Thanks again for directing people towards my writings.

The cartoon you pulled up is a perfect example of the point I’ve made many times before. In attempting to show a symmetry between the Jews and the Palestinians, the cartoonist (and indirectly the publishers of the cartoon) have to lie. These lies do not serve the genuine interests of the Palestinian people.

While there are mountains of evidence for the murdered Jews, there is no evidence for “six million Palestinians ethnically cleansed, dispossessed, mudered, and humiliated. ” The official U.N. refugee count is about 711,000 and their refugee status is generally agreed upon to be caused primarily by the Arab invasion of Israel, and not out of an ethnic cleansing campaign, and only about 40,000 were deported by Israel.

There are real statistics and real facts that people who are truly sympathetic with the Palestinians could and should cite, but people who cite lies care more about creating anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic sentiment than actually improving the plight of the Palestinians.

Sadly he is avoiding the history that other German artists of his generation (Gunter Grass, Heiner Müller, for instance) chose to confront in their work. Someone who is promoting what is essentially right-wing revisionist history of World War II (which I also discuss here and here) shouldn’t be such an icon of the American peace movement.

I’ll definitely be following the story as it develops. Thanks.

Mike

I wrote a great deal about the controversy over last year’s Peter Schumann exhibit on my own blog, which had followed my own decision to dissociate myself from both Schumann and Bread and Puppet for precisely the reasons you cited.

In fact, I discussed VTJP’s website in depth here.

Most importantly, you are absolutely right, this is art that lies; a point I made here.