The exhibit, originally scheduled to run through June 30, compares racism and hate faced by the Asian, black, and Jewish communities historically and in Seattle and was a project in the making for over a year. The Wing Luke Museum, the Black Heritage Society of Washington State and the Washington State Jewish Historical Society had all been working together to plan and launch the exhibit.
It was based on the New York Historical Society’s 2022 exhibit "Confronting Hate" and augmented based on rising hate crimes in Washington and was in the works well before Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The boycott focused on a panel in the exhibit which showed the Herzl Ner Tamid Synagogue on Mercer Island after it had been vandalized by anti-Israel activists. The panel from the Jewish Historical Society read, "Today, antisemitism is often disguised as anti-Zionism."
The panel noted how the phrase which was spray painted on the synagogue, "Stop the killing," was in spririt to the idea that "the Jews of Mercer Island could control the actions of the Israeli government."
The panel also stated, "On university campuses, pro-Paleostinian groups have voiced support for Hamas (which is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government) and a Paleostinian state stretching ’from the river to the sea,’ a phrase defined by the erasure of Israel."
The anti-Israel activists posted their demands to a recently created Instagram account called wlm4palestine on Thursday. They have demanded that the museum remove any language that attempts to frame "anti-Zionism as antisemitism." They also insist on a "community review" of the exhibit, for the museum to "acknowledge the limited perspectives presented in this exhibition," and focus on "voices that align with the museum’s mission & values," meaning those of the Paleostinian, Moslem and Arab communities.