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This Week's Featured Case EDIT PAGE Artist: Conflict Kitchen Year: 2014 Date of Action: November 7, 2014 Region: North America Location: Pittsburgh Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Religion Medium: Mixed Media, Performance Art, Public Art Confronting Bodies: Conservative pro-Israel groups Description of Artwork: Conflict Kitchen serves food from countries with which the United States is in conflict. The Incident: From October 2014 Conflict Kitchen has been serving Palestinian food. The food wrappers contain texts drawn from interviews with Palestinians in both Palestine and in Pittsburgh. Conservative pro-Israel groups called these texts "anti-Israeli messages." A spokesman at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh criticized the restaurant, saying that the Palestinian territories are not "in conflict" with the United States. Furthermore the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith International publicly expressed their "deep concern" to Heinz Endowments, which is a financial backer of Conflict Kitchen. Their president, Grant Oliphant, wrote that "[Heinz Endowments] emphatically does not agree with or support either the anti-Israel sentiments quoted on Conflict Kitchen's food wrappers or the programme's refusal to incorporate Israeli or Jewish voices in its material." On November 7th Conflict Kitchen received death threats. Results of Incident: Conflict Kitchen closed down for 5 days due to the death threats. Support for Conflict Kitchen, including a public-organised rally, grew as a result and in response to the threats and accusations. Source: Pittsburgh restaurant receives death threats in 'anti-Israel messages' furore, The Guardian, Martin Pengelly in New York, Sunday 9 November 2014 12.29 EST Pittsburgh’s tiny Conflict Kitchen wades into the sprawling Israeli-Palestinian debate, The Washington Post, By Jessica Contrera November 14, 2014 THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS, (Conflict Kitchen website) What is Censorpedia? Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture. It is aimed at those researching censorship, at activists working for freedom of expression and at artists and other cultural producers whose expression has been subject to censorship or attempted censorship. Censorpedia documents censorship incidents by providing the who, what, when, where and why. By providing a repository of information about what is vulnerable to censorship and about the strategies and tactics that have defeated previous’ censorship attempts, Censorpedia aids the fight for free expression. Researchers can search for a specific case, year or keyword using the search box, as well as browse by medium, by grounds for censorship, or explore a random case. Activists can search for ongoing cases or contribute a case that is ongoing or recently resolved. Artists and cultural producers are similarly invited to add cases they are directly involved with or are familiar with first hand. Censorpedia builds on the landmark 1994 art project The File Room, initiated by Muntadas. For more information about censorship visit our Annotated Bibliography Feel free to: add a case Browse censorship cases by: medium grounds for censorship region all cases ongoing cases random case Censorpedia Terms of Use