Laurini responds: "Why? Are you Zionist? Are you Zionist? Are you pro-genocide? Are you killing all the children? I'm doing this to clean the street."
When Kaufman tells her that the hostage posters are for innocent people, she hits back: "No they're not."
After the incident, the journalist, who has worked for CNN and Ha'aretz, "cried all the way home," he said.
Laurini has previously shared antisemitic conspiracy theories online multiple times, and once shared a post suggesting Jews control the media, banking and pornography industries.
On one fringe social media platform, she shared an image suggesting Jews control the media and pornography industry.
A cartoon shared by the artist shows a man asking “How are they connected?” as he stands in front of a board on which topics including “pornography”, “banking” and “Hollywood” are connected by string in the shape of the Star of David.
The post adds: “If you ignore the JQ you are politically illiterate.” The “JQ” or “Jewish Question” is a term used frequently by people on the far-right to suggest Jewish genocide.
Fitzrovia exhibition: Anna Laurini with one of her works (Photo: YouTube/Inspiring City)
Another post shared by the Italian painter describes sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a “billionaire Jew pal of the rich and powerful” and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as a “rich Jew”.
In an Instagram post, Laurini shared photos of herself posing with David Icke, a notorious conspiracy theorist.
The former Hereford United goalkeeper has claimed “a small Jewish clique” worked with Adolf Hitler and helped to “create” both world wars.
Laurini, who claims to have exhibited her work at galleries in New York, Milan and Paris, is a self-described "distinctive urban contemporary artist" who has "burst onto the London scene".
Responding to the JC previously, Laurini said: “I cannot now recall the content of the postings that you claimed I share on social media [sic].”
She added that the account where those posts appeared “closed down over two years ago” and the comments “do not represent” her views.
Half of all the posters in London bearing the faces of hostages held in Gaza are being removed within 48 hours, with many of them ripped down as soon as they appear, the JC previously revealed.
Asked how long the appeals tend to stay up, Ari, who asked to be identified only by his first name due to safety concerns, said: “24 to 48 hours maximum, [though] some are there for longer.”
He added: “People, mostly Muslim and ‘free Palestine’ [activists], come and tear them off.
“We instructed the volunteers not to do anything, just take videos [and ask] ‘Why are you doing that?’”
Volunteers putting up the posters work in groups for safety but have been met with aggression and explicit racism.
Ari said: “A few times I have had some guys shouting… ‘F*** you, f*** off, free Palestine, Jews out, Yahud, go away.’”
Laurini has been contacted for comment.
