‘End this sickness’: National Gallery Council member accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza

A Labor appointed member of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia has accused Israel of conducting ‘a holocaust’ against the Palestinian people, calling on Israel’s opponents to ‘end Zionism.’

The social media posts by artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah have accused Israel of committing genocide and apartheid

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A Labor-appointed member of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia has accused Israel of conducting ‘a holocaust’ against the Palestinian people, calling on Israel’s opponents to ‘end this sickness’ and ‘end Zionism.’

The social media posts by artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah have accused Israel of committing genocide and apartheid and have included images of people burning, purportedly as a result of Israeli missile strikes in Gaza. Each of the images were timed to disappear from Mr Abdullah’s social media within 24 hours.

The Minister for the Arts Tony Burke appointed Mr Abdullah to the NGA Council in September last year, shortly before the Hamas terror attack on Israel of October 7 and Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza.

At that time Mr Burke said Mr Abdullah’s appointment would provide the NGA with ‘authentic leadership’; which reflected ‘modern Australia.’

“It’s essential that our important national cultural institutions have authentic leadership that reflects their objectives, as well as modern Australia,” Mr Burke said at the time.“The National Gallery is one of our premier cultural institutions and I’m pleased to see it continue in safe hands.”

An Instagram story posted by artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah accusing Israel of committing genocide.

The posts included images of people burning, purportedly as a result of Israeli missile strikes in Gaza.

Mr Abdullah is a visual artist based in the Peel region of Western Australia whose work has been widely exhibited across the country, focusing on sculptures and installations.

The president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Leibler, questioned why Mr Abdullah was permitted to remain on the NGA Council given his incendiary rhetoric.

“No person who shares calls to ‘end Zionism’ – which is a dog whistle for the erasure of the State of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of its Jewish population – has any place in the administration of a public institution.’

Arts Minister Tony Burke, whose Sydney seat of Watson has one of the highest percentage of Muslims in the country, declined to comment on Mr Abdullah’s posts. Mr Abdullah, who is a ­Muslim Australian with a Malay mother and an Anglo-Australian father whose ancestors arrived in Australia in 1815, has often spoken out about discrimination against Muslims in Australia and about how it has become a ‘bigoted and selfish’ country.

Arts Minister Tony Burke. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Abdullah said in 2020: “I appreciate that I live in a privileged part of the world, yet it’s also a deeply belligerent, inherently bigoted and selfish country that continues to destroy the environment for ­profit, imprison asylum seekers and is unable to acknowledge the colonial framework of violence that still defines us. Australians have this self image of being relaxed and easy going but we are consumed by institutional racism, government corruption and hard-edged politics.”

He has said previously that “politics are inseparable from any artist”.

In his temporary Instagram stories, Mr Abdullah posted that “Israel is conducting a ­holocaust against the Palestinian people. End this sickness. End Zionism.”

Another post stated: “End the genocide, end apartheid, end Zionism.”

Another post depicts an Israel soldier holding a gun to the head of a Palestinian farmer in a field.

Meanwhile a story posted this week depicts a fire with the words “patients still connected to IVs were burned alive after Israel launched missiles at Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza”.