Memorial fresco for Hamas victims Bibas family vandalized in Milan

A memorial mural dedicated to Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 10 months, who were kidnapped and brutally killed by Hamas terrorists while in captivity, was vandalized earlier this month during a memorial service for victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks.

The artwork was created by contemporary pop artist and activist AleXsandro Palombo, known for his thought-provoking installations, including a visual of deceased former pontiff Pope Francis holding a buoy, with the body of a drowned Syrian toddler, 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who died in 2015 while fleeing the Middle East, lying at his feet.

The Bibas family mural was installed in Milan, Italy, in front of the Qatar consulate.

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Contemporary artist AleXsandro Palombo told Fox News Digital that he dedicated the mural to Shiri Bibas and her two young sons to defend Western values ​​that he believes are under threat. (Alexander Palombo)

“The fact that a mural dedicated to a murdered mother and two children can be defaced without causing public outrage is a symptom of a sick society and a sign of political and cultural weakness,” Palombo told Fox News Digital.

“In recent years, part of the political left and activist movements have ended up legitimizing extremist pro-Palestinian factions who do not speak of peace, but of hatred. They do not defend the rights of the Palestinians, they exploit them, thus promoting the propaganda of the Hamas cutthroats.”

Shiri’s face was obscured by an image originally created by Vancouver street artist iHeart, depicting a boy addicted to digital comments and crying over Instagram likes.

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The mural of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons in Milan, Italy, created by contemporary artist and activist AleXsandro Palombo, was defaced during a memorial service for the victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks. (Alexander Palombo)

Creative edits were made, including a red target stamped on the boy’s forehead, with the words “No War” displayed below the image.

The Stanley Park artwork gained viral attention in 2014 after catching the eye of the elusive artist Banksy.

Palombo ruled that the violation of the Bibas family memorial was “not an act of protest, but a serious desecration.”

“This is not a dialogue between works of art, but a deliberate act of erasure,” he said. “This face was not chosen to add meaning, but to obscure it. It is an attempt to replace a specific, painful and documented memory with a generic and emotional image, which is mocked and easily lends itself to manipulation. It is a way of stripping suffering of its meaning, transforming it into an ideological mask.”

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The identity of the person who defaced Shiri’s image remains unknown. However, Palombo said Islamic fundamentalism is gaining followers even in Milan, a city he said should symbolize “openness, democracy and civic consciousness.”

Palombo also claims that anti-Semitism has been a factor of degradation.

“The message is not ambiguous, it is an anti-Semitic act disguised as activism, exploiting aesthetics to channel a form of cultural radicalization,” Palombo told Fox News Digital.

“It is not about expressing an opinion, it is about damaging memory, attacking one’s public space, normalizing hatred through visual gestures. Anti-Semitism today does not work, it infiltrates. It disguises itself as a debate, appropriates shared languages, infiltrates art to silence other voices. And when freedom of expression is used to deny that of others, it is no longer the freedom, it is a strategy of destabilization.”

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This undated photo provided by Hostages Family Forum shows Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped and brought to Gaza on October 7, 2023. (Hostage Family Forum via AP)

The defacement of the Bibas family fresco is not the first work of Palombo to be scorned.

In 2024, just hours after the unveiling of a mural dedicated to Nova Festival survivor Vlada Patapov, the artwork was damaged.

Palombo’s murals dedicated to Auschwitz survivor Sami Modiano, Italian Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre and Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck have also been vandalized in the past.

“My art is not a decoration, it is a testimony,” Palombo said. “Anyone who thinks they can erase it with a spray can or a threat has already lost.”

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Although Palombo is not Jewish, he told Fox News Digital that he has been bombarded with anti-Semitic slurs daily and received death threats for the past three years.

“The risk of vandalism is real, but it is not a deterrent, it is part of the battlefield of memory,” he said. “Balancing the need to honor victims with the challenges of public art means accepting that each work is also a bastion, an act of visual resistance. And if someone defaces it, they don’t weaken it: they make it even more necessary.”