September 11, 2024
A Melbourne art gallery has been accused of "legitimising a terror group" after displaying a huge inverted red triangle made popular by Hamas to mark targets for killing in an exhibition that responds to the "charged events" since October 7.
Produced by visual artist Leslie Eastman, a senior lecturer at RMIT University, the Cave, Flood exhibition at Hayden's Gallery in east Melbourne includes illustrations of the Dome of the Rock, and the Foundation Stone it houses.
But it is the mammoth, inverted red triangle that is at the centre of the exhibition, which has been condemned by political, Jewish and security leaders alike.
The triangle, used by proPalestine protest groups since October 7, has its roots in Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, to showcase in propaganda videos which Israeli targets it would seek to destroy. Its use was recently banned by the Berlin state parliament.
It has been labelled "divisive" by security experts, and the Coalition's home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, said the display broke the already broad bounds of artistic expression.
"No supporter of the Palestinian cause in Australia should be associating themselves with the symbols of Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation," Senator Paterson said. "It is well and truly pushing the bounds of art, good taste and potentially even the law to appropriate an image used by the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's militant wing, to designate Israeli targets on the 7th of October and in their propaganda videos since." The Australian Strategic Policy Institute's law enforcement and strategic policing head, John Coyne, said he'd seen an uptick in the symbol's usage domestically in the past year. "It is a divisive act that undermines Australian social cohesion and legitimises a known terrorist organisation," he said.
Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings urged the government to start taking a firmer stance against the symbol. "It's used by Hamas in videos to show people being shot, everyone knows what it means," he said.
"There's no question it is invoking the target symbol used by Hamas . Here we have a symbol appropriated by terrorist groups, which is now being used regularly by Australian activists." On Saturday, The Australian revealed how NSW local government candidates ahead of Saturday's council elections, mostly Greens, had signed their names to campaign material featuring the same symbol.
Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive Alon Cassuto said the boundaries of art had always been broad but that the platforming of symbols linked to a terror group was inappropriate and offensive.
"At a time when the Jewish community is reeling from the cold-blooded murder of six young hostages by Hamas, the idea that an exhibition would (promote) a symbol of their violence and barbarity is disturbing," he said.
Dubbed The Cave, The Flood, the gallery's description for Dr Eastman's event said it was a response to "the charged events that have erupted over the last nine months in historic Palestine." Neither Hayden's nor Dr Eastman responded to questions on the triangle display.
