Posters glorifying Bondi terrorist plastered across Melbourne CBD

Around 40 posters featuring the image of one of the Bondi Beach terrorists have been plastered across Melbourne’s CBD in what the Anti-Defamation Commission has called “psychological terrorism”.

The posters display the face of Naveed Akram and deliberately mimic the visual style of the “Aussie” street art series created by artist Peter Drew, appropriating the visual language of inclusive Australian identity to glorify a perpetrator of antisemitic mass murder.

The posters were unlawfully plastered on public infrastructure around the CBD.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich condemned the posters in strong terms.

“This is not street art. This is grave-dancing. Putting the face of a Bondi terrorist on city walls is psychological terrorism aimed at families who are still burying their dead,” Abramovich said.

“Fifteen people were slaughtered at Bondi. A child. Rabbis. Grandparents. Holocaust survivors. And someone decided the correct response was to turn the killer into a poster. That is rot.”

Abramovich said the posters told Jewish Australians that “even our mourning is not sacred”.

“When you elevate a terrorist, you are not exercising free speech. You are continuing the attack,” he said.

Abramovich called on the council to immediately remove the posters, treat them as hate material rather than art, and investigate who printed, funded and distributed them.

He said the findings should be referred to police to determine whether charges could be brought, and that it must be made clear that public spaces would not be used to celebrate mass murder.

More to come.