Islamophobia from Milwaukee Common Council

On September 14, the Milwaukee Common Council waded into the public controversy surrounding a mural on the corner of Holton and Locust. This mural depicts images from the genocide in Gaza behind the image from the Israeli flag merging into a swastika with the message “the irony of becoming what you once hated.”

We are not trying to revisit the many fraught conversations inspired by this mural, but rather to observe ways that the mural became another site of Zionist violence against Milwaukee’s Muslim and Palestinian community. We have written about Milwaukee’s pro-genocide backlash in the past. Most Milwaukeeans involved in Palestinian solidarity are primarily focused on the people suffering under Israel’s bombs, rather than their local experiences. We admire and support their work. At the same time, we feel it is important that Islamophobia and violence not become normalized and acceptable within the city of Milwaukee. 

That is why we are examining the statement. Did Common Council knowingly give the local perpetrators of Zionist violence a tacit green light to continue acting against Milwaukee’s Palestinian, Muslim, and allied communities? There is evidence they did. 

The backstory

On Wednesday, September 11, Ishan Atta, the owner of the building on the northwest corner of Locust and Holton put the mural up. It was met with robust media coverage, denunciation, and conversation throughout Milwaukee’s community. At night, vandals splashed black paint on the mural, but due to anti-graffiti coating, the paint was easily cleaned off. On Saturday, 14 of 15 Common Council members released their statement, and that evening, the 15th member, Alderperson Lamont Westmoreland released his own statement also calling for the mural to be removed. 

That night, two men attacked the mural in the middle of the night with hammers and crowbars dismantling and removing most of it, before being confronted by (and threatening) a neighborhood resident. On Monday, September 16, Atta, the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, Milwaukee Jewish Voices for Peace, and the local neighbor who confronted the vandals held a press conference defending the mural, and responding to critics. 

The Statement

Much of the language in the common council statement is the kind of vague, unremarkable stuff you might expect from a liberal response to controversial subjects and events. They argued that “hurtful, divisive words and images” are “not the way to move people in a positive direction” and requested Atta “take it down in a spirit of healing.” In addition to this vagueness, the mural included two paragraphs deserving greater scrutiny. That section:

“This same mural was vandalized within the past 36 hours. While calling on all to respect private property and First Amendment rights, it is also important to call out those who import symbols of

division, hatred and violence to our community, and then act surprised when they are not welcomed with open arms. 

Some people look for any excuse to wave a swastika. It has long been a symbol of intolerance and hatred, designed to psychologically injure and oppress those who are different. To see it displayed on the streets of our city is sad, distressing, and disheartening.”

The first of these paragraphs is a public statement by government officials excusing criminal acts. They acknowledge that the vandals with the paint violated Atta’s rights, but then say that Atta should have expected this violation. They reframe and minimize his property being attacked as him “not being welcomed with open arms.” This is how government officials build a permission structure for hate crimes, which then occurred with the more brazen attack that very night. 

By saying “some people look for any excuse to wave a swastika” the Common Council is defaming Atta. To suggest that a Palestinian, someone who’s family is being bombed in Gaza is just looking “for any excuse to wave a swastika” is absurd. The mural was clearly inspired by the violence and aggression of Israel. It is explicitly drawing a comparison between two historical genocides, and denouncing them both. 

Obviously, the Nazi holocaust and the Israeli genocide are not the same. The duration, intensity, and methods are all very different, but, what the mural highlighted is aligned motives. Israel’s actions are best explained as pursuing the elimination of Palestinians from Gaza. In the time since the mural was dismantled and the conversation it sparked died down, Israel’s actions continue to bolster the mural’s claim. Israel murdered the people they could have negotiated peace with (Yahya Sinwar, Hasan Nasrallah).They blew off US diplomatic overtures for ceasefire, repeatedly. They engaged in novel forms of terrorism and expanded their invasion into southern Lebanon. They target hospitals, a war crime they initially vociferously denied, but now routinely commit. 

Milwaukee’s Common Council appears incapable of recognizing the humanity of Palestinian people in this statement. Their only concern is with the feelings of Zionists, the memories of atrocities that occurred decades ago, not the present genocide Israel conducts daily with US military support. Beyond this statement, the Milwaukee Common Council has been completely silent on the genocide in Gaza. Ceasefire resolutions passed in the county board and the state Democratic Party, but nothing has even been introduced in Common Council. 

Behind the statement

Milwaukee Beagle filed an open records request to all Common Council members about the drafting of this statement. The response has been incomplete. As of this writing, more than 30 days after we submitted the request. The offices of Spiker, Dimitrijevic, Burgelis and Bauman acknowledged it, but only Burgeilis, Spiker, and Dimitrijevic responded, and they, only partially. This information provides few insights into the origin of the statement, which likely occurred during in-person or phone conversations that were not documented or captured by the alders’ response to our request. 

From what was released, we were able to learn something about how the worst parts of this statement came to be. The first draft came from the office of Milele Coggs, whose district the mural is in. That draft included the following language: 

The mural also shows bombed-out buildings, women wearing head coverings holding children, and drones flying in the sky above.

In our view, this mural pours gasoline on what has become a very tragic, bloody and complicated war in Israel and Gaza. We also firmly believe that we should avoid trying to compare human tragedies to score some kind of ‘points’; it can be true that BOTH the Holocaust and the war in Gaza are horrific events that have claimed far too many innocent lives.

Spiker, one of Milwaukee’s more conservative alders, suggested edits to modify, but not remove this language. One of his emails reads “MC isn’t returning my call. Please advise that the gasoline reference concerns me because of the arson, etc. that vigilantes may decide is the best course of action. I want nothing to do with that. -SS.” This reveals, first of all, that the drafting process included phone calls and discussion that escaped our information request, and second, that concern about vigilante violence against Atta was part of that conversation. 

Later, all of the language describing the war, expressing concern, or even acknowledging the existence of Gaza and Palestinians was removed and replaced by the two paragraphs described above. Our record request also revealed that those paragraphs–the ones defaming Atta and excusing attacks on his business–were added by Alderperson Jonathan Brostoff. 

This is not the first time Brostoff has shown that support for genocide and erasure of Palestinian lives trumps his supposed progressive reputation and antiracism. Through informal conversations with Brostoff’s childhood friends, constituents, and colleagues, we know him to be belligerent, aggressive, and staunchly pro-Israel, especially after October 7, 2023.  

Brostoff and 12 of 15 alderpersons have failed to reply to our record request at all. We don’t expect any of them to speak frankly about the conversations that happened without email documentation, but it is not a wild guess to think Jonathan Brostoff forcefully insisted on the removal of Palestinians from this statement, and the inclusion of a permission structure for violence against Milwaukee’s Arab and Muslim community. Whether he bullied them or not, every member of the Common Council who signed this statement should be ashamed of it. 

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