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Thursday September 27, 2007

Palestinian imagery stays in mural — but commission orders it toned down

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

A quintet of surly, kaffiyeh-wearing Arab figures bursting through a fissure shaped exactly like the state of Israel may seem out of place alongside elements of Latino pride.

It also may seem out of place on 24th and Capp Streets in the heart of the Mission District. But following a unanimous Wednesday, Sept. 19 vote by San Francisco’s Arts Commission, the colorful mural will be there for years to come.

The commission approved a modification of the existing image, which has graced the wall of a city-owned parking lot since July.

Following complaints at that time from the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League, Jill Manton, the program director for the city’s public art program, realized that the mural did not exactly resemble the sketch approved by the Arts Commission.

“This wasn’t something insignificant like adding an extra flower. By the City Charter, this needed to be returned to the arts commission,” she said.

Nancy Hernandez, the youth program coordinator for HOMEY, the organization that created the mural, claimed she presented the commission with text indicating a desire to reference “Iraq or Palestine” on the right side of the mural — but no sketch of how that might appear.

A month of meetings with the JCRC, ADL, Jewish Voice for Peace, Arab-American groups and myriad artists produced the compromise approved by the city: The kaffiyeh draped over one person’s face will be altered so the mural will portray a woman wearing the kaffiyeh as a headscarf and the Israel-shaped chasm will be removed in favor of a blue sky.

The commission’s approval followed a round of public commentary, featuring much vitriol directed toward the JCRC and ADL and multiple accusations that the Arts Commission was engaging in “censorship.”

Lily Haskell, a self-described “Arab working in the Mission” casually chided the commission for “being bullied by racist Zionists.”

Marta Martinez, a San Francisco student, induced a round of head-nodding and approving murmurs when she claimed that the very same company that erected Israel’s security barrier was building the U.S.-Mexico fence. While no one mentioned it at the meeting, this is an oft-repeated canard: In actuality, the American subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit Systems has been subcontracted by Boeing to provide high-tech cameras for the U.S.-Mexico barrier.

“These comments reinforce the polarizing, divisive elements we were worried about” in the mural, Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the JCRC, told the crowd.

“This is exactly why we had our original concerns.”

The JCRC still endorsed the revised edition of the mural, albeit not enthusiastically.

“One of our major concerns in the future is that things don’t get this far down the road with public art, so the best we can do is come up with a compromise that no one is particularly happy with,” said Kahn.

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the ADL, was also less than thrilled with the revised mural.

“I still believe it has an ostracizing affect,” he said. “It does on me.”

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