Artists4Israel responds to Haaretz hatchet job
I suppose it was just a question of time until Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily noticed
Artists4Israel. In the weekend edition,
Haaretz attacked the group that has done so much for so many people here, because they paint in Judea and Samaria. While I cannot get to the article, because like everything else at Haaretz it's behind a paywall (the only things I can get to there are Barak Ravid's reports if I click on them from Twitter), you can get a flavor for it by reading
Craig Dershowitz's response. Full disclosure: Craig and his artists have been guests in our home a couple of times, and when one of our kids saw that I had their blog open, he immediately asked when the artists are coming back again.
At your own words (words you use twice in one sentence - high school
writing 101 mistake), Artists 4 Israel is a "small organization", yet,
you spend a whole half a page above the fold decrying our work. Must
have been a slow news day or, perhaps, there is something more here.
After all, if you are going to give us so much press (PS, thanks for
that), you should at least really make your accusations sting and not
just ridicule our size. Yet, the best you do is describe us as
"right-wing" (again, using that phrase twice - seriously, can we buy you
a thesaurus - maybe the JNF will pay for it) yet your only proof of
this political orientation is that we paint "Pro-Israel" messages. Your
equation then is that "Pro-Israel" is synonymous with "right-wing". We
do not ascribe to a notion of right and left wing as such divisive
politics is an invention of bigots like yourself who choose to separate
and alienate. We choose to unite. We believe that beauty of art is
pan-wing. However we do see your bias through this false equivalency.
Yours is a sad belief which paints (pun intended) everything life
affirming with the gloomy sepia of politrix (typo very much intended).
Spray-paint (I want to write "sic" here but I think it is more relevant
to point out that you don't even copy edit your own work. It is spray
paint - two words, no hyphen) is a form of creation. It is creation,
like the Third Temple might be. It is creation like our paintings in
Judea, Samaria, Tel Aviv, Ariel, Shiloh, Arab villages across Israel,
mixed schools and community centers. We have created art in child
daycare centers, in refuges for battered women and homes for at-risk
children. It is creation like the JNF's planting of trees, building of
parks, growing of flowers, green grass and a hopeful earth-driven
future. It is the opposite of your attempts to destruct and to destroy.
Grab a can of spray paint (hyphenate if you must) or a handful of seeds
and earth and create something other than the fictions in your
reporting. No one can hate life that much so, maybe there is something
else going on here.
Your story's lies go from the wishful (saying we come to Israel to paint
every few months (if only!) to the mundane (there are no videos on our
website) to the slanderous (painting on a "Palestinian's" home never
happened). The only truth in your fable comes from your uncredited
appropriation of a JPR video.
The JPR, unlike you, are serious, investigative journalists. Their
story was timely (aka the "new" part of "news"), their reporters were on
the ground, their sources were primary, their reporting comprehensive
and multi-sided. You couldn't even post the video that matched your
description of it! That is not me speaking on the video. That is SKI, a
member of the UR New York art collective, a New Yorker of Dominican
descent and Catholic beliefs. Yet, you hinted at some sort of racist,
evil religious Jewish plot in our painting of the Temple. That makes no
sense. Maybe there is something more going on here.
SKI's words are precious. He informs everyone (well, except for your
editorial staff it seems) that he is there "spreading the word of peace
through art". Peace. Art. Creation. How dare you respond to such unbridled life affirming actions with destructive lies and hate?
SKI's words are also prescient. Being in Israel to "see the reality - it
is not what you read about." According to your words, Haaretz is "the
world's leading English-language Website for real-time news and analysis
of Israel and the Middle East" As such, it is the monolith of your
bastardized reporting that is creating the misrepresentation of Israel
that SKI had to venture into Hebron to expose.
And, SKI learned the truth well. While bricks and giant rocks were being
hurled at him in an attempt to maim and kill an artist of the world by
"Palestinians", SKI was being treated to watermelon and lemonade by his
new Israeli friends. When a group of stick weilding "Palestinian" youth
tried to ambush SKI, he was saved by an IDF soldier. When SKI asked the
soldier why he wore his helmet in the sweltering heat he was told
because it was too unsafe for him to take it off. SKI learned, even in
the heart of Hebron, a site of so much ridicule from your paper, that he
loves Israel. "this place is amazing. It is this little gem." And, he
hadn't even seen the Tel Aviv beach.
Read the whole thing.
I believe that the second picture in this post comes from the incident involving SKI in Hebron. It's described
here.
Labels: Artists4Israel, Israel's Hebrew Palestinian daily
Artists4Israel stoned in Hebron
I think I was kind of vague about my meeting with Artists4Israel on Wednesday night. I think I said I was
meeting with some representatives. In fact, we had all 18 of them who are here in Israel over for dinner Wednesday night - the second time we've invited an Artists4Israel group to our home. I strategically seated myself among the artists, a couple of whom were laughing about getting stoned in Hebron earlier in the day (and how the IDF soldiers stood around doing nothing - I told them that was because of the lousy
open fire rules under which the IDF operates). I'm happy that the incident ended
without anyone being hurt (Hat Tip:
Zvi S).
Residents of Hebron woke up Thursday to discover their city painted in bright colors. For the past two days 15 artists from the US and Europe have been hard at work painting large-scale graffiti art on bulletproof cement walls, homes, and IDF bases.
Craig Dershowitz, a Jewish resident of Manhattan and the president of Artists4Israel, told Ynet that most of the artists who worked with him on the project were not even Jewish. "We have no political message," he said.
Danny Cohen, Chabad envoy to Hebron, met some of the group members by chance two years ago, when they painted over Sderot, and invited them to the city.
"They had no trouble with the fact that this is Hebron, because these guys have a goal – which I very much agree with – to take places that have a bad reputation, and are associated with fear and chaos, and insert a little color into them," Cohen said.
"The artists themselves are not really interested in politics. They love this country and don't make any distinction between towns inside and out of the Green Line."
Cohen added that the graffiti painted in Hebron was unique and suited to the complicated atmosphere in the city. "We at Chabad Hebron decided that the visit will be devoid of any political persuasion and more spiritual and historical, without the argument between Left and Right – and this suited them," he said.
The artists paid for the flight to Israel while Chabad offered to pay for all of their needs.
"We had to supply some 700 spray cans," Cohen said. "But the city certainly looks different. You cannot but notice the beautiful drawings everywhere."
Actually, I think 700 spray cans covered only Hebron. According to one of the founders, they spent $20,000 on this trip on spray paint alone. And the artists donate their time, but don't pay for the flight - Artists4Israel pays for that too (a ticket is over $1100 from the US right now). So if you'd like to help out Artists4Israel, please go
here.
Labels: Artists4Israel, graffiti, Hebron
Artists4Israel, NYU Students for Israel, Birthright Israel Alumni & Others Invite you to Street Theater, Live Political Art, and Action. Monday, 3/28
For those of you who are able to make it on Monday afternoon....
Hat Tip:
Patti Villacorta's blogLabels: Artists4Israel, Birthright Israel alumni, Bomb Day 2011, NYU Students for Israel
Painting the town red in Ariel
A group of graffiti artists from the New York City area is
here in Israel this week painting up a storm. They were here once before in November, and painted bomb shelters in Sderot and the like. This trip, they're spending a lot of time in Ariel, where they are trying to counteract the
artists' boycott of the new theater there.
An international group of graffiti artists are in Ariel to break what they call "an artistic siege" against the approximately 18,000 residents, in the midst of the national debate over Ariel's new cultural center. "Graffiti writers are used to making art where people tell them not to," says Craig Dershowitz, executive director of the New York group, Artists 4 Israel, which organized the trip.
The group is creating murals across the West Bank city and giving free painting lessons to school children. On the trip, the artists also painted in Sderot, decorated a community center in Jerusalem and did murals at Intel's corporate clubhouse. After an American Thanksgiving dinner hosted for them by Ariel residents, the group will also visit Beit El and Shilo.
Artists also attempted yesterday to document and paint over hate messages on both sides of the wall in the areas of Bethlehem, but while working on the Palestinian side they were approached by Palestinian men who asked them to leave, according to the group. "Graffiti artists are called 'writers," says Dershowitz. "What we hope to do by organizing trips where American, European, Israeli and Arab artists can meet each other is to write a new story. In graffiti, we will write a better future for the whole region."
One of the things this story doesn't mention is that the group found the time to have dinner cooked by Mrs. Carl and our two younger daughters in our home last week, and did graffiti of most of our children's and grandchildren's names while they were sitting at our dining room table! They're an amazing group. Some of them are Jewish, some of them are not. Most of them are from the New York City area and at least some of them got their start decorating New York City subway cars in the 1970's and 1980's.
The picture at the top is a bomb shelter from the first trip in April. I've seen pictures from the current trip, but they aren't up on the website yet. One of them said to me that the importance of what he was doing hit him when he realized the use of the thing they were decorating. Having those pictures to look at should make them less scary for small children.
Those of you who are able to do so should consider a contribution to Artists4Israel. There's more information on how to donate
here.
And yes, we're hoping our house will become a regular stopping point for them on their trips here.
Labels: Ariel, Artists4Israel, Beit El, Sderot, Shilo
