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Posted By simmons on July 21, 2017

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A Palestinian flag flies at Chicagos 2017 Dyke March, where Jewish participants were excluded. Photo: Screenshot.

After the scandalinvolving the ejection of Jewish women carrying Star of David pride flags at Chicagos Dyke March on June 28, asisterorganization in the city has announced that it will follow suit by banning Zionist displays from its upcoming protest against sexual violence and rape culture.

The ban was announced this week on social media by the organizers of SlutWalk Chicago part of an international protest movement that fights rape culture, victim blaming, and slut shaming. The Chicago event is set to take place on August 12.

We still stand behind Dyke March Chicagos decision to remove the Zionist contingent from their event, & we wont allow Zionist displays at ours, the organizers tweeted last Sunday beginning several days of exchanges with other users over the policy. These were distinguished by theorganizerscontinued insistence that anti-Zionism is a legitimate progressive belief, and that any linkage with antisemitism should be dismissed as a discrediting tactic.

July 21, 2017 1:33 pm

In one exchange defending the Dyke March decision to exclude the Jewish women, the SlutWalk organizers aggressively justified theaction, declaring: They were kicked out after a discussion where they made their Zionist beliefs known and refused to back down.

The Star of David flag was banned, they continued, because its connections to the oppression enacted by Israel is too strong for it to be neutral & IN CONTEXT it was used as a Zionist symbol.

Many of the exchanges underscored the degree to which Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) a Rockefeller Brothers Fund-backed organization that promotesthe BDS campaign against Israel among American Jews is involved in enforcing the exclusion of Zionist individuals and groups from the protest movement.

Both the Dyke March and SlutWalk Chicago have referred to their relationships with JVPin order to justify the exclusion policy, with the Dyke March praising one the organizations representatives in Chicago for assisting them in expelling the Jewish women. In another Twitter post, SlutWalk Chicagodescribed Jewish Voice for Peace as a Jewish initiative that attracts the support of other radical Chicago organizations.

Anew report on JVP issued on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) observed that in recent months, the group has taken increasingly radical positions and has employed questionable tactics in pursuit of its mission to diminish support for Israel.

JVPs tactics, the ADL said, include harassment of pro-Israel LGBTQ activists as evidenced at the Chicago Dyke March and at the Celebrate Israel rally in New York on June 4.

It is perfectly legitimate to criticize Israeli policies, the ADL commented. But JVPs single-minded desire to paint Israel as a source of racism and violence has led it far beyond legitimate criticism of Israel.

JVP has also turned on American Jews who are not deemed supportive enough of JVPs agenda, the ADL warned.

Gretchen Rachel Hammond the Chicago journalist who broke the story of the exclusion of the Jewish women and was subsequently suspended from reporting duties by her employer, the Windy City Times, as revealed by The Algemeiner said on Thursday that the SlutWalk organizers announcement was further evidence of jumping on the anti-Zionist bandwagonamong rights advocates who were never involvedwith Middle Eastern conflicts in the past.

I covered the Dyke March and the SlutWalk for three years, Hammond said in an interview. They were characteristically Chicago marches, courageous and taking the issues on in a direct manner. Like rape, the treatment of transgender people by the police, womens imprisonment, the legalization of sex work that helps people survive. I never saw any anti-Zionism.

Hammond said she was concerned that by doing this again, they will exclude people who are allies.

We are fighting for these causes in a tough society, and if youre a transgender person, you need all the allies you can get, she asserted. If your allies are only those who are ideologically acceptable to you, then your message will be weakened.

Hammond also talked about the personal cost of resistinganti-Zionist orthodoxies in the current climate. In the wake of her report and subsequent suspension, she received several threatening messages. Hammond said shealso incurred the disapproval of colleagues when she argued fiercely that the Windy City Times should give equal space to post-march statements from the Dyke March Collective and pro-Israel LGBTQ group A Wider Bridge on this as well, she was overruled.

This was the first time in four years of journalism Id been attacked in such a coordinated way and I retreated into self-blameand self-doubt, she said.

I know that being attacked as a journalist is an occupational hazard, but its one thing if youre taking it from opponents, and quite something else when it comes from a community to whom you have dedicated your life, Hammondreflected.

Excerpt from:
After Dyke March Scandal, SlutWalk Chicago Bans 'Zionist Displays ... - Algemeiner

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