felonious nature, and criminal property damage, allegedly while documenting an active protest against genocide. The specific incident investigated involves the filming of activists engaging in anti-Zionist protest on June 12. It is reported that graffiti was spread on the properties of Anne Pasternak, the Director of Brooklyn Museum, and three other board members of the same institution.
Also entwined in this legal matter is Taylor Pelton, a 28-year-old individual involved in the drawing profession, who was taken into NYPD custody later on July 31. This was for their alleged contribution to the same protest action that Seligson was filming. Leena Widdi, Seligson’s legal representative, disclosed that law enforcement officers have twice conducted invasive searches at Seligson’s dwelling in Brooklyn in the lead-up to his voluntary surrender.
Widdi publicly expressed outrage against these police actions, deeming them ‘appalling.’ Providing more detail in a statement made for the Intercept, Widdi shared her skepticism about the lack of convincing evidence her client was present at the scene that day. Furthermore, she emphasized that no specific charges were levied against Seligson for involvement beyond mere attendance.
The protest spotlighted in this case involved activists painting overturned red triangles on the house belonging to Pasternak. Also, a banner stating, ‘Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White-Supremacist Zionist,’ was displayed prominently. Anti-period slogans such as ‘Blood on Your Hands’ and various anarchistic emblems were painted on pavement areas in front of dwellings of other board members.
Apart from the general opposition against the museum board’s affiliations to groups supporting Israel, there is an explicit reference to the harsh police interference at the protest held at the Brooklyn Museum on May 31st. Following this protest, NYPD officers forcefully entered the premises of the museum. This aggressive action resulted in the apprehension of 34 people, following violent encounters with protesters.
According to Democracy Now!, the NYPD, yet again, resorted to hostile measures to manage and arrest protesters. It is said that one of the key activists from ‘Within Our Lifetime,’ Nerdeen Kiswani, was treated roughly and arrested by the officers, resulting in her hijab being dislodged. Following these events, the protest’s organizing body, the Cultural Front for Free Palestine, categorized the police action as ‘unprecedented force and violence’ seldom seen previously in the chronicles of museum protests in New York City.
Mainstream media along with the Democratic Party hierarchy is being accused of exaggerating the June 12 incident involving graffiti against Brooklyn Museum’s board members, labelling it as an ‘antisemitic’ event. Hyperallergic elucidated, ‘the New York Times initially misidentified all four museum leaders targeted as Jewish; only Pasternak is Jewish.’
Taylor Pelton’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, shared her apprehensions with Hyperallergic around false charges of antisemitic hate crimes within the context of expressing profound distress and fury over Israel’s aggression on Palestine. She advises caution when politically motivated allegations augment the gravity of the charges.
The prosecution of Seligson is a manifestation of the bigger, systematic attempt at repression aimed at safeguarding the egregious actions of Israel by the power players of New York City. This movement has seen responses ranging from terminating public school educators for showing pro-Palestinian sentiment, tagging anti-genocide protests by students as ‘anti-Jewish’, ejecting parents with pro-Palestinian beliefs from educational committees for advocating for a ceasefire, to physically intimidating anti-genocide protesters by NYPD.
The broader implications and explorations about the identity and societal role of museums have surfaced due to the legal proceedings against Pelton and Seligson. Museums are considered valuable storehouses of several millennia of collective human culture and history. The question arises whether these institutions should serve as mere toys at the disposal of billionaire backers, numerous among whom endorse heinous activities such as the genocide in Gaza led by Israelis.
Such activities, unfortunately, lead to the annihilation of schools, museums, archives, and bibliothecas. The detainment of a journalist for purportedly participating in a ‘hate crime’ is indicative of a broader pattern of curtailing access to and dissemination of information and intellectual resources.
This pattern extends to targeted violent actions against journalists in Gaza. An appreciable escalation in such incidents has been recorded recently. For the representatives of imperialistic powers such as the Netanyahu administration, suppressing the dissemination of the real narrative is a key objective.
This objective spans across the globe, and encompasses influential political groups, including the Democratic Party. The suppression of truth remains at the core of their strategies as they seek to maintain controlled narratives that serve their interests.
Such a stark curtailing of free speech and the right to information is a worrying trend refining a manipulated façade of events. Distorting facts and controlling narratives are becoming common tactics to serve political interests and hide egregious actions.
Meanwhile, the careers and livelihoods of individuals such as Seligson and Pelton bear the brunt of these politically charged allegations. The toll of these cases doesn’t merely impact the personal lives of the accused, but also sets precedents for future legal actions against similar reporting.
A narrative spearheaded by political motivations is a systemic issue that calls for diligent reporting, regardless of the potential risks and the pressures encountered by reporters. The truth should be the centerpiece of all narratives, undaunted by threats of suppression or unjust retaliation.