Hamas Symbol Art ‘Legitimising a Terror Group’

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 pro-­Palestine 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 was “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.

Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive Alon Cassuto said the boundaries of art had always been broad but 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.