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August 22, 2003
Seeing both sides
Letters
Editor: After viewing the exhibition of artist Carel Moiseiwitsch
– Life in Occupied Palestine – at the grunt gallery in
Vancouver, we feel compelled to react by writing this letter.
Carel Moiseiwitsch is a strong, gifted artist, who has always expressed
her political views through powerful images. However, this time
we were disturbed by the clear, one-sided view of the exhibition,
which portrays only half the truth, painting the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in stark black and white. The Middle East is a very complex
and complicated place, where there are no saints and where all sides
end up being victims. Its history of hatreds is long and tortuous
and both protagonists have reasons to claim their rights.
There are several works in this exhibition of Red Crescent ambulances
being stopped and searched at checkpoints, implying an infringement
of human rights. Perhaps the artist is unaware of the discovery
of a booby trapped corpse in a similar vehicle in the not too distant
past, which puts the search in a totally new light.
Perhaps the artist is also unaware of the fact that Palestinian
school books are filled with virulent incitement against Jews, reminiscent
of Nazi propaganda and showing maps of the Middle East with no trace
of Israel. We mention this in response to the hateful comments in
the exhibition attributed to Israeli soldiers.
Just for balance, we'd like to invite the artist to a pizza parlor
in Tel-Aviv or Jerusalem, to experience the harrowing aftermath
of the senseless slaughter of innocent children and bystanders.
Perhaps such an event would arouse her sense of justice and encourage
her to document the bloodied and mangled bodies of babies and young
Jewish children, thus portraying the whole tragedy of the sad place
which is the Middle East.
These are just some thoughts which are needed for balance and sanity.
Demonizing one side while victimizing the other is not going to
solve the problems.
People with good intentions, like Moiseiwitsch, see only one side
of the picture. By highlighting and victimizing the Palestinian
people without examining the reasons behind the brutalities of war,
they only end up promoting more hatred and prolonging the agony.
Pnina Granirer and Rina Vizer
Vancouver
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