In London a new Banksy mural appeared on the wall of the Royal Courts of Justice, a building symbol of British justice. The work depicts a judge with a traditional wig and black toga that affects a protester on the ground, with sketches of blood on the sign that held. As often happens with the Bristol artist, the image immediately turned on political and social interpretations.
The timing does not seem random: the appearance of the mural arrives two days after the over 900 arrests that took place in London during a protest in support of Palestine Action, a Filo-Palestinese group, born in the United Kingdom in 2020, which organizes protests against the massacre in Gaza and recently banned by the British government with anti-terrorism laws.
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The work already covered and supervised
Despite the media clamor, the mural was immediately covered by black sheets and protected by metal barriers, with security guards to guard the area under the eye of a surveillance camera. A choice that has made nothing but feed the debate on the work, already relaunched on social media and then shared by the artist’s official account.
The intervention of the authorities closely recalls the fate of other Banksy works in London, often removed or obscured within a few hours, as in the case of the collection dedicated to the animals that had invaded the capital last year.
When art, protest and repression come together
The context in which the mural appears cannot be ignored. The Palestine Action call has raised widespread criticisms, because it also makes the simple support for the organization illegal, with penalties up to 14 years in prison. Many observers speak of a growing repression of peaceful protests and a disproportionate use of anti -terrorism laws against activists.
During the latest event, hundreds of people sitting in Parliament Square exposing signs with the inscription “Genocide opposites, the Palestine Action Supports“(“I oppose the genocide, Palestine Action support“). A few minutes later the police proceeded to the mass arrests, recording the highest number of stops in one day in London in the last ten years.
Banksy’s mural, with its judge who knocks down the law on the body of a protester, therefore seems to fit perfectly into this scenario. An image that not only criticizes judicial power, but which becomes a symbol of the tensions between art, dissent and freedom of expression in the heart of the British capital.
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