An unidentified masked individual poured red paint on a wax statue of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on display at the Mexico City Wax Museum, defaced the statue with a hammer, and knocked it over in an action protesting Israel’s attacks on Palestine yesterday evening, January 7. Photos and video footage of the action were shared on social media by the group BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) México.
A video shot by an unknown individual and shared with Hyperallergic shows the protester placing a Palestinian flag at the base of the statue before proceeding to pour a bright-red liquid onto the wax figure’s head and forcefully strike its face with a hammer multiple times. The protester then toppled the lifesize sculpture face-first onto the floor, which was also splattered with red paint.
Hyperallergic has reached out to the Mexico City Wax Museum for comment. A representative for BDS México confirmed that there were no arrests.
Speaking in Spanish, the protester began by stating that the action was being carried out with “a lot of respect for the Jewish community.”
“Viva Palestina, viva Sudan, viva Yemen, viva Puerto Rico, viva Tigray,” the protester declared as they walked away from the scene, as heard in the video.
The action is one in a string of demonstrations in the arts and culture space in the last 14 months since Israel began its assault on Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attack. In late November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli politician Yoav Gallant, who served as minister of defense from 2022 to 2024, on the basis of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from October 8, 2023, through May 20, 2024.
“Our aim was to criticize the existence of the statue while a genocide is taking place,” a representative for BDS México told Hyperallergic in a text message in Spanish.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which Amnesty International classified as a genocide in a report released in early December, has killed more than 45,338 Palestinians and injured around 107,764 others, in addition to 795 Palestinian deaths in the Occupied West Bank, according to the latest United Nations reports.
