Over To You, City of Ottawa

It is a costly, full-page advertisement. It is an advertisement that has in its top right-hand corner, a large question-mark. On the left is the question itself, which reads as follows:

Why is The City of Ottawa                                       ?
hosting a display with exhibits memorializing 
those who murdered 35 School Children
and 11 Olympic Athletes

It is a question that surely deserves a reasonable response. The issue at hand is what is termed as an art exhibit. It is an exhibit that features countless photographs of faces of Palestinian men and women being held in Israeli prisons. This is an exhibit whose author Rehab Nazzal, claims honours the memories, the tribulations and suffering of the Palestinian people. Whose land has been occupied by Israelis; whose people have been imprisoned by the legal system of the Israeli government.

The artist-photographer is a Palestinian-Canadian, living in Toronto. She appears to have captured the sympathies of a great many Canadians. Ottawa City Hall has featured this current show of hers which she titled "Invisible", for a rather lengthy showing at the Karsh Masson public art gallery installed at City Hall, paid for by taxpayers. Many of those taxpayers appear to feel that this is a legitimate and useful use of their tax dollars. Many do not agree.

The many who do not agree appear mostly to be Canadian Jews. And the Israeli embassy. The Israeli Ambassador to Canada had a meeting with the Mayor of the city, Jim Watson, to explain precisely what it is that he finds so perturbing about the exhibition. Mayor Watson says he understands, but it is not up to him; a three-person committee selected the exhibition to be shown, and there is also the problem of being taken before a human rights commission should he choose to cancel the art show.

A detail of Rehab Nazzal's wall-sized mosaic of Palestinian prisoners, in her exhibition Invisible at Karsh-Masson Gallery in Ottawa city hall. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)

So he has done nothing other than to have signage affixed prominently that purports to assure that nothing in the exhibit necessarily reflects the opinion of City Hall. The art editor of the local newspaper, the Ottawa Citizen, rejects any charges that the exhibit is not art, but blatant, unalloyed propaganda. Peter Simpson defends the right of the artist, as an artist, to portray any issues whatever as art, to be respected as art.

That full page advertisement appears in the Ottawa Citizen. It appears that there are groups in Ottawa, beyond the relatively sparse Jewish community who feel that the exhibit concerns them, and troubles them, and they have devised this advertisement in a manner that leaves no room for doubt with such statements as the following:

There is no cause that can legitimize
Taking 205 children hostage, killing 22 of them, and gravely injuring 68 others.
Khalid Nazzal was responsible for this atrocity in the Israeli city of Ma'alot in 1974.
                                                                       He is memorialized at Ottawa's City Hall

There is no grievance that can justify
Attacking the Olympic Village, taking athletes hostage, and murdering 11 Olympians.
Abu Iyad was responsible for this atrocity in Munich in 1972.
                                                                        He is memorialized at Ottawa's City Hall

There is no argument that is acceptable
For utilizing public resources to commemorate terrorist like Dalal Mughrabi who
hijacked an Israeli bus in 1978, killing 38 civilians, including 13 children.
                                                                         She is memorialized at Ottawa's City Hall

This exhibit was created by the sister of the mastermind of the Ma'alot Massacre. She presents her work as "portraits of lost artists, activists, writers and leaders".
No mention is made of the lives and families some of these "activists" and "leaders" destroyed. In this exhibit the terrorist violence and its victims are "invisible".
Terrorism can never be sanctioned or glorified as part of legitimate political discourse.
It is disgraceful that the City of Ottawa has not taken all available steps to have this display removed. The City must ensure that it will never again promote such exhibits, and it must unequivocally condemn the terrorism this display seeks to sanitize.

The advertisement was paid for by the following:
Muslims facing tomorrow
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Canada India Foundation
Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime
Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations
Air India 182 - Victims Families Association
Canadian Coalition Against Terror
Vietnamese Canadian Federation
Canadian Thinkers Forum
Return
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Canada
Canadian Crime Victim Foundation
Terrorism and Security Experts of Canada tsec network
Friends of Jesus Christ Canada
Muslim Committee Against Antisemitism
One Free World International