The mural ‘Human Shields’ of aleXsandro Palombo has been vandalized, as reported by the artist’s communications office. The work, located at the Termini station in Rome (Italy), shows Greta Thunberg and the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, with a Hamas militiaman putting an arm on their shoulders.
According to AleXsandro Palombo’s office, this work was intended to denounce “the risk that Western activism, between ambiguities and media opportunism, can become a megaphone for jihadist propaganda and contribute to distorting the international debate. With the title, he intended to explicitly evoke “Hamas’s practice of using civilians as human shields, but also to suggest how public figures can be transformed into ideological shields in global narrative conflicts.”
According to aleXsandro Palombo’s office, Western activism “risks fueling tensions and legitimizing forms of hatred that undermine democratic coexistence.” “An invitation to reflect on those who resort to violence to impose a unilateral narrative, highlighting the fragility of contemporary activism and the need to isolate and condemn all forms of hate,” has emphasized.