Photos by Kamal Moon

Sandra Whitehead, Milwaukee Muslim Journal, Sep 20, 2024

“Together we have demonstrated our community’s courage to stand up for what is right,” said Ihsan Atta, who commissioned a mural displayed on his building in Milwaukee to protest against Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

“Murals are one of the most prevalent public forms of art you can find in Milwaukee,” writes WUWM 89.7 FM reporter Nadya Kelly. In the second part of the series Reflections of Representation, posted Tuesday, she notes, “They transform blank walls into canvases that can … comment on local issues and express the values and dreams of the greater Milwaukee community.” 

Kelly’s article coincidentally ran while controversy brewed over a mural on a building in Milwaukee’s Harambee neighborhood that highlights the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

The owner of the building displaying the mural, Ihsan Atta, a Palestinian American from Milwaukee, commissioned the art to bring attention to the crisis in Gaza. It draws comparisons to the Holocaust, inflicted by the Nazis on 6 million Jews, by incorporating a Swastika into the Star of David, imposed on images of destruction in Gaza, with the statement: “The irony of becoming what you once hated.” 

The mural drew ire from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation last week, a rebuke from the Milwaukee Common Council Saturday and several incidents of vandalism. It was praised by leaders of the Milwaukee chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and other members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, an interfaith coalition of 85 organizations promoting peace and social justice, and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

WCJP held a press conference Monday to draw attention to the backlash against the mural, and the hampering of the free expression of those calling for an end to the Israeli military’s devastating destruction of Gaza. In addition to WCJP member organizations’ representatives, local community members spoke to the half dozen media representatives covering the press conference.

A vigil marking a year of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza with be held at 7 p.m., Oct. 8 at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, 4707 South 13th Street, Milwaukee, WI, United States. 

The mural’s message

Rachel Buff, co-chair of WCJP and co-founder of Milwaukee’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, told reporters the mural’s message is not antisemitic. Rather, it is anti-Zionist, she said.

 Jewish Voice for Peace co-founder Rachel Buff noted news stories often leave out views from a growing population of anti-Zionist Jews. (Click on image to watch video.) 

WCJP co-chair Janan Najeeb, president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, said its message is “anti-genocide.” 

Atta called it, “Pro-humanity.” Its main mission is to raise awareness of the brutal destruction happening currently in Gaza, Atta said. 

Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaigns in Gaza have killed more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, a number widely understood to be incomplete, and forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes since Oct. 7. The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the real death toll will reach more than 186,000 people, according to a July 5 article in The Lancet, a leading medical journal.

Israel launched a devastating bombing campaign in Gaza after Hamas militants implemented a surprise attack in Israel. The militants broke out of Gaza, an area human rights organizations have called “an open-air prison” because Israel restricts the movement of people in the small enclave. More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 253 taken into captivity, according to the Israeli government.

Local Milwaukee news stations, CBS 58, Fox 6, WISN 12, TMJ4, and Spectrum News were present at the WCJP’s press conference in front of the mural that was vandalized twice. (Click on image to watch)

Atta praised Riverwest neighborhood resident Michael Gauthier, who at his own personal risk, stepped in to stop “an angry man equipped with a hammer” from destroying the mural. 

“I am not an activist,” Gauthier explained. “But I guess this is one of those questions of do what you can when you can.”

Riverwest neighborhood resident, Michael Gauthier, saw criminals destroying the mural on private property and stepped in to stop them at his own personal risk. (Click on image to watch Gauthier’s speech)

“On my way home from work the other night, I saw some criminals destroying this mural. I understood what the artist was trying to do and I was definitely in favor of freedom of artistic expression and freedom of political speech. Even if I had disagreed with it, which I didn’t, I would’ve stopped to do the right thing when there are criminals destroying someone’s property in front of me … I did it for a world where we can engage in political speech. I want to live in a world where we can express a political statement about what’s happening in Gaza right now without bringing violence down upon ourselves,” said Gauthier.

Jewish leaders against Zionism

WCJP co-chairs Najeeb and Buff both called on the media to listen to Jewish leaders who call for a ceasefire in Gaza and justice for the Palestinians. “We have quite a few Jewish organizations in WCJP,” Najeeb noted. “It concerns us when we read headlines that say, ‘Jewish leaders are outraged’ (by the mural). There are tons of Jews who are part of this movement for liberation because they believe that that is really what their Judaism is all about.”

“I don’t want to brag,” said Buff, “but I’m a Jewish leader. When there’s something happening in the community like this, that’s very controversial and polarizing, no one from the media calls Jewish Voice for Peace—Milwaukee. No one from the media talks to anti-Zionist Jews, and there are more and more of us. Studies show that most Jews under 40 do not see Israel as a necessary part of Judaism … You need to talk to anti-Zionist Jews. 

“We’ve been out here for a year, protesting the worst thing I’ve ever seen—the images coming out of Gaza and the West Bank. And somehow, this gets routinely tossed aside. I think most Americans, if you ask them, would not know what’s still going on because it’s not in the headlines.” She appreciates the media who came to the conference, she added.

“It’s been a real difficult year and it’s going to continue to be real difficult going forward until we end this, until we free Palestine, until we get the real meaning of the Star of David back so that it is not associated with the swastika as it has been for so many Palestinians.”

What’s next?

Atta said he has asked the artist to create another mural for this space (he anticipates it to be done this week). The mural that was here will be reproduced and displayed in another space, less accessible to would-be vandals, he said. Atta pledged to keep replacing the mural for as long as it takes.

Other community members will continue to support the Palestinians, said Alan Chavoya, the outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Race and Political Repression. “The people in this neighborhood continue to fight back (against repression) and to stand with the Palestinians, joining our two struggles.

“We’re going to continue to demand an end to U.S. aid in Israel,” said Alan Chavoya, the outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Race and Political Repression.  (Click on image for video of full speech.)

“It’s up to those of us here in the United States from the different movements we represent to continue to come together in quick fashion and stand up for our freedoms, our liberation struggles and to stand up for Palestine. We are going to continue to demand an end to U.S. aid in Israel.”

“If the Common Council, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and “anyone else so bothered by the mural wants it removed, I did offer them an option,” Atta said. “If they truly believe in justice for all and if they are willing to acknowledge and condemn the genocide that’s taking place and to call for a ceasefire, I would be willing to consider not re-installing that mural.”

“The swastika is a symbol of division, hatred and violence,” said Munjed Ahmad, Islamic Society of Milwaukee board member. “That is exactly why the artist who created the mural associated the swastika with the blue Star of David.” (Click on image to watch full speech)

“Get the real meaning of the Star of David back so that it is not associated with the swastika as it is for so many Palestinians,” said Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine co-chair Janan Najeeb.  (Click on image to watch video)

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Press Conference in Milwaukee on Swastika and Star of David Mural

Sandra Whitehead

Sandra Whitehead is an educator, nationally award-winning journalist and author of Lebanese Americans, published by Marshall Cavendish. She is blessed with a loving family–her husband Abdulaziz Aleiou and three children, Ali, Aisha and Adam.