r/JewsOfConscience Jew of Color Jun 29 '24

Activism NYC Dyke March Drama

The NYC Dyke March is being boycotted by many other organizations including Act Up NYC for putting out and subsequently deleting this statement. Thoughts?

Imma be real I don't really think this statement is bad at all, but I understand that others have read it as "all lives matter"-ing the genocide in Gaza. Would love to hear more takes.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '24

This is not all lives mattering. People were killed. If they never addressed the deaths in October when it happened, it is appropriate to mention now. If they consistently mentioned hostages and Israelis over Palestinians that would be different. I think it's really sad that mentioning any Jewish death is offensive to people. But I also think it's very odd that there was not any statement about any of this until now, which isn't common for an LGBT institution. This is especially true because of how there is such high involvement of LGBT folks in activism for Palestine. This reminds me of when dyke marches in Canada used to ban pride flags with Stars of David on them. Is it necessary? Not at all. That's not what an Israeli flag is.

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u/ArmyOfMemories Jewish Anti-Zionist Jun 29 '24 edited Jun 30 '24

This is not all lives mattering.

No, it could be.

We all know people were killed on Oct. 7th & Jewish safety obviously matters in-and-of itself.

But pro-Israel ideologues frequently attempt to center the conversation around Jewish safety in a cynical and exploitative attempt to marginalize or outright criminalize Palestinian existence.

Jewish Currents has commented on how the ADL has done this in the past (and continues to do so).

Notably, after Israel’s 11-day attack on Gaza and the West Bank in May 2021, in which at least 282 Palestinians were killed, the ADL worked to redirect the discourse to center Jewish victimhood rather than Israeli brutality. (It was at this time Greenblatt made his “Charlottesville every day” comments on television.) This past May, Greenblatt rang in the one-year anniversary of Israel’s bombardment by declaring, in an extensive presentation at an annual ADL gathering, that three leading Palestine solidarity groups were “extremist” in nature, “the photo inverse of the extreme right that ADL long has tracked.”

Palestinians and supporters of their liberation/human rights have frequently been cancelled, marginalized, censored, etc. in the interests of putting Jewish safety on a pedestal.

It happens so frequently, I can Google one example right now:

Pro-Israel group objected to display saying it made Jewish patients feel ‘vulnerable, harassed and victimised’.

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u/procgen Jun 30 '24

We all know people died on Oct. 7th

Lol, they "died"? They were murdered.