WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A Jewish assemblyman said Friday that an exhibit of Palestinian art and crafts, scheduled for a one-day display in a building owned by Westchester County, should be canceled because it is anti-Israel and “promotes terrorism and violence.”
The curator of the exhibit denied the charges, saying that while some of the art deals with Israel’s military presence in the Palestinian territories and “the apartheid-type life that Palestinians are forced to live under … what comes through is the desire for a peaceful life.”
Nevertheless, the county executive is demanding a preview of the exhibit before deciding whether it should be canceled.
The exhibit, scheduled for Nov. 20 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, is entitled “Made in Palestine.” Assemblyman Ryan Karben, a Democrat from neighboring Rockland County, based his objections on artworks from another exhibit, also called “Made in Palestine,” that was on display at the Station museum in Houston last year.
Here’s that Houston exhibit. One painting shows Ariel Sharon ‘in the act of torturing a Palestinian’ — an image right out of the historical anti-Semitic blood libels:
