The Museum of Children's Art was scheduled to display the art from Sept. 24 to Nov. 13. The exhibit had been in the works for several months, with an opening reception to feature poetry and special art activities for children.

The drawings in the exhibit were created by children ranging in age from about 9 to 11 and included bombs dropping, tanks and people getting shot.

They are pictures of what these children experienced. It's their experience, said Barbara Lubin, executive director of the Middle East Children's Alliance, which was organizing the exhibition.

Museum officials notified Lubin on Thursday that they were pulling the plug on what had become a controversial exhibit that was pulling the children's museum into the long-standing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

It had become a distraction to the main objective of bringing arts education to all children, said museum board member Randolph Bell.

The pressure was ... well, we were getting calls from constituents that were concerned about the situation, Bell said. We don't have any political stake in this thing. It just became apparent that we needed to rethink this.

The complaints came from Jewish groups as well as others in the community, board members said.