Museum was right to cancel Gaza kids’  art exhibit

And this includes Palestinian childrens’ “art” which in reality is the worst sort of propaganda.

MECA, JVP and their ilk can scream “censorship” but they would never attempt to provide any semblance of balance by showing art produced by traumatized Israel children who had witnessed an incident of the incessant suicide bombings of the Second Intifada or more recently, the missiles aimed at schools in southern Israeli towns.

Nor would they mention the grade school teachings ubiquitous in both the “moderate” Fatah sector as well as Gaza which paint Israelis as stereotypical hook-nosed exploiters. And then there is the Palestinian childrens’ television program of “Martyr Mouse,” where kids are brainwashed to believe that Jews are subhuman.

Let’s hear anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian leaders like Barbara Lubin, her MECA drones, and JVP’ers for once criticize the above. Don’t hold your breath…

Having both raised children and having looked at the supposed “children’s art,it seems obvious to me that no child created these images, at least not with out clear instruction, prompting and modeling. Many times in the past, “Palestinians” have been caught fabricating news stories,video etc,so many that these fake productions have earned the slang reference, “Pallywood.” My guess is that this “children’s” art was a well crafted propaganda ploy designed by professionals to elicit sympathy etc. Perhaps MOCHA didn’t want to be a party to fraud.

Many years ago, Israel received the enmity of much of the world for killing a Palestinian kid, Mohammed al Dura, who video showed was shot in the arms of his father by members of the IDF.

However, this was later proved to be a complete fabrication, a joint work of film fiction created by both the Palestinians and a French reporter.

Even the IDF was initially fooled by this filmed fraud. As for the boy, he was found hale and hearty many years later in the W. Bank.

So the previous post makes a good point: don’t believe what the Palestinians say passes for either “art” or truth, particularly when it is alleged to come from Arab children…

Imagine explaining to a 5-year-old the meaning of a dismembered corpse, of an American bomb dropping on a bloody town square, of an armed El Salvadoran soldier menacing a mother and child.

Imagine explaining to the same child the meaning of an American bomb falling on an Iraqi child or an armed American soldier menacing an Iraqi mother and child.

These are the kinds of pictures drawn by children who have been traumatized by war. I have seen the art of the traumatized children of El Salvador and Iraq and the only difference between those pictures and the pictures of the traumatized children of Gaza is the Star of David on the bombs. For those who resent seeing the Star of David they must understand that just as the US chose the Stars and Bars for our flag, Israel chose the Star for David. And that is what the children see and know.

For the JCRC and others to pressure MOCHA to cancel the exhibit on the basis that it might offend children is less than honest. They did not have a problem when the museurm had an exhibit by the traumatized children of Iraq.

No, they are scared. They are scared that someone might just get the idea that Israeli bombs kill kids.

But, in the end they were really stupid. This act of pressure has gone around the world. Had the JCRC and its minions remained silent few in the world would have known the lengths to which these censors would go to prevent this exhibit from being shown.

Shame on the JCRC and the rest who used their clout to shut down an exhibit. All you have done is to anger a lot of people, including Jews, from around the world.

As a Bay Area educator now living in Israel I respectfully disagree with this opinion.

Art often has a political agenda. Censorship of an exhibit is also part of a political agenda.

The drawings depicted murder and mayhem because that is the reality of these Gazans. Even if they were coached or there was a political agenda behind their drawings, the daily life of Gazan children is horrific. If the subject is so inappropriate for children, then so is their reality. I hope this paper will advocate for Israeli restraint in attacking Gazan residences.

But to the heart of your piece: The use of the Star of David IS inappropriate, but it’s not the artists’ use that American Jews should have an issue with.

The Star is used in these drawings because the state of Israel uses them! There is no separation between religion and government here. Stars of David appear all over the uniforms of soldiers in Gaza. Menorahs and other religious symbols are on every public institution. If American Jews visiting the museum are upset, they should take up the political appropriation of their faith’s icons with the state of Israel.

Pulling this exhibit is shameful. Ideas don’t hurt people, but cycles of disproportional warfare and hateful terrorist responses do. These children live through events we only comment on from afar through whatever distorted lens we all use.

I wish local groups had asked for space at MOCHA to express another take on the art. Knee-jerk responses to art are a problem in an open society. Especially when we are valuing and listening to children.

Thank you.

I wonder how Barbara Lubin/MECA, JPV and other members of the pro-Palestinian minion will respond to the announcement that the Palestinians will not permit Jews to settle in their new state?

On Sept. 13, the PLO’s ambassador to the United States said that any Palestinian state should be free of Jews. “After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people[s] to be separated,” said Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador.
So this will make Palestine the first genuine self-acknowledged apartheid state since racist South Africa defined itself as such. Perhaps Jimmy Carter should reissue his book with the appropriate revisions.

Thank you Trevor for telling Jews throughout the world that they don’t have the right to feel what they feel.  The use of Jewish stars in this context is precisely meant to demonize the Jewish people, and judging by the first picture displayed, the American people as well. Since Israeli missiles do not have American or israeli flags on them,  and ” children draw what they see”,  do you have an explanation?  The best possible explanation is serious adult intervention, in both content and execution

If the use of the Star of David so upsets you perhaps you should suggest to the Israeli government that the Star not appear on the flag, on the uniforms of soldeiers and that the Star not be the symbol of Israel.

The Star represents the state that is bombing these kids and the US flag represents the country that helps supply the bombs. The kids have every right to use both symbols. Sorry you are so offended but it is more offensive to be under those bombs and to see your friends and family killed and your home destroyed.

When pictures were drawn by Iraqi or Salvadoran children showing US bombs falling on them they drew the American flag on the bombs.

In both cases the bombs were made in America. Why shouldn’t the traumatized children put the US flag on them just as the traumatized children of Gaza put the Star on the bombs that fell on them in Gaza.

I also remember the photos of Israeli girls in northern Israel in 2006 writing on the missiles that were heading to kill the people of Lebanon. These Israeli girls were drawing the Star of David on the missiles. I suspect that would not have bothered you a wit.

BTW you never gave a link to information about a so-called anti-Israel “rally” in New York. I think that was all a figment of your imagination.

Over the years, I’ve come to a sort of understanding of folks like Janice, folks that have a “knee-jerk” compulsion cast a negative spin on anything and everything involving Israel, no matter how patently irrational. After awhile, and numerous conversations, it becomes clear that their issue is psychological not political. Often, they have had serious issues with their parents, and express it by, later in life, by opposing anything that their parents supported. In this case, the “knee-jerk” is so powerful that Janice and her ilk, that they never even question obvious fraud , for example, “what Arab child would draws a picture of an ambulance in Gaza, with the word’Ambulance’ in English and no Red Crescent?”  Perhaps, when folks are so very anxious to mindlesly accept any bit of anti-Israel nonsense that’s spewed out by Haters, they have a different, non-political, problem.

If you think that I had issues with my parents you are sadly mistaken and should never consider becoming a psychologist. You are so far off base that I had to laugh.

My parents initially supported what they were told back in 1947 by two members of the Yeshuv would be a bi-national state. My father raised thousands of dollars to help bring about what he tought would be a bi-national state and even wrote a play showing Jews and Arabs working together to end the British occupation.

A few years after Israel became a state several disaffected Israelis came to visit my parents telling them that they could no longer live in a racist state. Until they died both parents were disillusioned with Israel .They were proud to be Jews and knew that Israel did not represent all Jews. I share those feelings.

I was brought up in a home where racism was deplored and where I learned that to discriminate against anyone because of race or religion was abhorrant. That is what I have lived with all my life.

My parents were wonderful people and I am proud to be their daughter.

As for the pictures with the word “ambulance” on them that is correct. I have seen photos of ambulances in Gaza with the word ambulance in bright red.

If you know how to do it, just Google Gaza ambulances.  Click on images and you will see photos of Gaza ambulances with the word AMBULANCE clearly visible.

Maybe you need to stop your knee jerk reactions to anyone critical of Israel.

BTW, have you ever been critcal of the US? Did you support the Vietnam War?  If your answer to either question is “yes” then according to your reasoning you must be a hater of America.

It is sad that all the energy is dedicated to more hatred than to education to peace. Unfortunately, the Middle East contains enough violence to be shared by all parties: terrorist attack indiscriminately civilians and kill innocent babies in their beds, airplane bombing kill by-passers in collateral damage (!), etc. The question raised by JCRC and others wasn’t about the right or wrong of the two parties. The question was whether it is appropriate to display that in a setting for children of school and pre-school age. These kids need to be educated to love and respect and not to hate and with all due respect to all the Israel bashers in the Bay Area, the exhibition wasn’t intended to do so, but to show Israelis as repugnant, scary monsters.  Do the children of Gaza suffer? Absolutely. Do the children of Sderot suffer? Of course. Let’s try to bring peace and not hatred to young kids. Maybe we will raise a generation that will demand peace and not revenge.

In my last sentence I asked if you had supported the Vietnam War. I should have written that if your answer was no you must have been, according to your reasoning, a hater of America.

Maybe the children need to know what is happening and through that to believe that peace with justice is better than war.

Maybe the children need to understand that when one people have been dispossessed by another peace is unlikely until there is justice.

Most children of the age to visit the museum have likely seen more violence on TV in their short lives than is portrayed in the drawings from Gaza.

Children are also taken to the Holocaust museum where frightening images are shown. I see no one objecting to that.

I wonder if you opposed the exhibit at MOCHA of the drawings of the children of Iraq who had also been traumatized by bombs and soldiers.

I sense that the major objection to this exhibit on the part of some sectors of the Jewish community is the fact that the drawings portray Israel in a negative light. Had this exhibit been of drawings by the children of Sderot I think many of you on the comment board would applaud the exhibit.

Maybe there should be an exhibit side by side of children’s drawings from both sides.

Jews. Do not give her the attention she childishly craves.(She clearly doesn’t get it either at home or elsewhere.) Ignore her ignorance and bigotry…

What strange reasoning! It sounds to me like Janice’s parents were deluded Marxists, blinded by the silly fantasy that the Arabs would ever accept equality for Jews. At the precise time when the “Palestinian” spokesman has insisted that any future “Palestinian first be ethnically cleansed of Jews, a true “apartheid” state. the Arab-Israeli citizens of Israel, roughly 20% of Israel’s population, are represented in the Knesset,the Judiciary etc,and in fact,our recent Israeli Vice Consul,Ismail Khalidi. Does anyone out there think that a future “Palestinian” state might EVER permit a Jewish representative in a democratically elected “Palestinian” Parliament?  There is no indicia that any future “Palestinian” entity, whether a Fatah state or a Hamas state would ever be willing to stop the war mongering,live in peace with Israeli and cease inciteful children’s education. This fake “children’s” art is a prime example of both “Palestinian” propaganda and educating children to hate. My question, is “why do some folks react thoughtlessly, and reflexively negative to anything related to Israel?”

It is not hatred but sadness that makes me critical of Israel. Some of you will never understand so there is no reason to reply to you.

But that does not mean that I will refrain from posting comments. This is the Jewish Weekly, not the Israeli Weekly, and as I am Jewish I feel free to post even though some of you would like me to keep silent.

And if this was the Israeli Weekly I would not refrain from posting as well.

There are many Israelis who feel as I do, some who over the years have paid a price for their views. It is from these Israelis that I get much of my information about the day to day oppression of the Palestinians. I guess that some of you would call these Israelis haters and anti-Semitic.And for that I pity you.

Once I was asked, “why do we call folks like Janice’self-hating Jews’”? and the obvious answer is that “Oreo cookie and Uncle Tom” were already being used.” Have you ever pondered what the Arabs would have done to the Jews, in 1948 or 1967 if (G-d forbid!) there had been an Arab victory? Does anyone,even folks as deluded and naive as Janice, think that today,we’d be discussing Arab states granting land for the creation of a “Jewish State”?  Does anyone even imagine that there would be Jewish children still living there to make drawings?

MECA has called for a protest of the Childrens museum on Sept. 24th.  It seems their compassion for Children begins and ends with the children of Gaza.  They are willing to sacrifice the children of Oakland to promote their political agenda. 

So, on Sept 24, preschoolers, children attending birthday parties and young families having an outing will have to walk through a gauntlet of hate,

Barbara Lubin, why must the children of Oakland take a backseat to your one-sided biased political agenda?

The drawings of the children of Iraq that were shown at MOCHA were very similar to the drawings of the children of Gaza.

Did you object to those drawings? Or is it only when it is the children of Gaza that you raise objections?

BTW, I am still waiting for the link to the information about theupcoming “anti-Israel rally” in New York. If you do not provide me with such a link I will know that you just fabricated the charge.

Come on Cadance. Fess up.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2011/09/115945.html.  JVP cosponsoring a rally with local anti Semites.  And it’s from an anti Israel website, Janice, so it must be true.

Having never seen the Iraqi pictures, I don’t know if they are indeed objectionable. Care to provide us with a link?

Here is the link to the exhibit of Iraqi children’s art at MOCHA. While only one drawing is shown it sounds as if the art was similar to the art of the Gaza chldren. Did you object to this exhibit?

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2004-05-18/article/18898?headline=Exhibit-Shows-Iraqi-Children-s-View-of-Invasion

BTW, I hope you realize that the censorship and pressure issue is all over the internet. It is not something of which Jews, or anyone else, should be proud.
Censoring the art of traumatized children, OMG!

I checked out your link but since September 15 has come and gone and there is no news of this rally I suspect it was a bust.
I think that it was rather stupid calling Israel the Zionist entity. Israel is there and it does exist.

What many of you don’t seem to understand is that the main issue with many people, including many people in Israel, is the occupation and the settlements.

Tell me Candance, what do you think that the Palestinians should do since it is patently obvious that the Israeli government does not want a Palestinian state. Bibi’s Likud party plainly states in its platform that there will never be a Palestinian state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

The Palesitnians are not leaving and every action of Israel to prolong the brutal occupaton makes more people fed up with Israel and with US support for the occupation.

I have just finished reading an essay by Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery who is one of the bravest people I know, although I don’t know him personally, only through his writings. Avnery came to Palestine in 1933 with his family when he was 10. At 14 he joined the Irgun youth to fight the British occupation but left because of the extreme anti-Arab racism in the group. In 1948 he served in the Israeli army and was badly wounded. He has written a book entitled 1948 that I found on Amazon.
The war left him yearning for peace with the Arabs. He founded a progressive weekly. Right wing Jews did not like what he published and on several occassions the editorial offices were bombed. Several employees were badly wounded. Avnery himself was the target of assassination and was wounded. In an ambush he was set upon by right wing Jewish thugs who broke his hands.

These attacks never stopped him and at 88 he is still going strong. You probably will hate what he has written but if you dare, click on this link.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1316197302

http://www.puffinroom.org/exhibits/2004/kingdom_of_fear/iraq/index.html

These are the pictures from the Iraqi exhibit.  The main difference I see is that these really look like children drew them.  There is a varying degree of sophistication, however.

What kind of person protests a childrens Museum?

Barbara Lubin and MECA are calling for a weekend of protest against the Museum of Childrens art in Oakland.  The first protest is scheduled for this Friday at 3- the second for Saturday 1- 3 (its billed as a “family friendly protest”.  Does that mean the offending pictures will not be shown?) 

I suggest that those who love and support Mocha, show up both days, and thank them, with all our hearts, and with our checkbooks for standing firm against hate

They trot out children with fake injuries before the cameras.

Meanwhile, they hide behind children as civilian shields.

And what about the 16-month old Israeli baby Arab rioters hit in the head with a rock yesterday? Will that be in the exhibit?