The Cologne police destroy mural depicting the north of Gaza.

I made a mural for the north of Gaza at the legal graffiti site Hall of Fame at Geldernstraße/Parkgürtel in Cologne. There were quotes from murdered Palestinians from Gaza and Aaron Bushnell's last words written there, among other things. On April 12, 2024, around eight hours after the graffiti was completed, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) came by. They could not find any “anti-constitutional” content and yet the Cologne police destroyed the mural by making the quotes and the QR code (with links to articles from German public media talking about the suffering in Gaza) unrecognizable.

The next day, our art was deliberately smeared. The Al-Shifa hospital as it looks now (after the third occupation) was made unrecognizable and the keffiyeh of a little boy was painted over. Afterwards, the Social Service of Catholic Men (Sozialdienst Katholischer Männer – SKM) put pressure on the MittwochsMaler (who made the legal graffiti site possible) and forced them to paint over our mural completely, even though they didn't want to. The MittwochsMaler were threatened with losing their jobs and their financial support. We were able to prevent this with a protest on April 18, 2024.