Palestine refugee mural to be moved to new site
Andrew CurtisA mural celebrating Palestinian refugees, which sparked a row over claims it contained antisemitic imagery, will be put back on display at a new site more than two years after being removed from a railway station.
The artwork, created in 2012, was taken down from Tynemouth Metro station in October 2023 following defacement threats.
At a meeting on Thursday, North Tyneside Mayor Karen Clark said it would now be installed at the White Swan Centre in Killingworth, though she gave no timeline for this.
However, some people believe the mural belongs in Tynemouth where the community was involved in its installation, while others have said it remains unsuitable for public display.
Clark said the council had worked with the team behind the mural to determine a "suitable location" for the mural.
But activist Cath Davies criticised the relocation and questioned the decision to remove it from its original location "when the community of Tynemouth helped create that mural with local artists".
LDRSThe "friendship" mural depicts cartoon people and animals including octopuses.
Conservative Councillor Liam Bones previously told the BBC he had been warned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism that octopuses could be seen as an antisemitic trope.
He called on the Labour-led local authority not to reinstate the mural.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism declined to comment at the time, but octopus imagery has been used, including in Nazi propaganda, to imply Jewish control of society.
In 2024 a group of North East Jewish academics sent a letter to councillors which insisted the mural was not antisemitic and called for it to be put back up.
