This is a collection of artwork created by children living in the Palestinian Territories’ Gaza Strip. It recently went viral after the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland, California, cancelled an exhibition originally scheduled to open on September 24.

According to the museum, the show, entitled “A Child’s View from Gaza”, was called off because the works could not be displayed in manner accesable to the entire community. Or something like that. You can read MOCHA’s full release for yourself.

A very quick backgrounder on the Gaza Strip: According to the CIA World Factbook, the 40km by 10km territory is one of the most-densely populated places on Earth. 1.7 million people are packed into what advocates often describe as the world’s largest prison. The median age is 17.7 years. Israel has kept Gaza’s borders locked since June 2007. “Fighting between HAMAS and Israel during December 2008-January 2009 resulted in the near collapse of most of the private sector, extremely high unemployment, and high poverty rates,” the CIA’s website states. That conflict also left an estimated 1,500 Palestinians dead, 50,800 displaced, and 4,000 homes destroyed (as well as killing 13 Israelis).

So we won’t let kids in California see crayon drawings of what Gaza’s children experience with their own eyes.

I wonder what the little artists back in the Strip were told.

These images have been widely republished across the internet. For this post, they were collected from an article at Straight.com.