Protesting a Childrens Museum: Meca vs. Mocha

Protesting a Childrens Museum: A tale of two protests.

The Friday Protest:

Protest MOCHA's Cave-In
Friday, Sept. 23 at 3 p.m. Outside MOCHA, 538 Ninth St. near Clay, Oakland
(a few blocks from the 12th St.-City Center BART).
For more information, go to info@araborganizing.org
or call (415) 861-7444.
*For our Muslim brothers and sisters observing Friday Jum'ah, a lecture and prayer will be held at 1:45pm. It will led By Imam Suhaib Webb @ Lafayette square park (on 10th st between MLK and Jefferson st) (Off the 12 st bart station)

Sponsors: Afghans for Peace · Al Awda · American Muslims for Palestine · Arab Cultural and Community Center (ACCC) · Arab Film Festival · Arab Resource and Organizing Center · Asian Law Caucus · BAYAN USA · Bay Area Women in Black · Birthright Unplugged · Black Alliance for Just Immigration · Catalyst Project · CODEPINK Women for Peace · EastSide Arts Alliance · International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network- Bay Area · International Socialist Organization · Israeli Committee Against House Demolition · Middle East Children's Alliance · Nor. Cal. Friends of Sabeel · Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) ·Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) · San Francisco Women In Black · SuhaibWebb.com · US Palestinian Community Network · Zawaya

And Saturdays Protest.

This one is the Potemkin Protest, the one specifically orchestrated for the public:

“A Child’s View From Gaza,” an art exhibit by Palestinian children ages 8-14 that reflects their realities and their dreams for the future.
Saturday, September 24, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Opening Reception will go on as planned!
September 24, 1-3pm 538 Ninth Street, downtown Oakland
Join us in the courtyard outside of MOCHA as we hold an opening celebration of the exhibit. In addition to the art, the opening includes:
Poetry by Deema Shehabi and Lorene Zouzounis
Edible art by The Great Tortilla Conspiracy
Special art activities for children
If you can volunteer, please contact sophia@mecaforpeace.org -- we need folks to help us hold the artwork.
And due to the last minute cancellation of this exhibit, MECA is working on securing another location so communities will have an ongoing opportunity to see this censored artwork. Stay tuned for details!
Since this is a celebration of the art and the children in Gaza who created this work, we want to keep the focus there; we kindly ask you NOT to bring your own signs to this event. Thanks
***********

Generally, the anti-Israel groups on the streets of San Francisco do not attempt to regulate the message of their protest, with hate speech and anti-Semitism overlooked and ignored.


But you can't have that in a well orchestrated publicity stunt, can you?

Protesting a Childrens Art Museum: MECA to MOCHA " Scorn us and Suffer"

In folklore, the vampire can not enter your home unless you invite him in. Now the Museum of Children's art in Oakland is experiencing just a taste of what happens once you let the vampire across your threshold. Lets hope other municipal institutions learn from their example, and never open their door, not even a crack, to the haters of Israel.

Our story continues:

Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance has called for a weekend of revenge against the Museum of Children Art in Oakland. Her compassion towards children doesn't extend to the children of Oakland, apparently. Her announcement follows:

The board of directors of Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art cancelled “A Child’s View from Gaza,” a long-planned exhibit of Palestinian children’s drawings. The Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Federation of the East Bay openly claim credit for forcing the MOCHA board to cancel the exhibit.
Protest MOCHA’s Cave-In
Friday, Sept. 23 at 3 p.m.
Outside MOCHA, 538 Ninth St. near Clay, Oakland
(a few blocks from the 12th St.-City Center BART)


The Bay Area and Oakland in particular are known for our diversity and commitment to free expression and social justice. We will not be censored. The show must go on!
Family-Friendly Grand Opening: “A Child’s View from Gaza”
Saturday, Sept. 24, 1-3 p.m.
Join us for art, music, poetry, and food to celebrate the
the opening of the exhibit outside MOCHA at 538 Ninth St.
near Clay, Oakland.

Note that the first protest is called for after Mocha is closed. Barbara knows that the displayed pictures will upset children - she know that video of upset children and parents will simply reinforce to Mocha that they made the right decision. You can't have that.

The second protest is "Family Friendly"- does that mean that the offending pictures wont be shown? Does that mean Barbara knows her original display was not "family friendly"?

Rev. Jack Shriver of the first Presbyterian Church in Oakland has offered to host the drawings. He is no stranger to controversy, having hosted the notorious "Never Again" tour several months back. So the "art" of the Children of Gaza has a venue, now. Barbara Lubins vendetta against the Museum is motivated simply by the need for revenge and her own personal intolerance.

The jury's still out on the influence of adults in the creation of this art. Its been suggested the children were told to model their drawings after Carlos Latuff.



What do you think?

The Museum of Childrens Art in Oakland: The Controversy Continues

The controversy has not ended.


Here's yet another one of the "controversial" pieces of children's art from Gaza, that was originally scheduled to be displayed at the Museum of Childrens Art in Oakland, sponsored by MECA, the Middle Eastern Childrens Alliance. Maybe I'm being cynical, but why would children in Gaza print in English, unless they were being specifically coached to create a display for western consumption? If the claim that this art was created as part of a "psychosocial program that uses the arts and creative expression to help children in Gaza recover from trauma", why would they have children write in a language they were unfamiliar with?

Additionally, its recently been disclosed that Khalil Bendib, a cartoonist with a history of using classic anti-Semitic imagery had been commissioned to entertain and educate children at the MOCHA exhibit. Short of Carlos Latuff, I couldn't imagine a worse choice. And yet, "Jewish" Voice for Peace, oblivious as usual to the overt anti-Semitism and Jew baiting of this exhibit, has signed on as a co-sponsor.

Cecilie Surasky of JVP at the oxymoronic "Muzzlewatch" blog printed several of the pictures, consciously cherry picking art that excluded anti-American, anti-Semitic imagery .

Interesting enough, a previous exhibit of Palestinian children's art was shown in Berkeley in 2002, at La Pena, as part of a nationwide anti-Israeli tour. The art contained such universal messages of peace and brotherhood as "Death for Israel," "From North to South it's only Palestine" and "Bloodshed is the language of Israel."

Further controversy emerges from our friends at Fresnozionism pointing out the remarkable sophistication of the drawings, and questioning MECA's claim that they were drawn by children 9-11

"I showed them to a professor of Art at a local university. Here is what she said about them:

The paintings (color drawings) are highly sophisticated especially in relationship to detail. Did you see the barbed wire? Also, there is a carefully drawn Star of David in each work. The authenticity of the painting is remarkable for a child’s hand. The drawing of the planes and helicopters, the man in the tower, the dynamic brushstrokes that are well conceived and controlled all seem to project a more mature approach to art. Could these “children” be in their late teens, college age, or young adults [MECA says they were 9 to 11 years old]? According to the the quote, “much of the artwork was produced by children.” I wonder how “much”? Also, it is possible that the “children” were directed by an adult who supervised and perhaps completed the initial drawing."



Cecilie, we are all sure that you and Barbara and the entire Al Awda/ AROC cru will be exploiting this for as long as you can. Its not over yet.


UPDATE:
No, its not over. An ultimatum has been delivered to MOCHA by the "Israel is always wrong" folk. They are threatening a protest of MOCHA, and will show the "art" one way or another, either inside or out on Sept 24 from 1-3.

An Open Letter from MOCHA: The Museum of Childrens Art in Oakland

After much discussion and introspection the board of the Museum of Children's art cancelled the proposed exhibit of "art" from Gaza. Their explanation follows:


September 12, 2011

Open letter to the MOCHA community:

The Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) was founded as a place where children from all backgrounds could come together to make and celebrate art. MOCHA provides a safe place for children to express themselves through art, and produces programs that are intended to foster insight and understanding.
Our gallery is a multiuse space. Every week, hundreds of children utilize the space for drop-in art, school field trips, birthday parties, camps, and other events. Most children that visit MOCHA are between the ages of 5 and 9, and many children enter our gallery without the supervision of their parents.
With the exhibit A Child’s View from Gaza it was our intent, as it is with all our exhibits, to foster insight and understanding. We understand that, sadly, violence is a part of many children’s lives, and we remain committed to showing artwork that depicts the diverse realties of childhood across the world.
However, as an organization that serves a large and diverse community, we tried to balance this with the concerns raised by parents, caregivers and educators who did not wish for their children to encounter graphically violent and sensitive works during their use of our facility. MOCHA is a facility that must be accessible for our entire community. Although we worked to develop a way to separate the most violent images in the exhibit from our main studio spaces, we ultimately came to the conclusion that MOCHA is not currently set up to effectively accomplish this.
Recognizing this, the MOCHA Board of Directors decided to cancel this exhibit. It is important to note this was not a judgment of the art itself or related to any political opinions. The Board determined that MOCHA simply did not have the space or staffing to accommodate the exhibit in a way that both respected the gravity of the material and our mission to serve all children.
We regret that we did not make this determination earlier. Our next step will be to thoroughly evaluate our exhibit policy so that we can ensure all exhibits—including those of a violent or sensitive nature—are handled in a way that promotes constructive dialogue and ensures that children and adults of all backgrounds feel comfortable visiting MOCHA. We will be developing this policy in the next month, and will then invite all of our partner organizations, including the sponsors of A Child’s View from Gaza the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) to participate in our exhibits in keeping with this policy.
This experience has reminded us, yet again, of the power of children’s voices and visions and of the unique role that art can play in our community. We remain committed to ensuring that art, in all its forms, remains a vibrant part of our lives.

Respectfully,

Hilmon Sorey
Chair, MOCHA Board of Directors
board@mocha.org