Monday, February 25, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
The uber-Left social media is in an uproar because one of their own has decided that supporting Syria's murderous regime is perhaps not very progressive.
Bluestockings is a bookstore in Manhattan that describes itself as "a volunteer-powered and collectively-owned radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We carry over 6,000 titles on topics such as feminism, queer and gender studies, global capitalism, climate & environment, political theory, police and prisons, race and black studies, radical education, plus many more! "
It was scheduled to screen an anti-Israel film called "Killing Gaza" and follow that with a discussion via Skype with Max Blumenthal who produced the film.
Then it realized that Blumenthal supports the murder of hundreds of thousands by Syrian president Assad, and decided that he is perhaps not as progressive as his anti-Israel credentials would indicate.
In a Twitter thread last night, the bookstore wrote:
We here at Bluestockings want to be very clear on our decision to cancel the Killing Gaza screening the @nycDSA set for March 16. All the love to the DSA, it's clear that there wasn't enough due diligence on both our parts in regards to the film's director, Max Blumenthal.The response has been pretty evenly split between those who love Blumenthal's hate for Israel above all, and those on the far-Left who still have some idea of the difference between right and wrong. (Not with Israel, of course, but I suppose we should praise those who actually agree that killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians is a bad thing.)
As has been pointed out to us over the past few days, Max Blumenthal and many in his camp regularly make a point of retweeting and sharing pro-Assad stances.
This goes from directly mocking Syrian refugees to suggesting that Assad's war crimes are completely fabricated. Which hurts not just the Syrian people but the sizeable Palestinian population within Syria.
The objection to this screening is entirely based on Max Blumenthal and we are in talks with the DSA to screen another film that is made by and centers Palestinian voices in the ongoing conflict against the Israeli army.
Bluestockings is a community space first and we want to make sure that our inclusivity does not come at the expense of Middle Eastern communities and activists.
Here's a subthread where Lebanese journalist Rania Khalek and her friends explain why they are so upset, to a little pushback - but mostly support.
