Exclusive: Shoalhaven council says Wall of Tears installation by Phil Buehler posed risk to staff, visitors and tenants
A New South Wales local council has refused to show a world-renowned artwork about children killed in Gaza after asking organisers to investigate hiring “armed guards” to counter the risk of “community conflict” over the mural.
The group, Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, was aiming to show the Wall of Tears installation by American artist Phil Buehler at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra on Tuesday, following the work being exhibited around Australia, including on the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in September.
The massive artwork pays homage to the 18,457 children killed in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 19 July 2025 and was first shown in New York on 29 January to coincide with the second anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old left to bleed out among the bodies of six family members after their car was targeted by an Israeli tank.
Shoalhaven city council asked the group to “investigate” the use of “armed guards” in a risk assessment seen by Guardian Australia. The perceived risks included “protest, counter-protest, community conflict,” and “verbal abuse, intimidation or disruption arising from politically sensitive subject matter”.
The group was also asked to reduce the exhibition window from eight days to three days and restrict attendance to RSVPs only in the gallery, which would have “locked doors”.
Organisers were also requested to no longer advertise the event due to potential “reputational risk” for the gallery or council due to their decision to host the exhibition.
“We were like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ but we still wrote back to them and said we would meet all the requirements you want,” said Annette Pham, a member of the group.
“We didn’t even know where we could get armed guards, or if you could get them.”
Despite this, email correspondence shows Andrew Constance – the chief executive of the council and former Liberal MP – decided against hosting the event, citing staff safety concerns.
Pham wrote to the council stating she was “deeply disappointed” by the decision and said the “very suggestion that armed guards might be necessary for an exhibition commemorating dead children is deeply disturbing”.
“We are organising a memorial art exhibition, not an event for which Council has disclosed any specific credible threat of violence requiring consideration of armed protection and metal screening,” Pham wrote in her email.
A council spokesperson said in a statement that they had considered the request, but “the installation was deemed to present an unacceptable level of risk to gallery staff, visitors and tenants of the building”.
The council did not respond directly to a question from Guardian Australia about what had triggered the safety concerns.
Pham has now arranged for the work to be installed at Berry Uniting Church on Thursday.
‘They’re children’
Buehler said he was shocked his artwork, which has been shown in cities around the world, could be perceived as posing a safety risk.
“They’re children. They’re like your children, my children,” he said, adding it refers to death toll figures accepted by Israel. The artwork draws from Guardian reporting.
“If you look at the pictures on that mural … There’s kids in their little graduation outfits holding diplomas, they’re holding soccer balls. They’re there with their siblings, or on their father’s shoulder. It was the hardest artwork I’ve ever made, to just live with [what happened to these children], for the time it took to make it.”
“If people would just look at that, how can that be dangerous? The danger is put on by other people who are trying to turn it into something it’s not.”
The artwork has been touring around Australia, including in Adelaide where it was first shown, and Perth where it was shown at the Western Australian state parliament.
Dr Mairead Heaney is part of Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine which helped arrange the exhibition at the WA parliament and the federal Parliament House in Canberra.
She said a number of Labor, Greens and independent MPs visited the artwork when it was displayed in Canberra, including Labor MP Tony Zappia, who made a statement to parliament about it.
Zappia said in his speech: “The banner is a sad reminder of the level of Palestinian human losses, suffering, and daily violations they endure, while much of the world looks away.”
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Source: www.theguardian.com
