Anti-Semitic Image Posted to Occupy Wall Street Facebook Page, Jewish Group Calls for Removal
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anti-Jewish sentiment anti-semitic image anti-semitic trash B’nai Brith International Dana Balicki Eric Fusfield Facebook antisemitism Facebook OWS Iranian cartoon Israel News Jewish News Kalle Lasn Kalle Lasn antisemitism Occupy Wall Street antisemitism
The Anti-Semitic cartoon posted on an Occupy Wall Street Facebook page. Photo: Facebook.
A highly offensive photo [shown at left] posted Saturday to a Facebook page associated with Occupy Wall Street shows two arms— one of which is tattooed with the Star of David— placed in a sink, hands covered in blood, a bar of soap embossed with “UN” in the left hand. A Jewish group has called on Facebook to remove the image, and an official Occupy Wall Street representative denied affiliation with the page, which appears to be the second largest of its kind boasting over 237K “Likes.”
Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs at global Jewish group B’nai Brith International, starkly condemned the image in an interview with The Algemeiner in calling for its removal. “This cartoon is blatant anti-semitic trash. It’s a play on ancient stereotypes on Jewish bloodlust. It’s part of a larger campaign by Israel’s enemies to delegitimize the Jewish State by portraying Israelis as persecutors,” he said, “This is a way of isolating Israel, making it a pariah state. Facebook should take it down immediately. It should not play a role in the dissemination of hate speech.”
Responding to The Algemeiner’s request for comment, Dana Balicki, an organizer for the Occupy Wall Street movement denied any official affiliation between the moderators of the page and the central organization of the movement, “I have no idea who runs this, I think there are quite a few, at least a dozen pages. Whoever is running it is using their own version of free speech. They are doing it under the name of Occupy Wall Street and that doesn’t mean that any of the photos posted there are endorsed by Occupy Wall Street.” She was also unwilling to condemn the photo. “We are not in the habit of condemning photos, that is not really how we work. There are lots of other spaces online for that conversation, and it is not one that happens on the online community that we are curating.”
The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the image saying, “We are disturbed that this image found its way to an Occupy page. We hope that the administrators of this page will recognize that this cartoon is borderline anti-Semitic, offensive and inappropriate at every level, and that Occupy organizers will make clear that this kind of conspiratorial anti-Semitism is unacceptable and does not represent their movement.”
The picture has already garnered 650 “likes” as well as 88 comments, many of which support the photo’s intent. Here’s one such exchange:
Philippe Colas: Israel is fueling antisemitism. It’s time for the U.S. to stop funding this genocide!
Kassalah Messenger of Allah: Philippe Colas I agree with you
But not all comments were supportive. Others were highly critical of the photo. Brenda Priedon wrote, “This is antisemtic propoganda and very offensive. It does NOTHING towards giving OWS any credibility whatsoever, it just stinks!
The anti-semitic image isn’t the first time the movement has been linked to such offensive images. In April, The Algemeiner reported that a Facebook page claiming to represent Tampa’s Occupy chapter posted an image depicting a Jewish man driving in his car, with President Obama’s head in his right hand, while his left hand sits on the steering wheel of the car, which is made out of the United Nations logo. Representatives of that chapter rejected any affiliation with the photo.
Occupy Wall Street has been linked to anti-Jewish sentiment in the past. Kalle Lasn, founder of the Canadian journal, Adbusters, has been criticized for writing negatively about Jews.
The Anti-Semitic cartoon posted on an Occupy Wall Street Facebook page. Photo: Facebook.
3:21 am
The photo this was pulled from is from a scam FB page, not Occupy Wall St.’s official page or the other dozen pages run under a variation of the name which I assume are not scams but alternative pages by members of the movement. This scam page has tricked 300K though in its clickthrough revenue generation for Banoosh.
Active members of OWS are appalled not only by the simple money scam but the repeated antisemitism that is worse than this picture as its not just statements against an oppressive regime (Israel,) but posts of hate and racism against the Jewish people. Others see dark plots to stain the name of OWS, I think its simply a money scam that just happens to employ a antisemitic administrator or a lazy one who posts from a wide net without having values to filter out that hate.
4:38 pm
There’s nothing anti-semetic about this cartoon/drawing at all. The cartoon is suggesting that the US/UN backed state of Israel, led by the war hungry and oil pipeline thirsty Netanyahu, can simply wash its “dirty and bloody hands,” with the purity and all righteousness from the soap/help provided by the UN/US.
9:32 pm
great pic Zionism in motion but their boss the end timers and master the u.kkk missing from pic, as ppl must remember the difference between Jews and Zionists, as JEW = Justice Equality and Wonder. Zionist Israel is about as Jewish as a pork chop, true Jews do the truth and help ppl. 4 million ppl missing in Iraq Jews would go find them. but one man will in fiction. that’s how it starts. the planetary patriot here. bing and buy now. http://www.amazon.com/The-Planetary-Patriot-Edward-Marcus/dp/0956739806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350841107&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Planetary+Patriot
10:36 pm
Had the symbol been am Israeli flag thwn it would be anti-Israel..But it shows not only a Star of david..but one tattooed on skin-makes it,intended or not, definately anti-Jewish..and thus a hate symbol
10:15 pm
The part I don’t get is that the cartoon is meant to imply Israel is using the UN to wash the blood from its hands, when it seems that its all of Israel’s enemies who use the UN to justify their own anti-Semitism.
Having to listen to Abbas use the UN to magically proclaim nationhood or all the nonsense from Iran’s fearless leader every time the UN invites him to speak, it seems a creative illustrator could come up with a more accurate drawing of the UN’s role in legitimizing hate-speech against Israel.
4:00 pm
As a Jew, and one who, in my youth, was chased by neighborhood gangs and beaten up because I was a Jew, (…and the Jews killed Jesus being their rationale,) I say: let the MESSAGE REMAIN FOR ALL TO SEE. BETTER WE SHOULD KNOW AND IDENTIFY OUR ENEMIES, THAN BE TAKEN BY SURPRISE. Responding to them is useless: hatred knows no reason, as the Germany’s Jews learned when they tried to reason with Hitler and German anti-semitemiticism. Why does Israel exist today? Because, after WW II, the Jews declared, “enough is enough” and fought for their land and won against military odds and might. Let NO ONE imagine they are going to trifle with us! That day is over. We will fight to the finish, whether it’s neighborhood, local , city, state, or nation!
7:15 am
Changing leadership in this country will be better for
everybody !
8:39 pm
This is not the first time OWS has posted anti-Semitic material. From even their first few months, those associated with the movement have posted things like, “the Jews control all the money in the country.” It was the main reasons I unliked their page!
8:39 pm
remember that Israel has semitic and non semitic people, the ashkenazi are the ruling force, semites feel generally descriminated.. so why describe the cartoon as anti-semitic trash? was it absent mindness or purposefully misleading? maybe ashkenazi trash would convey the idea better?
10:46 am
Jon Molowsky,
Anti-Semitism was coined by a German Jew-hater in order to attempt to make hatred of Jews sound as though it had some scientific and biologic basis. Anti-Semitism, as the term was originated, has nothing whatsoever to do with hatred of “Semites.”
Also, recent DNA studies have demonstrated that Jews, including Ashkenazic Jews, have more DNA from the Middle East than from Europe–much more, in fact.
Something that you may not realize, Jon, is that your comments are ones that are often repeated by anti-Semites and reflect both ignorance and also hatred. If that is not your intent, then I hope I have helped to educate you.
If it is your intent, then you have joined the side of some very ugly and destructive bedfellows, rather than the side of those who have given the world the Ten Commandments, 1/4 of its science Nobel Laureates, and much of what enabled the world to escape grinding poverty, oppression and ignorance.
Consider losing your jealousy and contributing to the world in a positive way, rather than through, frankly, wackiness.
Kind Regards,
Mike
10:59 am
The reason to call it anti-semitic trash is because in the English language, anti-semitic means “having or showing prejudice against Jews” (Webster’s Second College Edition.)
6:03 pm
Do you people even read your own newspaper? This is the same exact OWS page that the Algemeiner reported last time it posted an antisemitic image as publicly denounced by OWS. How, between now and your last report, did the page all of a sudden become affiliated with OWS again? Oh, I know: Because the Algemeiner, as a right-wing conservative publication, has had it in for OWS since the beginning.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/04/19/occupy-tampa-denounces-anti-semetic-cartoon-has-no-affiliation-with-posting/
2:49 pm
Perhaps using the mentality and tactics of the arabs the jews should go out and burn tires,smash windows, attack employees of the wall street. Now wouldn’t that be comparable?: Of course that would not resolve any issues, but the arabs don’t seem to get it. You have a disagreement re. some issue you do not need to use violence to change things. But that is their means of resolving an issue. Killing, destruction of property etc.