Book Review: ‘A Child’s View from Gaza: Palestinian Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship’
By Annie Robbins at Mondoweiss
As a resident of the Bay Area I was looking forward to attending the opening at Mocha. The free exhibit, co-sponsored by nearly twenty local organizations, featured special activities for children and families, including a cartooning workshop and poetry readings, and was sure to be attended at full capacity. Meca's frequent events, as well as raising funds for the Maia project, Plant-a-Tree in Palestine, and Playgrounds (to name a few) are always an opportunity for our local Palestinian solidarity activist community to unite and greet friends. I had already made plans with a couple of friends to commute. The news Mocha was under pressure to close the show right before the opening startled the community to the core and we rallied with letters to the museum expressing our support for the show. Then, as fast as you can say 'censored' we found out the exhibit was off...it was as if a lead hammer had descended and slammed the door shut once again. The overwhelming revulsion at the swift closure still sends chills down my spine, it reached the East Coast in a nanosecond and quickly spread to Europe and the Middle East.
A Child's View From Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship presents a step by step, page by page account of the unfolding drama. Walking us through events, told through the voices of participants, citizens and activists, the book is a testament to the sheer will and determination of MECA and the global solidarity community that guaranteed the show must and will go on. Palestinians will be heard, we will be their witness because the truth is being exposed.
The amazing art of Palestinian children that documents the horrors they experience and know all too well is included in the book of course. This is the same art that terrifies the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Federation of the East Bay, the art that screams out in raw unfiltered expression. Page after page after page....buy it and support for The Middle East Children's Alliance, be a witness.
My appreciation knows no bounds. more
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