I haven’t seen this mural off Brick Lane in Hanbury Street for myself yet, but Tower Hamlets Tory group leader Peter Golds has fired off a letter to the council’s most senior director Stephen Halsey.
Here’s the mural:
And here is Peter’s letter:
I am horrified at this mural which has appeared on Hanbury Street.
It bears an awful similarity to anti semitic propaganda produced in pre-war Germany.
As well as the anti Jewish overtones, there is even the quasi Masonic (and dollar bill) aspect to encourage conspiracy theory.
What will be done about the person or persons who has produced this and when will it be removed?
The fact it has appeared over Rosh Hoshanah/Yom Kippur gives added menace.
The history of the mural is detailed on this admiring website here. It seems to have ben painted by Los Angeles graffiti artist Mear One (aka Kalen Ockerman) two weeks ago. He’s described as “political”.
Another website, The Rebel News, has more:
In his latest amazing stop-motion video, the artist creates a mural depicting a group of wealthy businessmen huddled around a monopoly board situated “on the backs of the working class” with a background of the all-seeing eye pyramid and coal and nuclear plants polluting the earth behind them.
Early on several people were expressing their disgust and hatred at the sight of the all-seeing eye, who they said was a symbol of their oppression. Little did they know the artist intended his work to spark conversation, debate and critical thought.
The characters on the two ends of the table are clearly caricatures of Jews – this mural is racist.
Trial by Jeory 
I brought this tasteless and inflammatory mural to Cllr. Golds’ attention. I’m a big fan of street art in and around Brick Lane and would not wish to see any genuine art removed, but this piece is really unacceptable and genuinely offensive whether that was the artists intent or not.
That’s one heck of a mural. Deeply impressive. I’ll have to make a trip down there to have a look at it – and soon.
Political? Undoubtedly. Interesting that Jews are portrayed at successful (they usually are), very involved in industry (they often are), with money at their disposal from their hard work (again, very common in the Jewish community). There clearly is more than a tinge of jealousy from the poor, unemployed and impoverished muslim community in the UK, who never seem to make much of themselves but languish on state handouts with no sign of success whatsoever. I can’t help but wonder why there is such a dichotomy of experience!
Interesting reference to the New World Order. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_%28conspiracy_theory%29
Tim.
What’s Muslims got to do with mural? Clearly you got issues with Muslims. I think your a hater.
I’m thinking about Oli Rothschild now…
Tim – ‘nice but bloody dim’ is at it again I see with his rants about Muslims…..
Tim, clearly you don’t know very many Muslims and are unaware of the fact that almost every restaurant in Brick Lane is Muslim owned. I would say that the mural is political, is anti semitic but has nothing to do with the local Muslim community.
It was painted by a white artist as far as we know and as I have pointed out below being anti semitic is fashionable again as it was between the world wars. I see that Ahmedinajad or whatever he is called the President of Iran and the banned from this country black American Jew hater Louis Farrakhan have had a meeting in New York where they ranted on about the Jews.
Wow, patronising to Muslims and Jews in one fell swoop! Well done, Tim, you win the prize for Most Blinkered & Ignorant Tinfoil Hat Wearing Prick of The Day!
I think that this is freedom of expression at it’s best. The working class have just as much the right to freedom of speech as anyone else regardless of their colour religion creed and class. I don’t see what’s racist or offensive about this picture let’s be honest this is a TRUE!!!!! reflection of our current society. Power at the hands of the few manipulating the masses, telling the masses lies(45 minute, Iraq/Afghan war, NoW, Banking crisis) and condeming working people to slavery(debt). The recession and the bankers’ situation has shown that the public has lost it’s innocence and is now thinking about issues and challenging the status quo is this not the best type of society we want? is this not democracy at it’s best? One where normal people are able to challenge the status quo through their views and opionions? The mural is not necessarily about jews but more about the rich and poor and to spark precisely the kind of debate we are having on here. The fact that Peter Gold’s finds it offensive suggests to me that he is against the freedom of speech of the very people that he is supposed to be representing the people of Tower Hamlets. I think Tim like Peter Gold has a very cynical view of this mural. Tim you seem to be representing a Islamaphobic view of muslims who had nothing to do with the Mural in the first place!…
@ Mo – I think you are extremely rude and ignorant….
….that you would not call Tim by his full name and leave out the ‘nice but dim’ part, shame on you!
I presume the person who owns this wall gave the artist permission, perhaps even invited him to make this mural. The owner of the wall is – I believe – Azmal Hussain, formerly chair and chief fundraiser of Tower Hamlets Respect Party. Anyone notice a pattern here? (ref. Carole Swords attacking Jewish man at protest)
Yes the owner of the wall is Ajmol Hussein who, when I last saw him campaigning politically, was in the Labour Party and that was this year.
This is nothing to do with Jewish community at all. I saw this and thought of people like Bush/Blair and All the Fat Cats and thieving MPs. Mr Golds is only offended because he is a conservative thriving to join the players on the game above.
It’s how it’s perceived which is what’s important. I don’t believe that either the artist or the commissioner were so naive that they wouldnt anticipate it may be perceived as anti-Jewish. Which it is. There are aspects of this deliberately provocative mural that share striking similarities to anti-Jewish propaganda put out by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Cllr. Golds is Jewish and is entirely justified in his concern.
Murals need advertising consent (even if non-commercial). A search of the planning register shows no such consent for a mural on 45 Hanbury Street, so it’s in breach of planning control as is.
Google streetview shows a previous mural on the site which makes an altogether more nuanced and inclusive political point: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=hanbury+street&ll=51.520277,-0.071669&spn=0.003445,0.005584&sll=51.520066,-0.072564&sspn=0.003525,0.005584&client=safari&oe=UTF-8&t=m&radius=0.14&hq=hanbury+street&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.520277,-0.071526&panoid=BqcJxK5o6JfiMcIf3JYlhw&cbp=12,336.74,,0,8.22
@sylhet – you’re incredibly naive if you really believe what you’ve written in yr comment. This mural is referencing anti-Semitic tropes/motifs which are well known and have a long history
I see what I see.
The “artist” is called Ockerman, sounds Ashkenazi to me.
I’ve researched the artist and there is no reference anywhere to him being Jewish or having Jewish ancestry. That said, even if he were of Ashkenazi ancestry to put THIS mural playing on THOSE stereotypes WHERE it has been put (in a recently Muslim area which used to be jewish) and at the the current timing…. the facts speak for themselves.
No just ‘Nazi’ to me.
Always remember, and I am sure Mr Golds does, that Futurism and Dadism were precursors of Fascism. So many isms here today. My head is aching and I am going to bed.
The “Rebel News” website mentioned in Ted’s article is full of anti-semitic bile. If the artist is not himself anti-semitic, why is his video posted on this particular website?
The fact that a website, which is indeed anti-semitic, features a piece of art does not necessarily mean this has anything to do with the artist. Ockerman is probably an English (Anglo-Saxon) name – taken from Acreman or Akerman while Kalen is a Celtic name so unlikely to have any Ashkenazi origin. The artist’s work is featured on this website http://www.mearone.com/ which seems to be his personal site.while he is interviewed on these websites http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbm34JMUEc and http://www.infowars.com/the-world-is-waking-up-to-the-new-world-order/. There is no mention of anything to do with anti-semitism but a lot of discussion about art and society. He explains his interest in the dollar bill and its symbols, symbols which include the all seeing eye and the pyramid and which also includes reference to the new world order, updated of course by George Bush Senior. The idea of a group of men playing a property game on the backs of enslaved people against a background of polluting industry is hardly anti-semitic in itself nor is a banner denouncing the new world order so what we are left with are the faces of some of the men playing which could be seen as Jewish. Whether it is the artist’s intention to portray them as Jewish, or whether this is anti-semitic comment, is another matter. Anti-semitism doesn’t seem to feature in his work or these discussions about his art. This rush to judgement of an artist is worrying, we need to be careful about censoring art because we are offended by it.
At least you have some sense
This piece speaks to a conspiratorial world-view that is rampant in the hip-hop and graffiti subcultures. Old white men in suits “behind the scenes” controlling the world is at the core of hip-hop “politics” and has been for a long time. But I am not seeing the antisemitism. Perhaps (sadly) I am used to more blatant examples which include people in kippas, Stars of David, and the like. Such as this “anti-war” poster:
http://tinyurl.com/8gr6duy
Or like that mailed fist with Stars of David that was on the cover of the “New Statesman” not so long ago. Remember that?
That these Illuminati conspiracy theories are a slippery slope to antisemitism I am well aware of. But to see this mural as anti-Jewish seems a bit of a stretch.
The creepy philosemitism of Tim needs to be challenged. In particular the association of Jews with money-making and capitalism. The streets of the East End are steeped in the history of London’s Jewish working-class.
And, Tim, it is not a very impressive piece of work. The human figures in particular are incredibly weak. Peep this:
I think you might be being a bit over-generous in your reading of this image. The characters counting the money are typical of Nazi-era Jewish caricatures…especially the bearded man (the “banker”) counting the money, on the left… and then the noses (I cringe to even say that) of the others… stylistically you only need compare with something like this:
As a history student I have been taught to study sources and ‘read’ the implied meaning within them…we can all do that…we do it subconsciously, and that is the point. The mural is “saying” a lot and its location is intentional and provocative because sadly there are a lot of youngsters around this area who want to believe in all that sort of Illuminati/NWO/Nibiru nonsense to try to understand perceived disparity in the world and this will only encourage those anti-Israel vis-à-vis anti-Semitic feelings…. I am being generous because there is also a great deal of overt hatred towards Jews and this myth of their supposed financial “world domination”.and a conspiracy to “enslave” humanity.
Here is examples of the sort of sites…making all those connections with the all seeing eye etc.
http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=97835&p=4892115
I believe that there is a lot of worthy street art in Spitalfields which should be encouraged. It is constantly evolving, it is colourful, beautiful and intelligent – on the whole it is a joy to see.This mural is not one of them and it endangers the rest if this sort of crude politics is painted on our walls by kids who fly in and fly out just seeking to cause trouble under the guise of “making people think”. This particular picture has no particular artistic merit AND it makes all sorts of unpleasant connections which are quite understandably threatening to Jewish people in the area… and the fact it was probably supported/sponsored by people associated with the “Respect Party” (see previous posting) many of whom we we know are at best virulently anti-Israel and at worst literally anti-Semitic…
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/38845/respect-expels-antisemitic-tower-hamlets-candidate-0
http://www.fighthatred.com/recent-events/national-political-hate/988-veteran-anti-israel-campaigner-carole-swords-convicted-by-a-london-court-of-slapping-a-jewish-man-during-a-boycott-protest-at-a-supermarket
I am just joining the dots. Let’s have a new mural. Maybe some nice butterflies or flowers or something.
Overly generous? Perhaps I am. I have spent a long time (over 30 years) admiring graf and others forms of public art. I have a few friends who have been able to parlay their graf skills into careers in the fine arts, fashion, etc.
As a professor of history I am concerned you are reading too much into the image. Now I realize the contexts (US and UK) are different, and that you are dealing with much more Islamic antisemitism than we are over here, so I definitely take that into consideration. But from my experience if an artist wants to make an insane connection to world Jewry they will make the connection, and make it blatant. Historians might be interested in nuance but not any of the graf artists I have met. Not a single one. Their art is in your face. Swastikas and Stars of David and such. They do not hold back. And if you are offended they could frankly care less.
Take a look at the images you posted. It is very evident that the people are Jews. There is no mistaking. You cannot look at those images and think “I wonder who that person is right there?” This mural is different. It’s just a bunch of old white men counting money.
How about this image from an old UK peace-punk bank, Anthrax? Would this be considered antisemitic to you? He is an overweight, fat-cat capitalist in a pin-stripe suit, smoking a cigar. His nose is fairly large. But is he Jewish? I don’t know and it certainly is not the intent of the artist or the band to single out Jews as capitalists.
My point is we need to be careful “crying wolf” about images that might speak generally to conspiracy theory and connecting them to specifically anti-Jewish sentiments. Again, I realize the overlap, especially in the hip-hop scene. I know a lot of hip-hop politics (what passes for politics at least) borrows from Afro-centrism, the 5% Nation, and other sources steeped in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. But I remain skeptical of making connections where the linkage is tenuous at best.
For more obvious examples please see Dan and Joel Kotek’s “Au nom de l’antisionisme : L’image des Juifs et d’Israël dans la caricature depuis la seconde Intifada”. There is no questioning the anti-Semitic content of these supposedly “anti-Zionist” images:
V interesting comment. There’s a wheelbarrow on the Monopoly board. Is this a reference to the Weimar Republic? What’s being said there, if so? Is it simply thtat capitalism can destroy society? Or something more conspiratorial?
Would be good for the artist to explain.
As for the image you posted, there is far less ambiguity.
Excellent points. But with respect being in America you are missing the modern context of this particular location and the political and social history of Spitalfields…which I suspect the artist or his paymasters were aware of and intentionally tapping into.
This is a reply to JF who notes: “you are missing the modern context of this particular location and the political and social history of Spitalfield”.
While certainly not claiming insider knowledge on the neighborhood, I noted in my initial comment “The streets of the East End are steeped in the history of London’s Jewish working-class” and thought (or assumed) that would be enough for most readers to know where I was coming from. To be specific, I know about the East End as a Jewish neighborhood in the early twentieth century, that the anarcho-syndicalist leader Rudolph Rocker although not a Jew, was very influential among the Jewish working-class, I know a bit about the Battle of Cable Street, and the more recent transformation/gentrification of Brick Lane. I was actually there a few months ago. A friend of mine wrote his dissertation on London’s Jewish East End. So I have some understanding of the context and know it is always important to take the place into consideration when doing a public piece.
Nevertheless, I think it is important to be very careful and precise when dealing with accusations of antisemitism, racism, and the like. In the case of MEAR, none of the evidence that I am aware of speaks to him holding anti-Jewish views. That the artist is not aware of the historic, Jewish, links is likely accurate and a good point. I cannot speak to the disposition of his “paymasters”.
As far as the “New World Order” fixation, I find it extremely problematic but I have known people who think like this for a long time. Some of them went down the road of seeing “Zionists” behind all the world’s problems and from there it is a short step to blaming “the Jews”. I get it. But there were many more people who did not undergo the same process. Instead they blame the Bilderbergs or the Council on Foreign Relations, or some other shadowy or not so shadowy group. In any event, not “Zionists” or Jews. Elites, yes. Old white men behind the scenes, yes. But Jews? No.
The reason it is problematic is it is a political dead-end. So you now have this supposedly secret knowledge about the Illuminati or whoever controlling the world. What is your next step? Does it lead to political mobilization and organization? Of course not. It is an excuse to disengage from the political. After all, if these nefarious forces have always been around manipulating things what chance does someone like me have against the Leviathan? Like all forms of extremism, it also leads to a degree of distance between the person who has the inside knowledge and everyday people, you know the so-called “sheeple”.
In other words, I think the “New World Order” framework and people who adhere to it need to be challenged, but not in this manner. Again, if I saw Stars of David or the other ill imagery that is all too familiar to me by now I would have no problem condemning this work as I have criticized many others. But in a life with limited time, energy and resources I think we need to pick our battles wisely. Here is one more offensive image where the antisemitism is clear. In this case the producers contended it was merely “anti-Zionist”: http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2002/05/24/close-up_of_sfsu_flyer.jpgb10878.jpg
Why on earth do this mural here of all places? Just recently, a few streets away, the only Jewish Maternity Home in the country was demolished and, in 10 days, the London Fruit and Wool Exchange up the road is up for demolition – which sheltered thousands, half of them Jewish, as Stepney was targeted by the bombs of the Luftwaffe as the Jewish Ghetto. We had the Blackshirts before the war, the National Front after that, so as what little is left of the Jewish East End goes under the bulldozers why spark this…er..debate?
@newcentrist, I don’t think it’s a stretch to see antisemitism in what he’s done (googling New World Order brings up all the Jewish banker stuff) and where he’s done it. Ted’s right, we have proud Jewish history here.
Well, the Mayor [Mr. Shiny Suit of the £120K ‘communications suite’] is for ‘One Tower Hamlets’, so we’ll see which ‘one’ he intends by his reaction to this. I don’t necessarily see this ‘just’ as anti-semitic, although I can see elements, but I do see it as divisive, inflammatory and mythopeoic [though those myths, masons, Bilderberg etc.] exist. It’s something that doesn’t belong in public space anywhere.
Hey, I’d almost prefer one of those illusory, everyone living happily together images, which are, in fact, just as illusory but probably not as destructive.
Now, if he’d pictured the real bankers who destroyed our economy then that would have made sense rather than this tribute to the Nazi era art.
The black people always at the receiving end. A table made of black man on which the games are played.
Strange how critics see two jewish men at the end (I only see two patriarchial figures myself.), and not the quite obvious pan-human oppression. This to me sums up the issues with society today, to busy looking for or being directed to what is going to offend them rather than looking at the bigger picture and the on coming globalization of power and fleecing of the human cash cows. It’s all about deflection people.
There are areas of commonality between that philosophy and the philosophy that accompanied anti-Semitism in the 1930s. The Nazis argued that capitalism damages nations due to international finance, the economic dominance of big business, and Jewish influences. Nazi propaganda posters in working-class districts emphasized anti-capitalism, such as one that said:
“The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism.”
Hitler, both in public and in private, expressed strong disdain for capitalism, accusing modern capitalism of holding nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan “rentier” class (a property-owning social class that under Marxist theory play no productive role in the economy).
Hitler opposed free-market capitalism’s profit-seeking impulses and desired an economy in which community interests would be upheld. Hitler distrusted capitalism for being unreliable, due to its egotistic nature, and he preferred a state-directed economy that would be subordinated to the interests of the people. Hitler told a party leader in 1934,
“The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews.”
I ask you to compare this history with the present and the so-called ‘revolutionary socialists’ that thrive within Respect, SWP et al mixing Marxism with a new form of anti-Semitism that is thinly veiled as Arabism, anti-Zionism and anti-capitalism. The militant wing of which – the UAF – is actually led by literal fascists (http://hurryupharry.org/2012/02/28/azad-ali-awlaki-fan-opponent-of-democracy-now-vice-chair-of-unite-against-fascism/) who oppose democracy and seek to violently overthrow it. This group has become a modern-day ‘brown-shirt’ movement.
Sorry to get all academic on you.
Sources:
Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution. Yale University Press. p. 53
Carsten, Francis Ludwig The Rise of Fascism, 2nd ed. University of California Press, 1982. p. 137. Quoting: Hitler, A., Sunday Express, September 28, 1930
Hitler, A.; transl. Norman Cameron, R. H. Stevens; intro. H. R. Trevor-Roper (2000). “March 24, 1942”. Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941–1944: His Private Conversations. Enigma Books. pp. 162–163.
Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966. p. 619
Bendersky, Joseph W. A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945. 2nd ed. Burnham Publishers, 2000. pp. 58-59.
A long look at the Rebel News blog reveals that it is a mix of new world order conspiracy theories, holocaust denial and the usual rag bag of anti semitism disguised as support for the Palestinians. I would agree that the SWP left and particularly UAF is riddled with Jew haters apart from Azad Ali and Ken Livingstone but they aren’t, as far as I know, involved in this.
Artists like to shock, that’s how they sell their art and the Guardinistas and fashionistas have now decided that Palestine is the new rock and roll. It is now ” cool” to be anti Zionist which is a very short step to Holocaust denial and the Protocols of The Elders of Zion.
If the council don’t remove this lets have a paint over next weekend and spend the week preparing the ground? Why, the paintover could be an art event in itself!
It looks like Alf Garnett on the extreme right
We are really swinging along here! One person googles New World Order and discovers associations with anti-semitism so no reference to NWO allowed! In interviews the artist refers to the use of symbols, which are relevant to his work as an artist, and to corporate power structures which are relevant to understanding the world economic system. He doesn’t talk about the Illuminati.
The discussion makes all kinds of associations unsupported by the work in question. Respect is dragged in and denounced in a generalised fashion even though one of the links is about Respect expelling someone for anti-semitism. Accusations are made against the owner of the site assuming the worst in his motives, yet another correspondent has posted a link to a previous mural which showed a nuanced message pointing to an equivalence in aggression between two characters representing what I would presume are a Jihadi and an EDL supporter. The SWP is included in the argument even though it plainly has nothing to do with anything in this artwork. The opening comment from Councillor Golds demanded to know what was going to be done about those responsible. What? Is some kind of prosecution expected? On what grounds? We are told the artist’s intentions are irrelevant and our or others’ perception are all that matter. If a prosecution is envisaged then intention is most certainly relevant. Dots are connected without any evidence that they actually relate to this piece of work. There is a serious discussion to be had about the intentions of this artist and the symbols, etc, that he has used and the extent to which he is consciously or subconsciously using these symbols. But tarring people with brushes in the way that has happened here simply leads to a witchhunt. We are told it would be an event (artistic?) to obliterate this work, censorship as art, and butterflies would be more appropriate. In Brick Lane!
In no way is the artist anti-semetic, he is a lover of humanity and the piece was intended to wake people up to the exploitative and greedy control of the NWO, anyone who can’t see this has been brainwashed and is themselves part of the problem. WAKE UP PEOPLE, fight against the NWO and injustice everywhere
Trial by Jeory readers may wish to comment on you Mear One’s video on you tube. The artist responded to my comments by calling me a moron!
This is the link:
What the artist is doing with this publicity is to advance his business and line his pockets. His commentary however does reveal his beliefs, that there is a conspiracy to create a world government which will, under the guise of promoting peace and economic and social advancement, dominate the world.
From the painting and the commentary that is undeniable. What we then need to do is to look at the history of the ideas that have shaped the views of this artist and when we do, and I know this is a specialist subject, it is clear that the artist is very much in a tradition of anti semitism going back at least to the ideas of the reactionaries of Europe after 1792 when they explained the events leading up to the French Revolution.
To understand the historical process it would be useful for people to read Norman Cohn’s ” Warrant For Genocide” a book which first came out in 1967 and should never be out of print. He details the development of the anti Jewish core of the many conspiracy theories and although it can be seen that although they existed from the earliest days of Christianity it wasn’t until the eighteenth century, and the widespread phenomena of print and literacy that the conspiracy theories as we know them began to develop
In England the tradition of blaming Jews goes back at least to the blood libel and the expulsion of the Jews in 1275 and ” Expulsion. England’s Jewish Solution” by Richard Huscroft deals with this era in great detail.
Similar things happened all over Europe but it wasn’t until the tumbrils began to roll and the guillotines and revolutionary French armies began to overthrow European despots that the modern Jewish/Masonic theories began to emerge, all well dealt with by Cohen.
The paranoid fantasies of a world wide Jewish conspiracy even found their to South America as evidenced by the Argentine Jewish publisher Jacobo Timerman when he was arrested and tortured by the Argentine military in the 1970’s. They wanted him to admit that he was a part of an Israeli conspiracy to invade Patagonia, the southern part of the country, and create a Jewish state! ” Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without Number “.
All the cataclysmic events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries could only be explained for the propagandists of the NWO as a series of events that were a part of a greater plan. From the Abbe Barruel in exile in London the execution of King Louis and the revolution was not caused by absolutism but by the Jews. The same excuses abounded in Paris and other European cities after the collapse of Tsarist Russia. For the dispossessed White Russians there could be no other explanation.
Nazi Germany brought the fantasies to their highest and most destructive level and a whole series of largely American survivalist, militia, pseudo scientific organisations have sustained them to the present day. The Arab world is rotten with them and not only are the Protocols printed in enormous numbers throughout that world they are on the courses of study that many Arab countries have in their schools.
Without any shadow of a doubt the artist knew what he was doing when he designed and executed the painting which is intended to depict a cabal of Jews as being responsible for all of the troubles of the world. No ifs, no buts.
I have no doubt a few useful idiots, as Lenin called them, will defend the whole thing on the grounds of art or free speech, ignore them. Let’s get it down by hook or by crook.
Look, I do not disagree with any of what you write. But it is a large stretch to claim the artist is in agreement. Conspiracy theories of politics overlap in many respects, but it is a huge stretch to claim everyone who is a conspiracy theorist is antisemitic. They are largely ignorant, sure. But that does make them Jew haters.
I suspect a lot of naïve supporters of the artist are being funnelled towards this site to muddy the debate in a “battle of the bulge” last-ditch damage-limitation exercise….
Useful idiots? Naive supporters! I have never heard of this artist nor have I been ‘funnelled’ by anyone. So now the ‘debate’ sinks to abuse. No ifs, no buts! On the contrary the commentary on the YouTube video provides no such evidence – it shows that he added the slogan on the side against the New World Order in response to comment by passers by.
Art? Free speech! Ignore that rubbish!
I can almost hear the tumbrils rolling!
If you click through to the You Tube video, you’ll see a list of comments underneath.
The commenter Andrew Conway makes this point yesterday:
Shortly afterwards, MEARSKI1, who seems to be the artist himself, makes the following reply:
So he is saying the characters are Jewish, if indeed it is Mear One writing. We await the Mayor’s thoughts.
He says ‘they are Anglo and Jew’ and then that he criticises ‘positions of power’. In the YouTube video he refers to Rothschild, Rockefeller and Morgan. So is reference to these barred? Does the fact that he criticises a Jew make him a Nazi?
Where is this going? No reference to Jewish people or Israeil in a critical context?
I have very little doubt in my mind that the person who wrote the reply is the artist in question. And I do not doubt the infantile nature of his politics. What I doubt is your labeling him as a Jew-hater. He hates capitalism. Really, when it comes down to it, I suspect he hates success. Why? Because there are winners and losers. What some of you do not seem to get is you are reading a complexity into people who are fundamentally facile. I really did not want to go there. But if you are looking at artists–especially graf artists–to express the nuance and complexity of human existence when it comes to politics and economics you really need to look elsewhere. These are people who see the world in black and white. Not Jew versus Gentile. But elite versus mass. 99% versus 1%. I’m sure you know the rhetoric.
The geographic context of this mural is not within a highly educated philosophical discourse at a university international politics department… it is a crude painting on a wall in an area where Jews and Muslims both live and many un-educated young people permanently resident but a few streets away are uniquely susceptible to anti-Semitism.
Here is a prime example… Vallance Road is about 150 metres away at the end of Hanbury Street
http://hurryupharry.org/2005/04/11/east-end-attack/
and others of course know best what can be put before the great unwashed?
Midday tomorrow for the paint out.
After talking to local people about this I have some suggestions to make as to how we can get something positive out of all this. Let me sum up the situation first.
An American artists with, as far as I know, no connections with the area arrives in what is now agreed to be an arty, cutting edge or is it edgy area, and without any consultation with local people or any knowledge or history of the area paints what is clearly an anti semitic scene.
There is no doubt that all of the references in the painting are insulting towards Jewish people and perpetrate the myths and stereotypes that have caused so much persecution of that people.
There have been in recent years sporadic outbreaks of anti Jewish graffiti in the area some of it a few hundred yards from the painting itself. Slogans such as ” Kill The Jews” were painted on the walls of the sunken football pitch just around the corner in Heneage St and on the adjacent caretakers office in Spelman St while the windows of a Starbucks on Whitechapel Road were smashed and more graffiti painted.
These events have always occurred at some crisis point in events between Palestinians and Israel with a small extremist element within the Bangladeshi community and sections of the far left inciting young men to misplaced actions of solidarity.
When I first knew the Bangladeshi community in the early seventies, working with it throughout that decade around the issues of homelessness, squatting and racial attacks, there was still a sizable Jewish community both living in the area and running the rag trade firms into which the Bangladeshis were then moving.
If you are working with and living alongside Jewish people they are real human beings that have the same problems as you do. The last time I heard Yiddish spoken was thirty years ago, just off Brick Lane by two, even then, very elderly women. The only Jew a young Bangladeshi Muslim sees today is an Israeli soldier or a successful business person or film star on TV.
Whether or not the artist chose Brick Lane because of its proximity to trendy Spitalfields and Shoreditch or because he wanted to incite racial hatred is immaterial. The painting is clearly anti semitic and was intended to be so.
It has to go but it should go in a way that we benefit from this event. There has to be a clear message from all political and religious leaders in the borough and nationally that provocations of this kind will not be tolerated.
By all means have them in some gallery in the West End where the luvvies can ooh and aah over canapes and sparking wine giving everyone air kisses a la Patsy and Edina, not in an area where unemployed and angry young Muslim men will pass by it on a daily basis seeing it being photographed by tourists who will not spend a penny in the restaurants most of which face bankruptcy.
This mural is bad news for the whole community in the East End and has to go but let us arrange that in a way that everyone can learn and gain. The initiative must come from the Mayor, the parties in the Town Hall and religious and civic leaders. Silence is not an option. All of the great and the good are willing to be photographed arm in arm standing against the pathetic EDL. Let them repeat the exercise now.
I will not, at the moment, be painting the mural out. That of course remains an option but I have decided to see if we can unite against what is either a totally opportunistic bit of street theatre or a deliberate attempt to incite hatred against Jews.
[some content edited to remove personal abuse]
I am pleased to report that it seems that the owner of the wall, Ajmol Hussein, is instructing the ” artist” to change the mural and I have just sent Ajmol a text message asking to meet him later today or tomorrow.
So, there you are. It it’s not what you know, it’s who you know and I know a lot of Bangladeshis.
Shock horror…. a Muslim asking for the graffiti to be taken off that offends Jewish people…. Tim….. you reading this….. a Muslim man who owns a building and is part of the 2 million Muslim population in the UK who are apparently all on state handouts, is doing something about an issue you feel strongly about!!!!
If only YouTube and some newspapers were so easily persuaded and took down the video/pics of Mohammed (pbuh)..
I can tell Tim ‘nice but dim’ is frothing at the mouth and keyboard fingers at reading that bit above!!!
The violent killings of people over it are wrong, but the fundamentals of the uproar on this blog over the graffiti and the offending film/pics are roughly the same.
Most of you guys are showing your age LOL. Everyone below the age of 30 I showed it to thought it was an awesome work. Personally I think it is a stunning piece of street art simply about class and privilege and can’t see any anti-semetism in it. If 1 or even 2 characters are Jewish caricatures, does that really make it anti-Semitic? If the others are Christian, does it make it Christophobic? To me they are a parody on greedy bankers. I said it before on this blog, there are huge, dare I say it, massive fish to fry in this borough – this work is simply not one of them. Get over yourselves, and let the young street artists get their message across without the need to censor it over some dubious spurious claims by people with no background in either urban culture nor history of art. This guy is creatively very talented in my non-artistic eyes.
Nigel, you are quite right. I’m over thirty and I find it to be obvious, juvenile but divisive rubbish. I also watched the YouTube [my great-great grandchildren helped me with this internet thingy] by the artist [who might be better served painting his bedroom black and pouting, preferably in the US] with its sententious, tedious and pompous commentary.
Joking apart, saracasm apart, the whole is an indicator of the decline of genuine radicalism and debate in the East End. It’s been replaced by faux-hipsters filling the totally awesome bars of Shoreditch. Perhaps a modern revision of Swift’s Modest Proposal beckons? LOL as one does [or doesn’t] say.
Nigel. Mark Twain said it was better to keep ones mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and confirm the fact. You are living proof of how right he was.
Oh, and Ted. Doesn’t personal abuse include calling people unwashed?
I see the statement ‘you should watch your mouth’ addressed to me by Mr Fitzpatrick has been removed! It represents an important aspect of this discussion, the easy assumptions and accusations which have littered this thread. Mr Fitzpatrick wants to make an issue of a widely used expression ‘the great unwashed’ of which he seems to be unaware to justify his behaviour! For Mr Fitzpatrick’s information it just means the disregarded masses, which is of course how he is treating the wider public which he seems to think needs to be offered only what he deems is acceptable.
At the start a call was made by Councillor Golds for action to be taken against those responsible for this piece of work. It was assumed by some contributors that the owner of the site (and commissioner of the work?) was part of some conspiracy and knew what he was about. It now turns out that he is willing to have the work modified. Earlier another contributor pointed out that the owner (and commissioner?) had allowed a different more nuanced piece of work to be put up. It made no difference, the accusation of a conspiracy was established which then headed on into the wilder reaches of Respect and the SWP.
We are told on the one hand that the artist plainly intended this work to be divisive and anti-semitic yet we are also told it doesn’t matter what he intended. We are told what matters is our perception and yet it does not seem that most people actually see it in that way and it does not seem to be causing any outbreak of anti-semitism in the area. But despite being told that our perception is what matters when people say they are not affected by it in this way they are immediately ridiculed and dismissed and an anti-semitic interpretation is the only one allowed.
We are told to disregard concerns about free speech and art and that art in this neighbourhood has to be censored because ordinary people can’t handle this kind of stuff. And if I raise an issue about this I am told ‘watch your mouth’! Freedom of expression does mean allowing stuff which may offend and it is not something to be confined to luvvies in West End galleries. If it doesn’t mean that then what freedom is there if everything that is said causes no disagreement or upset? This piece of work can be interpreted in a number of different ways and it seems the wider public is actually rather more mature than these critics who want everything to conform to their understanding of what is acceptable or unacceptable.
Sorry to bang the local history drum again but @Terry Fitzpatrick, it’s not just “in recent years” these “outbreaks of anti Jewish graffiti” have occurred. There is history further back here, which has nothing to do with Muslims and actually makes the artist’s choice of location less excusable.
Perhaps not graffiti, more graffito, there’s
1888, Jack the Ripper(?) on the wall in Goulston Street.
WW2 – reported in the 1944 book Cockney Campaign by local Mayor Frank Lewey – “notices are scrawled wide on our bomb-broken walls saying:
Terry, and all reading this, let’s try and do something positive and save some East End Jewish heritage. Next Wednesday Boris Johnson may decide to overrule our local decision to stop the demolition of Spitalfields Market’s London Fruit and Wool Exchange and wartime ‘Mickey’s Shelter’ for new headquarters for ICAP PLC. Now, they may or may not be the New World Order, but then I don’t think they’re Jewish bankers either. The council showed total solidarity on this though and voted cross-party to save this special East End building, so please sign the online petition from Spitalfields Community Group and like the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-The-London-Fruit-and-Wool-Exchange-1929/383535838324130
http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-against-exemplar-s-plans-for-the-fruit-and-wool-exchange-eradication-of-historic-dorset-street-demolition-of-the-gun-pub-and-barclays-bank
Personally, I think that if the artist says the bankers he had drawn are “Anglo and Jew” – given the location, and the history – it should not have happened.
I couldn’t agree with you more on the Fruit Exchange. My next door neighbour here in Hackney runs the second oldest firm at Spitalfields Market and began work in the building in the mid fifties. I will talk to him. Have you contacted the traders at the New Market for support. I will be in touch with you on this. Yes, you are correct about the daubings at one of the Ripper sites. An early Fascist group called the British League of Brothers was beginning to organise around that time.
Please do talk to your neighbour who worked in Spitalfields Market’s Fruit Exchange in the 1950’s. Hope he and others who know how much of the Market has already been demolished, will want to save this surviving building – one of only two left at Spitalfields Market now. He must know how grand it is inside too with its superb Art Deco offices. Why demolish these existing offices – with historic significance in our borough – for offices?
The traders at the new Market may want to support, but if the existing tenants of the Fruit Exchange (61 small businesses) who have been issued notices to quit by the Corporation of London, have only talked to the press anonymously, then they too could be fearful.
There are only a few days left before the London Mayor makes his decision about these Spitalfields Market demolitions. Any Spitalfields Market people, old and new, should object NOW and also come along to the Hearing on Wednesday night at City Hall at 6:30pm. Room for hundreds of the “great unwashed” – and washed – of the East End. Our council will be doing us proud we hope, in a show of true One Tower Hamlets, as they defend the Spitalfields Market demolition refusal.
“My mural is about class & privilege. The banker group is made up of Jewish & white Anglos. For some reason they are saying I am anti semetic. This I am most defenatly not. I believe in equality and brother & sisterhood on a global scale. What I am against is class. Ruling class, this is a problem and we need humanization.” Mear One
now can all you dumb and ignorant people keep it down please
And my response to Mear One’s comment:
“I believe that you are not anti-semitic, and that your intentions were completely different.
However, images of hooked nosed money grabbing Jews reinforce stereotypes and are offensive to the Jewish community. They also provide ammunition for Nazis such as those mentioned on previous postings.
In Britain, there has recently been a controversy about posters advertising the TV programme “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding”. The travelling community considered them offensive – so they were withdrawn.”
The above comment was shortened because there is a limit to the number of characters on the you tube thread. However, my general point is that certain images are offensive to some groups irrespective of the authors intention. I’m sure there are millions of people unable to see the offence in “The Black & White Minstrel Show”, “The Satanic Verses”, comedians joking about thick Irishmen, effeminate gays, people with cerebral palsy referred to as “spastics”, fat women, interfering mothers-in-law etc. Nevertheless, these images and comments are very hurtful to some people and can obscure any other message the artist intends to convey.
I am rather disturbed by the insults and personal abuse by some contributors to both this thread and that on you tube. Surely it should be possible for adults to explain sincerely held opposing views without descending to that level of debate.
Interesting point, Andy. As a trans person I notice that Mear One aka Kalen Ockerman has also posted photoshopped pics (which he markets in his shoppe as ‘art’) of President Obama on his blog wearing a dress in a pathetic attempt to humiliate him for being effeminate. Wot a transphobic misogynist muppet you are, Kalen.
That is what the artist is saying now not having expected the response he is getting. To paraphrase another prostitute ” Well, he would, wouldn’t he”?
Another dissembler is Julian Payne. Was anyone ever actually called that? The “great unwashed” Mr Payne, is way the upper class referred to the hoi poloi, the proles, people like me, and I don’t like it.
For those posting here and those reading who don’t know the area, there is a site well worth looking at. http://www.spitalfieldslife.com/2011/09/14/dan-jones-paintings/. No doubt the luvvies will dismiss it all as terribly derivative and chocolate box but it has far more to do with the real East End than the anti semitic abomination on the corner of Hanbury St and Brick Lane.
My god.
Terry Fitzpatrick, recently convicted of repeatedly calling black people niggers, getting all high and mighty about racism?
That’s like being told to sit up straight by the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I think the piece is both insensitive and ignorant. The artist is right to criticise the pernicious and powerful forces of global capitalism. These are fuelled by attitudes though – arrogance, selfishness and short sightedness. To ascribe these qualities to a specific religious group is, in this case, anti semitic. Its against everything positive in the East End. The mural should be wiped out, or radically altered, and the artist should attempt to imbibe more wisdom.
[…] have received a number of complaints that the ‘New World Order’ mural on Hanbury Street has anti-Semitic images. I share these concerns. Whether intentional or otherwise […]
So its going to go. Good call by the Mayor I think.
I recall that it’s quite hard to remove graffiti on private property. Anyone know who owns the building? Might result in the police becoming involved – and if so a possible charge against the artist?
PS. Lol at those comments allegedly from Terry Fitzpatrick. How’d they get through!?
[…] Hamlets’ Conservative leader, Cllr Peter Golds was reportedly one of the residents who raised concerns about the work, writing in a letter to the council’s […]
This daub has no artistic merit whatsoever. Please arrange for its immediate removal.
Hmmm…If Mear One is talking about those who wield power and conspire together to control the world shouldn’t the figures sat around the table be ‘American and Christian’ (like the artist himself) rather than ‘anglo and Jew’? To paint a wall full of Nazi propaganda is appalling anywhere but to paint it in Brick Lane where far-right terrorist murderer David Copeland committed his crimes is simply vile. How would New Yorker’s react if a Brit came along and painted a tribute to al Qaeda and Bin Laden on a wall next to where the twin towers used to be? Suspect, unlike the tolerant east-enders, the ‘artist’ would never get to complete his painting as he’d be lynched(!) This definitely is one Yank who needs to follow his own far right advice and go back to his own country – wot a muppet! USA please stop depositing your rubbish in other people’s countries as we have enough BNP nutters of our own, thank you very much!!!
“a possible charge against the artist” – are you serious? What an insane and depressing world we live in.
From comments of people in the street and online, many more people are for the mural than against it – the role of art is to provoke thought and convey truths , however uncomfortable this may be for some.
Most sensible people know that this art is anti-ruling class – a class which is encompasses various religions and beliefs
JF – congrats on being a warrior for jewish hyper-sensitivity, your purple heart will be in the mail. why are the jews untouchable while 1 million iraqis die in silence and 5 million are displaced? what if i kicked up a storm about any brown muslim depiction disparaging iraqis, or even the broader ‘arabs’? no one would hear me, and if they did, i would be called a terrorist sympathizer, and red-flagged. no mention of jews was even made here, i see rich bankers and very much the ‘monopoly’ idea the artist portrays and defends. the world surely is fraught with injustice, but you did not further the cause against it, if anything you muted the challenge and supported your own oppressors – unless you’re secretly one of them. nice community activism, gold star.
It’s people like you that gave a *yellow star* to babies who were then murdered by people like you in the holocaust, Chris. If you want someone to blame for society’s ills and what happened in Iraq then perhaps you need to look no further than Christian fundamentalists. That’s unless you’re not brave enough to look in the mirror.
Painting on walls is vandalism to architecture. Make sure the vandal doesn’t get a visa to return. Paint America as much as you like, I am not going there soon. Before the present and recent incumbents there were the Huegenot weavers, oh that they would return and bring quality back to Spitalfields. Try the same vandalisim in West Bank or Gaza? Then learn about aesthetics, art, culture and civilisation.
Notice the Nazis and misogynist rapist paedophiles are active on this thread. To the person who gave me the thumbs down – i am a witch and there is now a curse on you.
Racist Yanks go home!
Chris – thank you very much for your kind words and for taking the trouble to write. Your obvious effort is much appreciated. As you can imagine I am delighted that this offensive mural is going to be removed. This is a victory for the ordinary people who live in Spitalfields who don’t want to see the street art Brick Lane is rightly well known for being subverted, abused and threatened by flown-in trouble makers.
Indeed, there has been a veritable tsunami of revulsion at this attempt to upset community relations.
I have read that the Reverend Alan Green, Church of England Area Dean and Rector of St John on Bethnal Green, has said: “This mural uses images that have for centuries been used to incite hatred and persecution against Jewish communities. There is no place for such incitement against any community in this borough.”
Also, Mayor Rahman has now asked council officers to “do everything possible” to remove the mural, Indeed, the owner of the wall – Azmal Hussain – has been served formal notice to remove this offensive piece within 28 days.
The Mayor – who deserves credit – has said: “The images of the bankers perpetuate anti-Semitic propaganda about conspiratorial Jewish domination of financial and political institutions.”
Job done.
Hmmm…wonder if Roger Griffith is a pseudonym of Mear One which is a pseudonym of Mear One. Since ‘americans’ like him obviously use vile, ignorant and offensive terms like ‘retard’ (remember the Third Reich’s T4 programme of mass killings of mentally-handicapped people, anyone?) then what more evidence do we need to prove that these really are hardcore Nazis at work?
http://beckytranssexual.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/not-just-a-nazi-yankee-bourgeouis-scumbag-but-transphobic-nazi/
No wonder eastenders don’t like this sort polluting their neighbourhood!!!
Who are the ‘Brick Lane Restaurants Association’? They are supporting the demolition of Spitalfields Market’s 1929 Exchange. Absolutely disgustingly selfish: destroy Tower Hamlets’ heritage, and the livelihood of Spitalfields Market traders and shops, and the 61 small businesses in the Exchange – for Brick Lane restaurants! As this Association’s representative writes: ” I would like to make clear our support for this scheme. The job opportunities that will be created by the regeneration of this site will make a major contribution to the sustainability of businesses within Brick Lane and the wider Spitalfields area..” Oh, so this Association wants the borough’s heritage and existing, thriving Spitalfields Market sacrificed for his(?) restaurants! What have the developers promised: ICAP plc suits will leave their trading floors, by-passing ICAP’s dining rooms for a trip to Brick Lane’s restaurants?!
Is Mr Azmal Hussain a member of this Association? He is a major restaurant owner. You also wonder if there is a motive – if he did provide this support [above] – as the site of the mural is one he has been struggling for a few years to develop. He wants to put a high-rise hotel on 45 Hanbury Street and no doubt would be trying to please local planning officers – who did recommend demolition of the Exchange.
Councillor Members of the Strategic Development Committee stopped this demolition on 31 May 2012 against planning officers’ recommendation – but the developers went to Mayor Boris Johnson in June for their ICAP office block – with the Brick Lane Restaurants Association’s support:
Click to access Spitalfields%20Representation%20Hearing%20report.pdf
In July 2012, the application for the hotel on 45-47 Hanbury Street was considered again by local planners:
http://www.spitalfieldscommunity.org/45-47-hanbury-st/
Ted, who are the Brick Lane Restaurants Association – and is Mr Hussain part of it?
[…] a peripherally related topic, I recently became aware of a supposedly anti-Semitic graffiti production in the Brick Lane neighborhood of London’s East End. The East End in the early twentieth century […]
Ted can you remove them posts now about me ATTACKING a Jewish man NOW!!!
get your facts and remove them these are just lies posted on the internet which is in process of being challenged
You have already had a letter from my solicitor about your previous cut and pasted post from the JC but your attempt to allow things suggesting that i am a raciest and Anti Semitic Is i assure you Going to be challenged so REMOVE THEM PLEASE
I presume the person who owns this wall gave the artist permission, perhaps even invited him to make this mural. The owner of the wall is – I believe – Azmal Hussain, formerly chair and chief fundraiser of Tower Hamlets Respect Party. Anyone notice a pattern here?
(ref. Carole Swords attacking Jewish man at protest)
You are aware that bloggers do not have protection BY LAW
who is this person