Palestinian Children’s Exhibit
Draws Ire in Michigan
The Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library board has asked staff to reconsider its exhibit policy in the wake of complaints about a month-long display of politically charged artwork by Palestinian children living in Jerusalem. Arranged by University of Michigan student Hiba Ghalib on behalf of the Ann Arbor Muslim Students’ Association and other groups, “Innocence Under Siege” consists of 24 drawings and two essays that Ghalib characterizes as expressing “what the children see, hear, feel, and hope.”
Several people representing local Jewish organizations have complained to officials. Jeff Levine of the Jewish Cultural Center in Ann Arbor said in the May 16 Ann Arbor News that the library was “duped into becoming a pawn in a propaganda war.” But Alan Haber, a Jewish member of the Interfaith Council’s Middle East task force, told the paper that American Jews “are afraid to look at what is going on,” adding that the Israeli destruction of Palestinian orchards is “contrary to Jewish ethics.”
Among the images is a woman holding a bleeding man who is lying in front of a wrecked building and a Palestinian flag.
Posted May 21, 2001.
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