Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at Brandeis University

Brandeis University, located in suburban Massachusetts, has somewhat unexpectedly found itself at the center of the debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After the university decided to pull a bloody one-sided pro-Palestinian art exhibit that had been displayed on the campus, Israel supporters cheered while anti-Israel radicals came out to demonstrate.

Was Brandeis correct to shut down the artwork? New guest contributor "Mini-Me", a student at the university (and a familiar name on this site thanks to his many fine reader comments), checks in with a first-hand report:

The past few days have been quite interesting here at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. For those who have not yet heard, Brandeis has recently been in the news as a result of the administration's decision to pull an art exhibition entitled “Voices of Palestine,” ending the scheduled two-week exhibition just four days in. The exhibition was not organized by the University, but rather by Lior Halperin, a Brandeis sophomore who is both Jewish and Israeli. To set the scene: the artworks were located in the school’s library, not in the on-campus prestigious Rose Art Museum. Also, because this was simply a class project, and not a school sponsored event, the exhibition, consisting of seventeen paintings by Palestinian children, was not publicized on campus. For this reason, neither I nor most other students actually saw the paintings in person. However, in an article by the Boston Globe’s article, three of the works are detailed as follows:

"A bulldozer menaces a girl with ebony pigtails, who lies in a pool of blood. A boy with an amputated leg balances on a crutch, in a tent city with a Palestinian flag. A dove, dripping blood, perches against blue barbed wire."

According to the article, shortly after the works were hung Brandeis received up to a dozen complaints, and school officials reacted by taking down the art. Brandeis official Dennis Nealon explained the reasoning behind the University's actions: “It was completely from one side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we can only go based on the complaints we received…'People were saying: (a) what is this; (b) what is it trying to say; and (c) should there be some sort of balancing perspective here?"

While the majority of the student body is oblivious to the situation, some who are aware staged a protest on Saturday, which approximately fifty students attended, insisting the artworks stay. Art critic Tyler Green, one of those against removing the exhibition, stated on his Modern Arts Blog: “Memo to university officials: Art does not equal journalism. An art exhibit is not a newspaper story. It is not required to present ‘both sides’ of a story.”

I couldn’t disagree with him (or the views of the protesting students) more.

While I agree that artwork does not need to tell both sides of a story, I do strongly feel that an academic institution is responsible for telling both sides of a story. Brandeis, however, does not have in its possession paintings by Israeli children that depict Palestinians violently hurting or killing Israeli children. Consequently, Brandeis feels that it wouldn't be appropriate to display the Palestinian artwork without also exhibiting the opposing (Israeli) viewpoint.

When a university displays an art exhibition, the contents of the exhibition reflect upon the school. Brandeis is a Jewish-sponsored college. A Palestinian art exhibition that depicts children being tortured by Israeli soldiers not only distorts the truth, but it runs in contradiction with the beliefs at the basis of the school's origin and establishment. If Brandeis does not wish to be associated with the contents of such extremely politically-charged artwork, it should certainly have the right to pull the exhibition.

Halperin has since lent the 17 paintings to an Arab student organization at MIT, which plans on displaying them in the near future.

My Memo to MIT: Keep Em!

TheSolidSurfer.com comments: Mini Me, thank you for the excellent report and analysis. I fully agree with you - the Palestinian artwork is not a mere presentation of the Palestinian "side", but a blatant distortion of the truth that entirely contradicts Brandeis's founding values. Furthermore, presenting only one perspective of the conflict is quite dishonest intellectually, and I'm glad to hear the administration has had the good sense to recognize this. Now that Brandeis has made it's decision, I hope MIT goes even further and throws the art in the trash!