Defaced Israel-Palestine mural painted over to deter ‘antisocial behaviour’

The painting in Old Street, Shoreditch, showed two small girls side-by-side, one in a hijab holding an Israeli flag and a teddy bear, and another in dungarees with a Palestinian flag. Circle of Toys, an initiative to help gift disadvantaged children toys, had revealed that it was behind the new mural, which covered a brick wall of a TfL-owned building. Writing on the image read – “Toys4Peace” and “AllChildrenAreInnocent.com”. Circle of Toys has already sent thousands of pre-loved toys to Ukrainian children and said it hoped the new mural would help children affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict. But on the morning of February 27, the mural was defaced with red spray paint. The graffiti said: “Palestinian children killed since 07.09.23 – 11, 500. Funded by your taxes. Murder is murder.” While the date is wrong, the words reference the number of children killed in the Gaza strip since October 7 last year. Israel has carried out an extensive military campaign in the enclave after Hamas launched attacks across the border. TfL has now said that it has removed the mural “in a considerate way” to avoid encouraging anti-social behaviour. A picture shared by the BBC appeared to show the entire...