A popular Israeli artist had one of her Houston murals vandalized with antisemitic graffiti over Labor Day weekend.
Anat Ronen’s large floral mural in Houston’s East End was covered in red paint with phrases that included ‘Death to Zionism,’ ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘F*** Anat.’
Ronen spent most of the day Aug. 31 cleaning up the mess and repainting the mural, which was originally commissioned in June by the owner of the neighborhood property.
“The whole situation is pretty nasty,” Ronen told the JHV. “This was not about the mural and not about the content. This mural was nonpolitical, nonsocial, just a bunch of flowers. It is just about me being Israeli and Jewish. The vandalism is textbook racism.”
Ronen said this is her first mural that has been vandalized, but not the first attempt to sabotage her artwork and way of life.
“There is a group of artists that ever since Oct. 7 have been targeting me, calling me names, trying to hurt my livelihood,” Ronen said.
“I went to the police, I went to the FBI and I went to a couple lawyers. You can’t sue them because they have nothing and they don’t care about the law, and the police and FBI are too busy with everything going on to follow up.”
Ronen, who is a self-taught artist, moved to Houston from Israel more than a decade ago. She has painted hundreds of murals all over the country and world and has artwork displayed in museums and shows as far away as India, China and Australia.
With her special talent has come quite a bit of notoriety in the close-knit art community, which is usually a good thing for business. When you are openly Jewish and Israeli, however, that has become a challenge since Oct. 7.
“My story is known as being Israeli and everything I do is connected,” she said.
“There is a small group of people out to get me, fueled by jealousy, hate and influenced by Middle East agitators. Every time there was aggression in Israel, I would hear from them that I was evil. Now, after Oct 7, they just want us all dead.
“I have gone through a long range of emotions. I think their actions are stupid and infantile. Obviously, they are not ‘freeing Palestine’ by damaging my mural. If anything, they are really just damaging themselves and showcasing their mental derangement.”
Ronen rents space at a shared art studio with several other artists, who recently became very open with their antisemitism.
“Nothing happened before Oct. 7, but on Oct. 7, they started putting antisemitic cartoons in the hallway and they hosted an anti-Israel event in their studio. They called it an exhibit,” she said.
“The studio manager eventually kicked them out, but then the gates of hell opened up. They posted things online that the studio is Zionist and hates Palestinians. Many in the artist community saw that and believed it because they didn’t share the whole story.”
Ronen has also had to change the way she goes about her work.
“I no longer share the locations of where I work anymore because you don’t know who will show up,” Ronen said. “Clients like to promote when something is being worked on and now I can’t do that. Some projects I have to be upfront and say, ‘I don’t know if you want my name on it.’”
Agitators have even called Ronen’s clients to tell them not to use her for future projects. In spite of this, Ronen said her clients have been great and have supported her through the tough times.
There were several months after Oct. 7 when Ronen took a step back from her work, but she eventually came to the revelation that she can’t hide from who she is and what she does.
“It has been difficult the past several months. This is what I do for a living and how I support my family. I was panicking, because I can’t afford not to go to work,” Ronen said.
“I don’t necessarily have thick skin, but I can’t dwell on it. This is who I am. I can’t stop doing this. I have to use my creative muscles. If I am not doing this, I do not exist. I’m still here and am going to paint until my last day.”
As Ronen finished cleaning and repainting the damaged mural, she added one new feature to the artwork – a yellow butterfly, a symbol of the hostages still being held in Israel.
“In many ways, I feel like I became my Holocaust survivor grandfather,” Ronen said. “As Jews and Israelis, we have resilience built into us. This is who we are and we just continue because we have no other choice.”
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