NSW Council Rejects Gaza Artwork Over Safety Risk

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The planned Tuesday date at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra has been called off. The Shoalhaven Council rejected the exhibition of “Wall of Tears” after the organizers, including the local group Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, were asked to consider, among other things, whether armed guards would need to be deployed.

This was not a rejection based on the artistic quality. According to The Guardian, the council described the work as an “unacceptable” risk to gallery staff, visitors and tenants of the building. For the organizers, this was the decision to display the work at a different venue.

Why a Planned Exhibition Became a Safety Case

The central justification was fear of conflict within the community. In a risk assessment, the council explicitly identified possible protests, counterprotests and “community conflict.” It also feared verbal attacks, intimidation or disruption because of the politically sensitive subject.

The organizers were not simply presented with a general safety question. They were asked to consider the deployment of armed guards. At the same time, the planned exhibition period of eight days was to be shortened to three days. Attendance was to be by RSVP registration only, with the gallery keeping its doors closed during the exhibition. The council also demanded that the event no longer be promoted publicly because the decision to host it could damage the reputation of the gallery or council.

The group nevertheless wanted to meet the conditions. Member Annette Pham told the Guardian that the organizers’ initial reaction had been one of disbelief. However, they assured the council that they would meet all the requirements. Pham also explained that the group did not know where it could find armed guards or whether they were available at all.

Andrew Constance, the council’s chief executive and a former Liberal MP, ultimately decided against hosting the exhibition. In an email exchange, he justified this with concerns about staff safety. A council statement described the level of risk to gallery staff, visitors and building tenants as “unacceptable.” When asked by the Guardian what specifically had prompted the safety concerns, the council did not respond directly.

The Council Identified Risks but Gave No Specific Warning of Violence

My assessment: The rejection primarily rests on the potential for protests and confrontations. The council’s strongest argument is that, with a politically sensitive subject, precautionary restrictions may be required—and that it had already identified concrete alternatives in the form of a shorter duration, closed doors and an RSVP system.

However, the organizer said the council had not disclosed any specific, credible indication of violence that would necessitate armed security measures or metal-detector checks. In her email, she wrote that the event was a memorial exhibition and not an occasion for a publicly known, specific threat of violence. This discrepancy explains why a limited adjustment to the event ultimately became a rejection.

Pham also explained that the idea of considering armed guards for an exhibition commemorating dead children had been “deeply disturbing” so far. The council, meanwhile, spoke of its responsibility to consider the safety of everyone involved. The published documents do not reveal what specific information lay behind those concerns.

“Wall of Tears” Shows 18,457 Killed Children

Phil Buehler’s installation commemorates the 18,457 children killed in the Gaza war between 7 October 2023 and 19 July 2025. It was first exhibited in New York on 29 January. The occasion was the second anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl who was left bleeding among the bodies of six relatives after an attack on her family’s car.

Buehler told the Guardian that the depiction uses the death toll accepted by Israel. In the work, children wear graduation gowns, hold footballs and appear with siblings or on their fathers’ shoulders. For him, it was the hardest work he had ever created. He was shocked that it could be considered a safety risk: “They are children. They are like your children, my children.”

The work’s journey through Australia was already well advanced. It had been displayed in several cities, including Adelaide, the Western Australian Parliament in Perth, and, in September, on the lawns of the Canberra Parliament House. Labour, Green and independent MPs visited the installation there. Tony Zappia told parliament that the banner commemorated the scale of Palestinian human suffering and daily anguish while the world looked away.

After the rejection at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, the exhibition therefore did not come to a standstill. Pham organized the installation for Thursday at the Berry Uniting Church. “Wall of Tears” thus remained visible—just not at the venue where the council had prevented the presentation originally planned for Tuesday.

The Change of Venue Was the Immediate Consequence

For the Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, the council’s decision primarily meant a practical reshuffle: the exhibition window initially planned for Tuesday in Nowra was abandoned. The group found another venue with the Berry Uniting Church for Thursday’s installation.

For the council, however, the issue was not an assessment of the subject, but control of a public space. Alongside the deployment of armed guards, it named three days instead of eight, an RSVP-only event with closed doors and a ban on promotion. These concrete conditions show that the safety case had already been specifically discussed before the final rejection. When the organizers indicated their willingness to meet the conditions, the council maintained its decision.