Controversial, New Anti-Semitic Mural Defaced
Mural criticizing Israel for war in Gaza includes a Star of David with a swastika at the center.
Swastika Star of David Mural Defaced. Photo by Graham Kilmer.
A controversial mural incorporating a swastika into a Star of David has been defaced.
The mural was painted on the building at 428 E. Locust St., near the corner of N. Holton Street and E. Locust Street. It included images of drones, bombed-out buildings and Palestinian families, along with the words, “The Irony of Becoming What You Once Hated.” At its center is the Star of David, with a swastika painted in the middle.
The mural is a reference to Israel’s sustained assault on Palestine following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack led by Palestine-based Hamas that killed almost 800 civilians. Hundreds of Israeli citizens were taken hostage. The mural compares Israel’s sustained bombing of Palestine to the Nazi-led Holocaust during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced since the war began, and many thousands have been killed.
The building owner, Ihsan Atta, told members of the media the mural was not intended to be offensive. He also said he knows who defaced the mural and will report them to the police.
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation called the mural “horribly antisemitic.”
Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who is African American, compared the experience of a Jewish person seeing the swastika in the mural to one of a Black person seeing a Confederate flag.
The mural was installed in place of a 2020 mural of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police in March of that year while inside her own apartment. Her death was one of many that spurred a year of Civil Rights protests and reforms.
Breonna Taylor Mural
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