There’s outrage from group working to combat antisemitism
By Kristin Pierce | WISN | September 12, 2024
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The outside of a building on the corner of Holton and Locust streets used to display a mural of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman shot and killed by Louisville Metro police in 2020.
The popular Milwaukee mural has now been replaced with different art that’s causing outrage.
“It's a hateful, harmful mural,” said Rebecca Fine, associate director of StandWithUs, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to combat antisemitism and educate the public about Israel. “This mural is an insult to Holocaust survivors and their descendants.”
The new mural shows the Star of David intertwining with a swastika. It reads, “the irony of becoming what you once hated,” seeming to connect the genocide during the Holocaust with the genocide happening in the Israel-Hamas war.
According to Israel, Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel. According to the Health Ministry, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
“This mural doesn't solve anything,” Fine said. “I view this as anti-Israel. I am also pro-Palestinian. I don't want anyone to suffer, but the symbol is antisemitism.”
The mural also displays bombed-out buildings, women wearing head coverings holding children, an empty swing set and planes flying in the air.
“There are ways to bring communities together and to talk about the Palestinians suffering without minimizing the Jewish suffering, the Israeli suffering, the Holocaust suffering, and this isn't it,” Fine said.
The owner of the building, Ihsan Atta, gave a statement to WISN 12 News saying, “The purpose of the mural is to bring attention to the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people. People claiming it is offensive fail to acknowledge the Star of David is on the aircraft, tanks and munitions killing innocent civilians. Critics always want to conflate Zionism with Judaism. If they want to do that I would ask if they are offended when the country they pledge allegiance to and people that identify as being of their faith are intentionally killing civilians, denying them medicine, food and water or torturing and raping civilians? People who want to suppress the truth and not condemn the atrocities being currently committed are not credible or moral people whose opinions I care about.”
Read the full article here.
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