Shoalhaven City Council in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, has refused to host an exhibition commemorating Palestinian children murdered in Gaza by Israel. But a NSW church bypassed its nonsense.
Wall of tears
The “Wall of Tears” exhibition was created by US artist Phil Buehler. It bears the names of over 18,000 Gaza children slaughtered by the Israeli occupation from October 2023 to July 2025.
The council claimed that the exhibition poses an “unacceptable risk to safety” and that it would have to provide armed guards, shorten the exhibition’s duration and restrict who could view the exhibit, as a pretext for its refusal. It then ignored complaints from hundreds of local residents against the decision.
Israel lobby epicentre
NSW has been at the forefront of Australian Israel lobby attacks on anti-genocide protest and on the exposure of Israel’s crimes in Palestine. NSW police launched violent attacks on peaceful protesters demonstrating against a visit by Israeli war criminal Isaac Herzog and attacked Muslims peacefully performing their sunset prayers, then lied about their actions, yet the NSW state authorities are trying to withhold evidence in the trials of those it is persecuting.
But a local church was having none of Shoalhaven council’s nonsense. The Berry Uniting Church made its hall available for the exhibition, allowing around 300 people at a time to view it. The church’s minister Rev John Brentall said he had been “very disappointed” by the council’s censorship, adding that:
The overwhelming feeling seems to be that people are grateful that we’ve opened up our hall for it.
Unlike so-called ‘Christian Nationalists’ in the US, many Christians despise Zionism as the racist ideology that it is and are determined to oppose Israel’s genocide. Including Rev Brentall and his congregation, clearly. Solidarity.