![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Palestinian-childrens-drawing3.jpg\" "\\"Palestinian")
<\/a>Pro-Israel organizations pressured an Oakland children\u2019s museum to cancel an upcoming exhibition of drawings made by Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Community leaders say the shutting down of the exhibition is the result of a disturbing \u2014 and well-funded \u2014 campaign to silence Palestinian voices across the\u00a0US.<\/span><\/p>\nOn 8 September, just two weeks before the exhibition was set to open to the public, the board of directors of the Museum of Children\u2019s Art (MOCHA) announced that they had canceled \u201cA Child\u2019s View of Gaza.\u201d The board shut down the show due to pressure from \u201cconstituents,\u201d according to a statement made by Randolph Bell, the board\u2019s chairman, in the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> (\u201c<\/span>Oakland museum cancels Palestinian kids\u2019 war art<\/span><\/a>,\u201d 9 September\u00a02011).<\/span><\/p>\n The show was curated in partnership with the Berkeley-based non-profit group Middle East Children\u2019s Alliance (MECA), which has been working for 23 years to advocate for Palestinian, Iraqi and Lebanese children\u2019s rights. Barbara Lubin, MECA\u2019s executive director, told The Electronic Intifada that it was \u201cupsetting and infuriating\u201d that the show was canceled, but she wasn\u2019t\u00a0surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who knows this issue knows that the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs have launched a multi-million dollar project to combat what they call the \u2018delegitmization\u2019 of Israel,\u201d Lubin said. \u201cThey try and suffocate the <\/span>boycott, divestment and sanctions<\/span><\/a> movement and censor Palestinian cultural initiatives. What they\u2019re doing is financing the work of silencing and shutting down anyone who wants to talk about what\u2019s really happening to\u00a0Palestinians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Chronicle<\/em> also reported that the board of directors at MOCHA vaguely cited the \u201cinappropriate nature\u201d of the content of the children\u2019s drawings in their decision to shut down the exhibit. Some of the Palestinian children\u2019s illustrations show tanks, guns and explosions, but the board\u2019s assertion that these images are \u201cinappropriate\u201d enough to censor is clearly\u00a0selective.<\/span><\/p>\n In years past, MOCHA had successfully exhibited strikingly similar artwork by children in Iraq who drew from their personal experiences of war following the 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent occupation. Another exhibition several years ago showed artwork by children made during the Second World War that \u201cfeatured images of Hitler, burning airplanes, sinking battleships, empty houses and a sad girl next to a Star of David,\u201d the Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0added.<\/span><\/p>\n Lubin said that the difference in this context is simple: \u201cThe pro-Israel groups are afraid that people will start understanding what\u2019s really going on with Israeli policy through seeing exhibits like the one we put together. They don\u2019t want people to know that Palestinian children are suffering. They\u2019re afraid of us hearing that other side. For 63 years we\u2019ve heard one side in this country and around the world, and it\u2019s time for the other side to be\u00a0heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ziad Abbas, associate director of MECA, told The Electronic Intifada that several art-based organizations in the Gaza Strip began working with traumatized children in an effort to help them channel their fears, anger and trauma through artistic expression. Those drawings resulted in the collection of artwork that was to be showcased at the children\u2019s\u00a0museum.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe art projects were born out of a necessity to try to reduce the impact and effects of the attacks which killed hundreds of children in Gaza. These drawings came from that kind of therapy to express their feelings,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/span><\/p>\n Abbas added that the child artists were thrilled that their work had \u201cbroken <\/span>Israel\u2019s siege on Gaza<\/span><\/a>\u201d when the drawings made their way to a museum halfway across the\u00a0world.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was important for these children to know that their voices were going to be heard in Oakland. However, they didn\u2019t expect the siege to stretch all the way from Gaza to California, which is essentially what happened when MOCHA canceled the exhibit due to pressure from these groups,\u201d Abbas\u00a0said.<\/span><\/p>\n Upon investigation, it emerged that those \u201cconstituents\u201d who got the ear of MOCHA\u2019s board chair included pro-Israel public relations institutions with extraordinarily large budgets and organized community outreach programs. In the Bay Area, these organizations include the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), a subsidiary branch of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA); and the local chapter of the Jewish Community Federation (JCF), which operates under the umbrella of the Jewish Federations of North America\u00a0(JFNA).<\/span><\/p>\n The JCRC and the JCF both receive substantial funding from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, which has also funded\u00a0MOCHA.<\/span><\/p>\n The fund, based in San Francisco, is a major donor to arts, science, social justice and Jewish organizations around the Bay Area across the political and cultural spectrum. MOCHA received $30,000 in grants from the Haas fund in 2011 (<\/span>Recent grantmaking: The Arts<\/span><\/a>,\u201d Walter & Elise Haas Fund website, accessed 9 September\u00a02011).<\/span><\/p>\n However, a program coordinator with the Walter & Elise Haas Fund told The Electronic Intifada that their staff had talked to the museum about possible public concern with the exhibit, but that the art show \u201cwas their decision and their funding was not in any way jeopardized with their doing\u00a0it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pam David, the executive director of the Haas Fund, declined to comment for this\u00a0article.<\/span><\/p>\n John Patchner, communications director for the East Bay Community Foundation \u2014 which has awarded tens of thousands of dollars in grants to MOCHA over the years \u2014 told The Electronic Intifada that they had \u201cnot been contacted by anyone in connection with the cancellation of the exhibit and we\u2019re currently seeking additional information from the Museum of Children\u2019s\u00a0Art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But there are many other foundations that support MOCHA. And in August at least one pro-Israel online campaign encouraged the general public to directly contact MOCHA funders, and published a list of various foundations, in a bid to cancel the children\u2019s art\u00a0exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\nStretching Israel\u2019s siege from Gaza to\u00a0Oakland<\/h3>\n
<\/a>The censored drawings were created through local children\u2019s mental health initiatives in Gaza immediately following <\/span>Israel\u2019s attacks in the winter of 2008-09<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, during which approximately 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, were\u00a0killed.<\/span><\/p>\nMajor donors: \u201cFunding was not\u00a0jeopardized\u201d<\/h3>\n