21 hours Ago By Liz Hobday
The Federation of Islamic Councils has accused the National Gallery of Australia of an "attack on Palestinian identity" for covering up Palestine flags in an exhibition. The flags were part of a tapestry on show for an exhibition titled SaVĀge K'lub Te Paepae Aora'i – Where the Gods Cannot Be Fooled, which has been running since June and is due to close in March. The Guardian newspaper has revealed that two of the black, white and green Palestine flags, which were part of a wider patchwork design, had been covered with white patches.
The founder of the SaVĀge K'lub, Rosanna Raymond, told Guardian Australia she had been informed by the gallery that displaying the flags was a security risk, and she had responded that covering them up was an act of censorship. "We were put in a particularly contentious position, because it's a big ask to censor the work that we believe in so strongly," Raymond told the newspaper. The Federation said it "strongly condemns" the NGA and has demanded the gallery immediately restore the artwork in its original form.
"This is not just an attack on an artwork—it is an attack on Palestinian identity itself," the peak body said in a statement. "The deliberate erasure of the Palestinian flag is a direct endorsement of the ongoing Zionist campaign to suppress, dehumanise, and erase the Palestinian people from history." "It is cowardice.
It is complicity. And it is utterly unacceptable." The Federation also wants the federal government to issue a directive to public institutions to stop what it describes as a suppression of Palestinian identity.
The NGA and Raymond have been contacted for comment. The revelations regarding the NGA have come amid uproar in the arts world about the ditching of Australia's artistic team selected for the Venice Biennale 2026. Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino had been selected by federal funding body Creative Australia earlier in February.
But this decision was overturned after questions were asked about Sabsabi's early artworks, which featured the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Hezbollah. The controversy has led to resignations at Creative Australia and sparked a broader debate about freedom of artistic expression..
