A majority of Milwaukee’s Common Council on Saturday condemned a new mural in the city’s Harambee neighborhood that equated a swastika with the Star of David, calling its messaging “hurtful and divisive.”
The mural is on private property at the corner of East Locust and North Holton streets and depicts a swastika superimposed on the image of the Star of David.
Inscribed around the image are the words: “The irony of becoming what you once hated,” in all capital letters, suggesting that Jewish people were causing a new Holocaust in the Israel-Hamas war.
A woman vandalized the mural with black paint on Friday, but by the afternoon, most of the paint had been wiped away.
Milwaukee council members called for the building owner to remove the image.
“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,” according to the statement issued Saturday.
“To see (the image of the swastika) displayed on the streets of our city is sad, distressing, and disheartening,” the statement added.
Ald. Milele Coggs, who represents the area where the mural is located, was one of the 14 council members who signed the statement.
District 5 Alderman Lamont Westmoreland was the only council member who did not co-sign the statement. In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Westmoreland said he had not been given the opportunity to have input on the joint statement and issued a statement of his own on Saturday night.
“I’ll never serve as a rubber-stamp for the words of others,” he said. “My attempt to have input was disregarded. … If my perspective isn’t asked for or included, count me out.”
“That said this issue is simple. The mural … has offended many, opened up mental wounds for some, and created division and hatred within our community. As such, it as no place being displayed as it currently is.”
“While I don’t believe the intention was to upset or offend, it has done just that.”
Westmoreland urged the building owner to offer a different version of the sign.
Ihsan Atta, who owns the building hosting the mural, has defended the image in previous interviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The mural replaced a well-known painting of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police.
Atta, who is a Palestinian-American, told the Journal Sentinel he wanted to raise awareness about Israel’s devastation in Gaza, which he considers to be genocidal and akin to the Holocaust. He said he filed a police report after Friday’s vandalism.
A woman named Sara Ninham was interviewed by WITI-TV (Channel 6) on Friday and said she had vandalized the mural because she did not like seeing the image of a swastika.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation released a statement Friday stating that the mural was the latest in a “staggering uptick in antisemitic rhetoric and misinformation.”
Drake Bentley of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
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