Half the staff at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle have walked out on the first day of an exhibition which they say conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
The museum worked with the the Washington State Jewish Historical Society on its Confronting Hate Together show and the protesting employees say texts within the exhibition ‘attempt to frame Palestinian liberation and anti-Zionism as antisemitism’ and fail to present the voice of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslim communities.
The museum, which is dedicated to the art and history of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, also collaborated with the Black Heritage Society of Washington State on the exhibition which documents examples of hate crimes and prejudice against Jewish, Black and Asian communities around Seattle, and grew out of a local issue in which these communities are pushed out of traditional neighbourhoods by discrimination in the mortgage and loan industries.
Steve McLean, a spokesperson for the museum told the Seattle Times they would work ‘with our staff to address their calls to action’ and that it was open to widening the scope of the show.
