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Thursday, March 21, 2019

03/21 Links Pt2: Trump says time has come for US to ‘recognize Israel’s sovereignty’ over Golan; The Anti-Semitism Apologists; Israel Ranks 13th in Annual UN ‘World Happiness Report’

From Ian:
Trump says time has come for US to ‘recognize Israel’s sovereignty’ over Golan
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the time has come to “fully recognize” Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in another monumental shift in US Mideast policy by his administration.

“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!,” Trump tweeted.

Following the announcement, Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Trump by phone to thank him. “You made history,” his office quoted him telling the US president.

Netanyahu also put out a tweet welcoming Trump’s statement.

“At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you President Trump,” he said.

Though Trump said it was “time” for action, it was not clear that his statement constituted official recognition.

On Wednesday, Israeli and US officials had said they expected an announcement on US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan could come next week.

Trump’s tweet came just hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was joined by Netanyahu for a visit of the Western Wall, the first time that Washington’s top diplomat has visited Jerusalem’s contested Old City accompanied by a senior Israeli official. (h/t NormanF)


A Purim Message from the White House (h/t Jewess)





From sorrow to simcha: Israeli gives birth 23 years after terror attack
23 years after Dana was seriously injured in a terrorist attack on Purim, to the day, she gave birth to her son at the same hospital in which she was hospitalized.

Dana was 15 years old when she was heavily injured during a terrorist attack at Dizengoff Center on Ta'anit Ester, 1995. She went to celebrate Purim, but came out in an ambulance headed for Ichilov Hospital. She went through rigorous hospitalization and treatments before gradually being released.

Now at age 37, on the same day that she almost lost her life, Dana has instead brought one into the world at the very same hospital to which she was carted away all those years ago.

"When I was wounded, I did not know what life was awaiting me," Dana said. "I went through a long rehabilitation and today, I know that this is it, I won."

"I am in an insane euphoria from the wonderful gift I received: to bring life the day I almost lost mine," she continued. "I hope that my story will bring hope to those who were also injured, so that they may remember that life goes on and we can go back and have full, good lives. I wish all of the people of Israel a happy Purim from over here in the maternity ward of Ichilov."
Crowdfunding effort for family of slain rabbi races towards NIS 2 million target
An online crowdfunding effort for the family of Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, who was killed in a West Bank terror attack at the beginning of the week, reached over 60 percent of its NIS 2 million ($555,000) target by Wednesday evening.

Nearly 5,000 donors, giving amounts from tens to thousands of shekels, quickly raised NIS 1,211,720 ($335,652) for his wife Tamar and their 12 children.

An IDF soldier was also killed in the stabbing and shooting attack, and another was injured.

The charity drive, hosted on the jgive.com website, was organized by the Eli Charity and Grace non-profit group, an organization which provides welfare services for needy families in the Eli settlement where Ettinger, 47, lived.

While noting that state welfare services were caring for the family “at present,” the organizers wrote on the fundraising web page: “We want to take care of the future.”
Scholars who support BDS are denying academic freedom to students
Pitzer College professor Daniel A. Segal appeared unaware of the irony when he penned an op-ed in January for Inside Higher Ed in support of the Pitzer faculty’s right “to lend support to the Palestinian struggle for equality.” In his op-ed, Segal, a proponent of academic boycott, divestment and sanctions, suggested Pitzer president Melvin Oliver was attempting to stifle academic freedom when Oliver rebuked the Pitzer faculty for their November vote to end the college’s exchange program with the University of Haifa.

However, Segal neglected to mention a key message in Oliver’s statement: “To deny Pitzer students who want to study at the University of Haifa the opportunity to study abroad and to enter into dialogue and promote intercultural understanding at the altar of political considerations is anathema to Pitzer’s core values.”

Last week, members of the College Council at Pitzer voted to suspend the exchange program, but Oliver rightfully refused to implement the recommendation. In his message to the university, he stated that an academic boycott “sets us on a path away from the free exchange of ideas, a direction which ultimately destroys the academy’s ability to fulfill our educational mission.”

Demanding academic freedom for themselves and their fellow boycotters but denying it to their students is a common refrain among those who support academic BDS. Yet they also seem unaware of the abounding irony of their actions.
John Podhoretz: Licensed to Ilhan
If what Ilhan Omar says she believes about the Jews were true, she would be sitting in a Twin Cities living room in deserved obscurity, left to rot there by the very conspiracy she claims is so powerful. If the Jews were indeed “hypnotizing the world,” as Omar claimed in 2012, then Israel wouldn’t be the subject of more hostile United Nations resolutions than every other nation on earth combined. And if moneyed American Jews were so powerful that they could successfully suppress views hostile to Israel, she wouldn’t ever have gotten to Washington in the first place.

The fact that Omar is in Congress at all is testimony to the monstrous falsity of her despicable slanders. But she did not get there alone. This was made evident by the shockingly aggressive posture within the Democratic Party against censuring Omar for spreading and defending hostile views about a minority group. For that is what Jews are, of course. We make up less than 2 percent of the population of the United States. We are, it would seem, the only minority group in America that it is permissible to criticize as a group—at least as far as the progressives who are coming to dominate the Democratic Party are concerned.

Jews who support Israel have had a pending appointment in Samarra with the Democratic Party for decades—ever since Jesse Jackson electrified the left wing of the party with a 1984 candidacy that featured him calling New York City “Hymietown” even as he accepted security assistance from Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. The Jackson moment may have seemed like an outlier, and it was, but it also slowly injected a new kind of anti-Semitic radicalism into the party bloodstream. That radicalism resurfaced in 2012 at the Democratic convention when a seemingly uncontroversial mention of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was greeted with loud boos and required three votes to be included in the party’s platform.

Ilhan Omar’s views, and the startling and depressing obeisance they have been granted by the leaders of her party in the House and Senate, spring from these parasitic weeds that are attaching themselves to the Democratic Party root. They are a sign of the implicit progressive rejection of the very melting-pot ideals that have allowed American Jews to be both Americans and Jews. In slandering us, Omar and her ilk slander America.
The Anti-Semitism Apologists
Not all of Omar’s constituents are pleased about this. As one told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “Is she just going to blurt every thoughtless, bigoted, agenda-derailing thing that pops into her head and then conduct the Fifth District’s business in the middle of that toxic cloud?” Another constituent wrote to the New York Times: “As a longtime resident of Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, and as someone who voted for Ilhan Omar, I now have some advice for her: Sit down, keep quiet for a while and learn your job. I don’t want to see your picture or any article about you in the New York Times again until the news is about something substantive like … umm … legislation.”

They are right to be concerned. But their view is not prevailing. Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, actually defended Omar. When asked during a CNN Town Hall at the South by Southwest conference if she believed Omar’s statements were anti-Semitic, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (another presidential aspirant) hedged: “Well, let’s look at the bigger issue here . . . as members of Congress and people in this country making sure we can have open dialogue about our foreign policy.” When pressed again about whether or not Omar’s specific statements were anti-Semitic, Gabbard doubled down: “There were people who expressed their offense at these statements. I think what Congresswoman Omar was trying to get at was a deeper issue related to our foreign policy. . . . We’ve got to be able to have that openness to be able to have that conversation.”

If this is the new standard, then every racist thing Donald Trump has ever said about immigrants is immune to criticism because he can claim he was just encouraging “openness” and “conversation.” As Dean Phillips, a fellow Democratic freshman (and moderate) from a nearby Minnesota district lamented to Politico, “suddenly an entire party is being branded by the perspectives of two of its members [Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] who represent 1 percent of the caucus.”

That’s how narratives work. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party—including anti-Semitic Omar and her defenders—has succeeded in reverse-mentoring their elders. And unless Nancy Pelosi regains her senses and quietly identifies and supports a primary challenger for Omar in 2020, the Democrats risk making the “different experience in the use of words” of anti-Semites like Omar a permanent stain on their party.
Liberal Group MoveOn Calls For 2020 Democrats to Boycott AIPAC
The liberal activist group MoveOn is urging 2020 Democratic contenders to boycott this year's AIPAC policy conference, saying the pro-Israel group verges on Islamophobia.

"It’s no secret that that AIPAC has worked to hinder diplomatic efforts like the Iran deal, is undermining Palestinian self-determination, and inviting figures actively involved in human rights violations to its stage," said Iram Ali, campaign director at MoveOn Political Action, in a statement to Politico. Ali also said the call should "give a clear insight to 2020 candidates on where their base stands instead of prioritizing lobbying groups and policy people who rarely step outside of D.C."

So far, no candidates have said whether they will attend or boycott the conference, which begins this Sunday. But Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) are scheduled to appear at the conference, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many Republican lawmakers.

MoveOn is calling for the boycott after a poll in which three-quarters of its respondents supported the move. In the poll, MoveOn members were told to respond to a number of statements accusing AIPAC of opposing former President Barrack Obama's Iran nuclear deal and of pushing "anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while giving platforms to Islamophobes."

MoveOn spokeswoman Anna Zuccaro said the boycott only applies to this year's conference, but Democrats should be ready for more pressure from MoveOn in the future.


Seth Frantzman: Ilhan Omar accused of supporting AIPAC after critiquing Assad
US Representative Ilhan Omar tweeted support for the Syrian people who revolted against the regime of President Bashar Assad on Friday. In response she was accused of supporting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the CIA, and was slammed for her views by pro-Assad activists and online trolls.

Omar, a critic of Israel who has spoken out against US foreign policy, tweeted that “the people of Syria revolted against Assad’s repressive dictatorship eight years ago today, demanding a more just and free government. Peace loving people around the world stand in solidarity with them in this struggle.”

In response, Omar faced harsh critique on Twitter by well-known activists who are critical of the US or support the Syrian government.

“Ilhan, you claim to oppose AIPAC but on Syria you’re in lockstep with them. Israel wanted war with Syria, they backed AlQaeda, as to annex the Golan heights,” wrote PartisanGirl, who has more than 100,000 followers.

“The CIA is very much in agreement with you,” wrote another man named Enrique.

She was also critiqued by several Kurdish voices for her previous support for the Turkish government.

“What about those war crimes and ethnic cleansing?” Pir Kurdi asked, a reference to Turkey’s role in Afrin after its 2018 operation when hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled.


Bernie Sanders Posts Facebook Video of Supporter Praising Him for Accusing Israel of Apartheid
A prominent social justice activist and Bernie Sanders supporter recently praised the Democratic presidential candidate for accusing Israel of apartheid.

Shaun King, a promoter of the Black Lives Matter movement, social media activist and writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project, told a group of Sanders supporters that the senator had always spoken out for unpopular causes. He pointed to Sanders’ criticism of Disney and Amazon’s business practices, and then said, “Even today, he speaks out against apartheid-like conditions in Palestine even though it’s not popular.”

A video of King’s speech was posted to Sanders’ official Facebook page, in effect endorsing his comments.

Sanders has sparked controversy in the past with Israel-related comments.

Earlier this year, Sanders slammed an anti-BDS bill in Congress, saying, “It’s absurd that the first bill during the shutdown is legislation which punishes Americans who exercise their constitutional right to engage in political activity.”


Wexton (D) Defends Omar: Trump, Foreign Governments ‘Trying to Divide Us’
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D., Va.) has been defending Democratic colleague Ilhan Omar against charges of anti-Semitism, saying that the Israel-obsessed freshman lawmaker is a "victim" of smears from "foreign governments that are trying to divide us," according to recent video from a town hall event.

Wexton came to Omar's defense in response to questions from a concerned Jewish constituent during an event held Sunday at the Goshen Post Elementary School in Aldie, Virginia.

The constituent described the rise of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party, prompting Wexton to offer a defense of Omar that implied "foreign governments" are responsible for the attack on the freshman representative, who has repeatedly and unabashedly made anti-Semitic remarks.

"I'm a Jewish American, and I'm very concerned about the amount of rhetoric we're hearing coming out of Congress," the constituent said, according to video of the event. "I expect this anti-Semitism from the extreme right, but I don't expect it from the extreme left. As a long-term Democrat, I'm very concerned that this party is walking away from me."

In what could be a shot American pro-Israel organizations that have mobilized to condemn Omar's remarks, Wexton tells the constituent that Omar is being attacked by "foreign governments."
CSU to Acknowledge ‘Zionism Is an Important Part of’ Jewish Identity in SFSU Case
The California State University (CSU) agreed to a settlement on March 20 that includes them issuing a statement acknowledging Zionism’s importance to Jewish identity.

The case, Volk v. Board of Trustees, involved two San Francisco State University (SFSU) Jewish students, identified as Liam Kern and Charles Volk, alleging that SFSU and the CSU Board of Trustees engaged in anti-Semitism against them when SFSU prevented the campus Hillel from participating in the campus’ “Know Your Rights” fair in February 2017. Kern and Volk also alleged that the university failed to effectively respond to anti-Semitic incidents on campus. These would constitute as violations of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, Kern and Volk argued. They were represented by The Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn LLP.

According to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Journal, CSU will issue a statement stating that it will protect the rights of all students at SFSU, including Jewish and pro-Israel students, and will acknowledge that “for many Jews, Zionism is an important part of their identity.”
Africa's top university considers academic boycott of Israeli institutions
Africa's top university, the University of Cape Town (UCT), is mulling an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

The university's Senate, which is predominantly made up of academics, voted in favor of an motion to academically boycott Israeli institutions. The decision was passed in the Senate by a small margin of 62 for, 43 against, with 10 abstentions.

According to a university statement, "the University of Cape Town Senate took a resolution in favor of a proposal for UCT to not enter into any formal relationships with Israeli academic institutions operating in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as other Israeli academic institutions enabling gross human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The Senate resolution, which passed at a meeting held on 15 March 2019, will be considered by the university Council when it next meets on 30 March 2019," it said.

The Council is the university's top governing body and decisions made there are ratified into university policy.

On Wednesday, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) slammed the UCT Senate resolution and called on the Council reject the motion in its upcoming meeting.
Canary Mission Honest Trailers - IfNotNow




Former ISM activist medic reappears in BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ show
Robinson of course did not bother to provide his listeners with that relevant background information before introducing another doctor.

Robinson: “Well listening to that is an orthopaedic surgeon all too familiar with these sorts of injuries. He works at the al Shifa hospital. He’s Dr Mahmoud Mattar and he’s at the United Nations in Geneva today to hear what the UN Human Rights Commission will have to say. […]

Once again Robinson promoted the BBC’s chosen framing:
Robinson: “The Israeli military say that they often fire into the legs of protesters but that they only do it as a last resort and they do it to avoid killing people. Explain to us what the impact of the injury you treat and see is, please.”

After Mattar had described the injuries and the difficulties faced by hospitals trying to treat large numbers of patients (but without clarifying that the hospital where he works is run by the same terror organisation which organises the violent rioting), Robinson again gave an inaccurate portrayal of the past year’s events along the border.

Robinson: “The human toll is terrible but what do you expect from the commission because clearly Palestinians will say they have a right to protest peacefully but Israel will say if you approach the border you are a risk to the Israelis on the other side of the border and they have repeatedly warned that people who do approach the border may well be shot.”
MEMRI: What President Trump Needs To Do In The Fight Against Anti-Semitism – Create A New U.S. Office To Document And Combat It
I have spent most of the past two decades involved with near-daily monitoring, researching, and translating of venomous anti-Semitism emanating from the Middle East media, and studying how it has now – thanks in part to social media – spread across Europe and to the U.S. Nevertheless, what happened on October 27 at the Tree of Life-Or L'Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood was unimaginable – and very close to home.

The Police Department Zone 4 Station, two blocks away, that dispatched first responders minutes after the shooting began, is where one of my grandfathers served for decades as a sergeant. Throughout my youth, I attended Tree of Life Hebrew and Sunday school three times a week; what I learned about Jewish history and anti-Semitism remains with me to this day. I have never forgotten one teacher, a Holocaust survivor, who spoke to each class about how she as a child, along with her family and the rest of the local Jewish community were rounded up like animals and sent to concentration camps. At the end of her talk, she rolled up her sleeve to reveal to us the numbers branded on her arm by the Nazis.

Tree Of Life Attack – A Possible Dark Turn Towards Normalization Of Europe-Style Anti-Semitism In the U.S.

The Tree of Life attack, which comes against the backdrop of the rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks throughout the West, may signal a dark turn towards the emergence, and normalization, in the U.S. of the type of violent anti-Semitic attacks like those in Europe. A survey released December 2018 of Jews in Europe – the most extensive ever conducted – found that anti-Semitism is now not merely "pervasive" but has become "disturbingly normalized." Hundreds of respondents said they had experienced a physical anti-Semitic attack in the past year.

In France, beatings and murders of elderly Jews, even Holocaust survivors – by assailants shouting "Allahu Akbar" – have been joined by explicit anti-Semitic elements in the current Yellow Vest protests, with President Macron widely being called "whore of the Jews." Protestors are now routinely targeting Jewish businesses and figures; the French government recently announced a 74% rise in the number of anti-Semitic attacks in 2018. In Germany, yarmulke-wearers have been beaten, and others have had Stars of David ripped from around their necks. Some 1,646 anti-Semitic acts were reported there last year – a 10-year peak. In the U.K., over 100 anti-Semitic incidents are recorded every month, and a hate-crimes inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is underway. U.K. Jews – including in Scotland – as well as in France and all across Europe, are considering, or even planning, emigration.
Jewish vendor, son stabbed by Egyptian colleague at Amsterdam market
A Jewish father and son were stabbed at an iconic street marketplace in Amsterdam by an Egypt-born seller whom they and others said was a radicalized Muslim.

Martin Colmans, the father, and son Sharon sustained light to moderate injuries in the attack Saturday at the Albert Cuyp market, where the Colmans family has been selling furniture for decades. Sharon Colmans, whose mother is from Israel, was injured in his back, chest and arm, and suffered serious blood loss. Both have been released from the hospital.

A police spokesperson told De Telegraaf that they have no comment about the assailant’s alleged motives.

Known locally as Tarik, the alleged stabber has been selling hookahs and other smoking paraphernalia adjacent to the Colmans’ furniture shop since 2004. The stabber, who has not been named in the Dutch media, is under arrest awaiting an indictment.

Martin Colmans told De Telegraaf that the suspect had been away for several months, and that when he returned his behavior had changed. He said Tarik was “reading the Koran a lot, stopped talking to us. Shaved his head. Prayed all the time. He also began giving us nasty looks.”

He had threatened a fellow seller, a Moroccan man who is not Jewish, with a knife recently, sellers told De Telegraaf of Tarik.
Holocaust denier picked as congressional candidate in Spain
A far-right party in Spain has nominated a Holocaust denier as a congressional candidate.

Vox tapped Fernando Paz, a historian, this week to run in the city of Albacete, in the central part of the country, in the April 28 national elections for parliament, the Libertad Digital news site reported Wednesday.

Paz has said the facts concerning the Holocaust are “far from having been established with accuracy” and called the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals a “farce.”

In December, Vox became the first far-right party in decades to enter a regional parliament by winning 12 seats in Andalusia, far surpassing expectations.

On Wednesday, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain condemned the Paz nomination.

“In any European country where justice was served in connection with this traumatic episode of history, it is unthinkable that such a person with such views would present himself for pubic office,” the federation’s statement read.
New York store fires employee who made anti-Semitic comment to Jewish co-worker
A health food store in southeast New York has fired an employee days after he made anti-Semitic comments and actions towards a Jewish colleague.

The worker at Mother Earth’s Storehouse in Ulster, New York, turned the light off in the produce cooler and told an employee named Sarah “you’re in the gas chamber,” then called her a “f**king Jew.”

Sarah’s mother, Jackie Winder Shabanowitz of Kerhonkson, New York, wrote about the March 11 incident in a Facebook post on Friday. She also wrote that “Sarah went to management, they told her not speak about (it), removed her from produce which she has been for a year, and put her on the register. The coworker was forced to apologize but still has his job in produce. On Wednesday, the coworker harassed her again to which she reported to management.”

Two days after the second incident, the store posted an apology on Facebook and said that the employee had been fired, writing: “The Management of our Kingston store would like to apologize to our community for the upset that has occurred. The situation has been handled and the employee is no longer employed by us. We have never, nor will we ever tolerate hate. We were conducting an investigation.”
Documentary on 'Fiddler' set for worldwide release
A documentary film about the famed Broadway show and movie Fiddler on the Roof is set to hit theaters this summer.

On Wednesday, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions announced that it had picked up the film, titled Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles for worldwide distribution.

The documentary, directed by Max Lewkowicz, began production in 2016. It includes interviews with many of those involved in the original Broadway production of the show, including lyricist Sheldon Harnick, producer Hal Prince and actors Austin Pendleton (Motel), Joanna Merlin (Tzeitel), Haim Topol - who played Tevye in the film, violinist Itzhak Perlman and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

"The goal of our documentary is to understand why the story of Tevye the milkman is reborn again and again as a beloved entertainment and cultural touchstone the world over," said Lewkowicz on the film's website. "It's not a simple musical, it's not a fluff piece. It's - as somebody says in the film - it's very complex, and what makes it amazing is that it deals with so many different themes that we as human beings can connect to."

The film traces the beloved musical from its roots in Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish writings to its Broadway debut in 1964, its film adaptation in 1971 and its revivals and stagings around the globe.
Israel Ranks 13th in Annual UN ‘World Happiness Report’
Israel placed 13th in the “World Happiness Report 2019” that was published on Wednesday, the International Day of Happiness.

The annual report — compiled by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network — ranks 156 nations by “how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.”

Israel was 11th on last year’s list.

The top ten happiest countries this year, in order, were Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.

The US came in 19th, down one spot from the previous year.

South Sudan was the least happy country.

The countries that dropped the most spots this year were Yemen, India, Syria, Botswana and Venezuela.
Sheba Medical Center ranked world's 10th best hospital
Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer has been ranked one of the world's 10 best hospitals by Newsweek magazine. The Israeli medical center comes in at No. 10 on the magazine's list.

The famed Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic received the top ranking.

Other hospitals on the list include Singapore General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Berlin's Charité hospital, Toronto General Hospital, University of Tokyo Hospital and Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.

In its report, Newsweek called the medical center in Ramat Gan "a leader in medical science and biotechnical innovation, both in the Middle East and worldwide" and noted it "includes centers for nearly all medical divisions and specialties and serves over 1 million patients per year."

According to the magazine, 25% of all clinical research performed in Israel is carried out at Tel HaShomer's state-of-the-art facilities.






PreOccupiedTerritory: Every Single Purim Costume Is A Microaggression By Amira Woker (satire)
Few Israeli parents give much thought to the societal or political implications of the mask or other attire their children don for this holiday, but that also means few parents realize how problematic that attire is, especially when it appropriates culture, glorifies or romanticizes violence, or otherwise causes offense to marginalized identity groups. This injustice must stop.

Purim costumes might appear innocuous, but to the countless people they hurt, such attire becomes yet another microaggression in the gantlet of a thousand tiny cuts they must negotiate each time they enter the pubic space, or even the internet. You think nothing of putting your child in traditional – some would even say stereotypical – Native American wear, but ignore the cultural appropriation that represents. You buy a ninja costume – some bastardized, inauthentic, commercialized costume made not even in Japan but in China – without considering the insult to the Japanese. Their culture is not your entertainment. Except Haredim. Go ahead and dress like them. Whatever.

Do not allow your child to dress like a soldier, certainly not an IDF soldier, because that glorifies violence and dispossession, not to mention exacerbates the offense to Palestinians; police officers are out, because many minorities have a fraught relationship with law enforcement; no cowboys, because of their role in dispossessing indigenous Americans and their objectification of livestock; and nothing ethnic, you insensitive Nazi.

A clown costume, by the way, is insensitive to those whose parents were murdered by clowns. It’s disturbing that this even needs to be said.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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