After being canceled three weeks ago by Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art, an exhibit of drawings by Gazan children has opened in a nearby space. “A Child’s View from Gaza” will be on display through Nov. 13 at 917 Washington St. in Oakland.
The drawings are said to depict the children’s responses to Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 2008-09 military incursion into Gaza to root out Hamas terrorism. A coalition of local Jewish leaders pressed the museum to drop the proposed exhibit, because its members felt the images were too violent and politically complex for young viewers.
According to a Sept. 24 report in the San Jose Mercury News, MOCHA recently offered the Middle East Children’s Alliance, the pro-Palestinian organization behind the exhibit, a chance to reschedule the exhibit but was rebuffed.
Barbara Lubin, executive director of MECA, also said she will travel to Gaza next month to collect new art said to express how the children feel about having their work banned.
The pro-Israel organization StandWithUs/SF Voice for Israel has put up YouTube clips of its activists being denied entry to the current exhibit, and of MECA backers yelling and cursing at them.