Council requests included investigating armed guards, a shorter exhibition and no advertising
The Wall of Tears installation by American artist Phil Buehler commemorates 18,457 children killed in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 19 July 2025. Buehler said the work refers to death-toll figures accepted by Israel. The artwork draws from Guardian reporting. It was displayed on the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in September.
The artwork was first shown in New York on 29 January, coinciding with the second anniversary of the death of five-year-old Hind Rajab. The Guardian reported that Hind Rajab was left to bleed out among the bodies of six family members after an Israeli tank targeted the family car.
Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine planned to display the work at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra on Tuesday. Its Australian tour had included Adelaide, where it was first shown, and the Western Australian state parliament in Perth.
The council asked the group to “investigate” the use of “armed guards” in a risk assessment seen by The Guardian Australia. The assessment listed “protest, counter-protest, community conflict” and “verbal abuse, intimidation or disruption arising from politically sensitive subject matter.”
The council also asked organizers to reduce the planned exhibition from eight days to three, restrict attendance to people who had RSVP’d and remain inside the gallery, which the request said would have “locked doors,” and stop advertising the event because of potential reputational risk to the gallery and council.
Annette Pham, a member of Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, said: “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.” Pham added that the group did not know where it could obtain armed guards or whether guards were available.
Emails reviewed by The Guardian Australia show that Andrew Constance, the council’s chief executive and a former Liberal MP, decided against hosting the event, citing staff safety concerns. Pham said she was “deeply disappointed” and described the suggestion that armed guards might be necessary for an exhibition commemorating dead children as “deeply disturbing.”
In her email to the council, Pham wrote: “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.”
A Shoalhaven City Council spokesperson said the council 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 answer The Guardian Australia’s question about what had triggered the safety concerns.
Dr Mairead Heaney is part of Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine, which helped arrange the exhibitions at the Western Australian state parliament and 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.
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.”
Phil Buehler said he was shocked that 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. He described children in the artwork wearing graduation outfits, holding diplomas and soccer balls, and appearing with siblings or on their father’s shoulder.
Buehler called it “the hardest artwork I’ve ever made.” He explained that he had to “just live with [what happened to these children], for the time it took to make it.” He also said: “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.”
After the gallery decision, Pham arranged for the work to be installed at Berry Uniting Church on Thursday.