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<h1><b>Brandeis pulls artwork by Palestinian youths
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<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/05/03/brandeis_pulls_artwork_by_palestinian_youths?mode=PF" eudora="autourl">
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/05/03/brandeis_pulls_artwork_by_palestinian_youths?mode=PF<br>
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</a></font><h2><b>School says show was one-sided</b></h2><font size=3>By
Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | May 3, 2006<br><br>
A bulldozer menaces a girl with ebony pigtails, who lies in a pool of
blood. A boy with an amputated leg balances on a crutch, in a tent city
with a Palestinian flag. A dove, dripping blood, perches against blue
barbed wire.<br><br>
Palestinian teenagers painted those images at the request of an Israeli
Jewish student at Brandeis University, who said she wanted to use the art
to bring the Palestinian viewpoint to campus. But university officials
removed the paintings four days into a two-week exhibition in the
Brandeis library.<br><br>
University officials said the paintings depicted only one side of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Lior Halperin, the student who organized
the exhibit, said the university censored an alternative view.<br><br>
Now, Brandeis is embroiled in a debate about how to portray Palestinian
perspectives on a campus where 50 percent of the students are Jewish and
where passions about the Middle East run deep. Six to a dozen students at
the Waltham university complained about the paintings, which were hung on
Wednesday and removed Saturday.<br><br>
The controversy occurs at a sensitive time for the campus, which has
angered some students and Jewish groups with the appointment of a
prominent Palestinian scholar and with a partnership with Al-Quds
University, an Arab institution.<br><br>
''This is outrageous," Halperin said yesterday. ''This an
educational institution that is supposed to promote debate and dialogue.
Let's talk about what it is: 12-year-olds from a Palestinian refugee
camp. Obviously it's not going to be about flowers and
balloons."<br><br>
Halperin said she is working with an Arab student organization at MIT to
display the 17 paintings there, as early as tomorrow.<br><br>
Brandeis officials said they wanted to make sure the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is presented in a balanced manner.<br><br>
''It was completely from one side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
and we can only go based on the complaints we received," said Dennis
Nealon, a Brandeis spokesman. ''People were saying: (a) what is this; (b)
what is it trying to say; and (c) should there be some sort of balancing
perspective here?" Nealon said that the university would consider
displaying the artwork again in the fall, alongside pieces showing the
Israeli point of view.<br><br>
Brandeis, a nonsectarian institution, was founded in 1948, by American
Jews seeking to establish a university free from the quotas that Jews
faced at elite colleges.<br><br>
Halperin created the exhibit as her final project for a class called
''The Arts of Building Peace," which explores how music, painting,
and poetry can help resolve conflicts. She contacted a friend who works
in a refugee camp in Bethlehem and asked her to invite teenagers there to
paint images of Palestinian life.<br><br>
Halperin, 27, an Israeli Army veteran, received images of planes dropping
bombs, snakes, and a famous scene of a father and child cowering from
gunfire near Gaza City in September 2000. In her ''Voices from
Palestine" exhibit, she hung the paintings near the names and photos
of the young artists and synopses of their hopes and dreams. A
Palestinian psychologist and a child-care worker spoke at an opening
reception.<br><br>
''This was, for me, an opportunity to bring to Brandeis the Palestinian
voice that is not spoken or heard through an Israeli or an American Jew,
but directly delivered from Palestinians," Halperin said.
''Obviously, that was just too much for Brandeis."<br><br>
Within days, students complained to the university that the exhibit was
jarring and lacked context and reference to the Israeli point of
view.<br><br>
Dmitry B. Vilner, 19, a sophomore, said he found it ''utterly ludicrous
to find these hung up with no explanation." Vilner said, ''I was
very surprised that it would appear at Brandeis, because Brandeis is a
traditionally Jewish, pro-Israel campus."<br><br>
Vilner and his roommate, Alan D. Meyerson, 19, e-mailed an administrator
to ask why the exhibit was on display. ''There's a certain line that's
crossed when it no longer becomes a fair debate, but it becomes a
one-sided attack against a nation and a people," Meyerson said,
''and that was very much the case with these images."<br><br>
Last weekend, administrators in charge of student affairs decided that
the paintings should come down, with the support of Daniel Terris,
director of the university's International Center for Ethics, Justice,
and Public Life. The center sponsored Halperin's class. ''If students are
reacting in a strong and negative way, with no context and no structure
to have a meaningful conversation . . . you can do more harm than
good," said Terris, who said he asked Halperin to voluntarily take
the paintings down. ''I advised her that I thought it was undermining the
long-term goal of making more space for Palestinian voices on
campus."<br><br>
On Saturday evening, after Halperin refused to stop the exhibit,
administrators removed the artwork, provoking an immediate response.
Students said they circulated e-mails debating whether the decision was
about censorship, sensitivity, fairness, or cowardice.<br><br>
''I would like to think of my university as a place that is open to
discussion, and I see art as one of the purest forms of discussion we can
have," said Aaron Voldman, 19, a freshman who is Jewish and active
in a student peace group. ''As we are members of a Jewish institution,
where the Israeli support is very strong, the conversation is not quite
as open as it possibly could be."<br><br>
Ralph Ranalli of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael
Levenson can be reached at
<a href="mailto:mlevenson@globe.com">mlevenson@globe.com</a>. <br><br>
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