Unauthorised anti-Israel adverts and posters on London underground.

Transport for London say that this  latest stunt will be taken down. And the artist responsible for the art-work (installation may be by others) is quite open about his work and where it has been placed. Will any action be taken against him, or those who place his work? The underground, buses, train carriages are  well covered with CCTV. The days are long gone when when the members of an up-and-coming rock band could publicise themselves with stickers of their name placed at strategic places around the underground. And it only takes a few seconds to slap a 2″x3″ sticker on a window or door. These pieces of artwork have been placed so carefully within the  infrastructure designed for authorised advertising that I suspect collusion with and by TfL employees.

This is the one that was spotted on a Jubilee line train this week.

As you can see it mimics the linear map of the line that would normally have been in that place. It would have taken several minutes to manoeuver those printed panels into position. More than enough time to be spotted, even on the 1st train at 5.30am.

Susan Hall (Conservative leader of the London Assembly) has said that they are definitely unauthorised and Transport for London said  

A TfL spokesperson said: “These posters were not authorised by TfL or our advertising partners and we have instructed our teams and contractors to remove any that are found on our network.”

The ‘artist’ is proud of his work and the kudos it has garnered in anti-semitic, pro-hamas, pro-Palestine circles. He is quite blatant about it here on his instagram account.

Much of his ‘work’ is displayed on bus stops. Or more worryingly he, or a similar agitprop merchant knows how to get inside the glass panels on bus stops. I’ll come back to that later.

Two of these are taken at different times at St George’s Circus in Southwark (irrelevant fun fact – St George’s is London’s second Roman Catholic Cathedral – I saw Pope John Paul II arrive on a visit in 1982) the other I don’t know where is. I don’t believe them to be photoshopped over the usual public service announcement for disinfectant. 

He says this one was the bus stop near the new US Embassy on Inauguration Day.

Looking through his portfolio on his website I can’t see that this bus stop which is the only one I have observed myself (sort of, and which is why I don’t believe them to be photoshopped) in Gants Hill in April is his work. Even if it isn’t it shows that the time it takes to open the glass cabinet, insert the poster level and even and shut the cabinet securely isn’t picked up and acted upon by TfL via their CCTV monitoring. I wonder why not?

What is his work are many of the pro-Palestine banners seen carried across London every weekend, held by barbarians screaming ‘From the river to the sea…”

His art work isn’t the issue. What is the issue is that he seems to be allowed to display it at will on London Transport, while those who pay real money are subject to rigid regulations that forbid treats and comely young women.