Graffiti News

RUN brings a cartoon chase onto a Tel Aviv wall

Italian pop artist aleXsandro Palombo has turned Bart Simpson into the central figure of RUN, a political mural on Yeven Metsula Street in Tel Aviv. According to EUROPE SAYS, the work appeared on September 29, 2026. Its October 5 report describes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and politician Gadi Eisenkot wearing bulletproof vests and carrying batons as they chase a Bart reimagined as a young Hamas fighter.

The composition uses the familiar structure of a cartoon pursuit to carry a political message. Bart supplies an immediately recognisable fictional character, while the two pursuers bring the scene into Israeli politics. For people following street art, the encounter between those visual registers is central to reading the wall: recognising a television character is only the first step toward understanding the artist’s stated argument.

The timing also forms part of the source’s account. EUROPE SAYS places the mural ahead of the October 7 anniversary and during an election campaign. Those circumstances frame the intervention as a response to a particular political moment, rather than a detached illustration featuring a popular cartoon figure.

Palombo links the child character to indoctrination

Palombo says the transformation of Bart addresses the indoctrination of minors, jihadist propaganda and the transmission of violence between generations. EUROPE SAYS attributes that explanation to an artist’s statement. The mural’s depiction of a child character as a fighter should therefore be understood as Palombo’s political representation and stated criticism.

The source also cites Vanessa Esteban’s interpretation of Hamas as a reference to a system in which propaganda, the glorification of armed struggle and radicalisation reach children. That is an attributed reading of the work, not independent evidence about any particular child. Keeping that distinction visible matters when a fictional image carries claims about an actual conflict.

Netanyahu and Eisenkot, whom the source places on opposing sides of the political aisle, share the role of pursuer. Their position in the same scene creates another element for viewers to consider. The report does not provide statements from either politician about the mural, so the composition cannot establish their endorsement of the work or its message.

The Simpsons recur in Palombo’s street art

RUN continues Palombo’s use of Simpsons characters to connect public imagery with violence, memory and political power. EUROPE SAYS describes an earlier mural outside the Holocaust memorial in Milan that placed members of the fictional family in Auschwitz. It also recalls his image of Marge Simpson cutting her hair in solidarity with Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in police custody in September 2022.

The source reports that Palombo explained his choice of the Simpsons in a 2025 interview with The Jerusalem Post: the characters’ distinctive appearance helped him address younger generations. In that account, familiarity serves a communicative purpose. The cartoon does not soften the subject so much as provide a recognisable entry point into it.

EUROPE SAYS also traces his depictions of child characters as fighters to two series from 2014. That history places RUN within an existing practice. It does not make every earlier work identical in meaning, but it shows that the use of childhood imagery to discuss armed violence predates this Tel Aviv intervention.

Yeven Metsula Street is the reported viewing location

Yeven Metsula Street is the location given by EUROPE SAYS, but the report supplies no building number or visiting schedule. Readers planning to see RUN can use the street name as a starting point while recognising that the source does not establish an exact wall position or guarantee that the painting remains visible.

The report says graffiti is illegal in Tel Aviv while many works relating to October 7 have been allowed to remain. That reported tolerance does not establish permission for this mural or authorisation to paint nearby. For visitors, viewing and documenting a wall are separate from obtaining permission to alter it.

Palombo’s accounts of earlier images being erased and recreated also make the date of documentation relevant. A photograph records a wall at a particular moment; the source does not report that RUN itself has been removed or repainted. Explore nearby murals through Wallscape’s map, keeping the reported location and the limits of the available information in mind.

Source: EUROPE SAYS