highchaosmccree:

concertinacheatingheartbeat:

allofthefeelings:

highchaosmccree:

highchaosmccree:

So, there’s this trend that happens in liberal/activist spaces, where the second gentiles find out you’re Jewish, they no longer trust you unless you immediately, completely denounce every aspect of Israel down to its very existence. 

Example: at UCLA, a Jewish woman named Rachel Beyda applied for the student council. They interrogated her about whether she would be able to be “objective” because she was Jewish. They literally asked her, “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”

I have experienced this interrogation and distrust personally, in activist spaces at UCSC. At one point I even made a Facebook post about it because I was curious if it was just me and discovered that every other Jewish person I know at UCSC had also experienced something similar. Leftists do not welcome or trust Jews who have any qualms about disavowing Israel. 

To be clear: I’m NOT talking about acknowledging that the Israeli government is committing human rights violations against Palestinians. That should be obvious, and isn’t inherently antisemitic. What IS antisemitic is this trend that has been going on for years in liberal activist spaces, where the second a Jewish person is involved in literally anything, ie Existing While Jewish, gentiles HAVE to bring up Israel, and quiz us on it until they’re satisfied that we have completely denounced it, including its right to exist. And if we don’t denounce every aspect of it to their satisfaction, then obviously we must support the genocide of Palestinians and are cast out of activist spaces. 

That’s what’s going on with Gal Godot. The plot of Wonder Woman had NOTHING to do with Israel or Palestine but because she is Israeli, because she served in the Israeli Army (which by the way, is mandatory, and also she served as a goddamn fitness instructor) gentiles are pouring out of the woodwork to deem her “problematic.” And I’m fucking pissed. 

Gentiles are encouraged to reblog this, because I am TIRED of seeing this shit in supposedly liberal spaces. We Jews can’t be the only ones calling this out. That’s a catch-22, because our opinions of Israel and antisemitism are ‘’’untrustworthy’’’. 🙂

I just want to add on to this that, if anyone is saying Gal Gadot advocates killing babies (and yes, I have seen that on Tumblr reblogs), that is explicitly blood libel (yes, even if it comes from someone on the left), and I would really like to see goyim calling that out.

Hi, I understand if you don’t reblog this (@thefairfleming)
because you don’t want a political shit storm in your inbox – and I understand
if you don’t answer, but I have respected and followed you for a long time and I could not bear to be silent about this. I tried.

About the Gal Gadot post; I understand the pressure of
being demanded to answer for something that has nothing to do with you, as a
muslim I GET IT. Jews should not be expected to keep answering for Israel.
However as in conversations about Israel there has been a tactic utilized that
has veritably become a misunderstanding used to silence opposition,
Anti-zionism has taken on anti-semitic tones often, but there has also been a
push from Israel that will conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism to silence
any and all opposition.

People who oppose Israel are accused of racializing a
situation if they aren’t Jewish, and likewise when it is Jewish people who
oppose Israel, then hardliners give even worse treatment by accusing those who
criticize of being ‘fake’ jews or self-hating jews, essentially disowning you
for not agreeing with Israeli policy 100%. This puts Jewish people in a very
difficult and painful place, I am sorry for that.

But understand the following;

Gal Gadot was part of the IDF during the bombings across
Lebanon, fact.

Gal Gadot has been praised for her part in the IDF while the
IDF has been utilized in the systematic oppression of Palestinians, fact.

Gal Gadot has boasted
that her army training gave her an edge in preparing for wonder woman.

Gal Gadot prayed for Israeli soldiers safety while they were
bombing the hell out of people.

Gal Gadot called people resisting conquering cowards and essentially painted them all with the same ‘Hamas’ brush because of course, the resisting of Israeli occupation is an evil, terrorist problem alone.

Gal Gadot is the arm and the face of an apartheid regime,
criticism of her and her as a choice to play Wonder woman, is to point out that
this is essentially an ironic and cruel choice. What she has done and glorified
with her comments make her the anti-thesis of who Wonder Woman actually is.

I may be Arab and Muslim but please don’t silence and
dismiss the legitimate and painful concern and hurt that people are feeling
over Gal Gadot as a choice here. Anyone else could have been chosen for this
role, literaly anyone else, do not marvel at us for taking issue with this.

Israel is an apartheid state, while it is not right to
expect you to answer for it, I also don’t think it’s realistic for you to
ignore its realities and to justify its behaviour. Because when you tell me I
shouldn’t find this ‘problematic’ you are justifying the need for my silence. Israel
was founded in an illegal and brutal way, there are ongoing illegal
settlements, there have been horrible, horrible atrocities and no repercussions
for them.

You are not responsible for Israel, you do not have to
answer for Israel. That is not your battle, just as I refuse to accept the
racist expectation that I am somehow part of a Mozlem Hive Mind and therefore
responsible for terrorism and that it is my duty as a savage nefarious brown
person to whatsapp ISIS daily to tell them to ‘plz stop’, that is not your
burden to carry and be demanded explanation from.

Israel’s establishment has nothing to do with religion, just
as other acts of terror do not have anything to do with God, and criticism of Israel – when it is voiced free of
racism, carefully and correctly – must then – and only then – be considered and not immediately dismissed. You should
not be held ransom by it, you should not have to face interrogation, there are
valid conversations to be had about Israel and you will be conflicted just as
we are all conflicted about our identities and how others react to them,
wrongfully react to them. Israel is an apartheid state, fact.

Gal Gadot’s involvement in this movie is unfortunately going
to be a political issue for us, as it should be for anyone concerned – and it
is disheartening and injurious to us and to those who have suffered under what
she fully and unapologetically represents to see her lauded as this bastion of feminism
and amazingness because it ignores and paints over the harm that Gal Gadot does
and others like her do.

Instead of discussions that should be had about Gal
Gadot’s problematic history, media and other ‘intersectional’ feminists have
been hung up on armpit hair and lauding her to the ends of the earth about how
much she’s such a hero.

Gal Gadot killed my people. Gal Gadot was an active part of
the forces killing my people. Gal Gadot is actively part of the PR problem that
erases the oppressed’s right to oppose oppression. I understand you are
frustrated and that is not without reason, but please respect people’s problem
with this movie as rightful and just as valid. I’m sorry, Gal Gadot being a
fitness instructor or just in general maybe even a nice person doesn’t matter
to me??? Because Gal Gadot as a personality and a person in not a problem, Gal
Gadot is a proud part of a machine.

Gal Gadot isn’t just any Israeli, she isn’t a critical Israeli
keen on unpacking and analysing her country’s history and seeking to better,
she isn’t an Israeli looking for solutions or trying to understand them. Forced
conscription or not, she is an IDF soldier, proudly an IDF soldier, she’s not
come out of her military service with any qualms about how they run things, or with the intention to improve their running, ethicaly. She has made no cognitive dissonance noises or any
that provide evidence that she maybe even cares about looking at this conflict in
any flexible way, in all of its complexities. Instead of silence, in its neutrality (shameful as it is),
Gal Gadot serves the exact opposite. She is the Anti-thesis of Wonder Woman.

Just as people boycott movies because such and such actor
had a criminal record or was sexually abusive or was in general a horrible
human being (Johnny Depp), I will boycott this movie because I have legitimate
concerns, it is mind-boggling to me that we are expected to shut up about it
and sit on our hands. Wonder Woman seems
like a politicised issue (that I’m really not seeing as much coverage of in the media as an angle for some reason, handle well i mean) because it is a wildly politicised issue, we say ‘politicised’
to avoid saying ‘humanitarian’ because the fact of the matter is that you don’t
want to (metaphorically, I guess) see the blood on our killer’s hands even when
we point it out, we are pointing it out, it is going to be pointed out. Wonder
Woman is the huge, distracting house party telling you to pretend there isn’t a burning
tenement down the street. We’re gonna let you party if you want, just don’t
sugarcoat the reality, do not bury it.

I’m not going to waste your time with ‘killing babies’
rhetoric, I am so tired of that rhetoric and the greeting rhetoric that also
just as uniformly tone-polices actual critical, politically correct criticism. It
is possible to criticize Israel
without being a racist asshole, it has been done before and when it is done it
is still conflated with
anti-semitism. What I say about Israel has been automatically invalidated by my
racial and religious identity. Just as how some Jews feel silenced in any
landscape if they’re not pulling all the stops to prove themselves as ‘trustworthy’
to often misguided SJWs who are really in no place to criticize as well.

We criticise Wonder Woman because when Lebanon which has
suffered under its attacks sought to ban the movie from being released in its
country, the media greeted this with headlines like ‘Lebanon bans Wonder Woman
because Gal Gadot is Israeli’ like they’re all just some petty, butt-hurt, Israeli-hating
freaks.

Instead of ‘Labanon bans Wonder Woman over Gal Gadot’s IDF
history’ (thank you Al Jazeera for being the closest headline)

The former headline is such a generalization of the
situation and real problem between the two countries, and as usual, not a generalization
in the favour of the actual hurt parties. That is insensitive, to pretend that
we are really so shallow.

Do not give this lie to us and then expect us to rejoice
when you call her a ‘true hero’. Stop. Please stop. This is so harmful. Do you not understand why???

We shouldn’t boycott Gal Gadot because of her ethnic
identity, or her religious identity – that’s foolhardy, there are many Israeli
film makers in the world that move through the industry without this much
outcry – we boycott Wonder Woman because of the militant apartheid she
represents and embodies, because keeping quiet about it is harmful, it is
letting everyone ignore it. Because Gal Gadot has made Wonder Woman a tone
deaf, self-congratulatory soap opera that wants to wallpaper over the reality
that is Gal Gadot’s ‘problematic’ history and Israel’s reality. Gal Gadot has gone beyond problematic fave, please do know
that – problematic fave does not even cover
Gal Gadot and her political and military ties. Because Israel illegally
occupies land and continues to do so. Because Zionism is not Jewish, it is political, it is colonialist.

We take issue because Gal Gadot is not Wonder Woman, she
only portrays her.

It is frankly insulting that you think we’re not allowed to
make the distinction and be vocal about it.

Okay, wow, I never expected this post to blow up so much! I’ve done my best to read as many responses as I can– and there have been so many insightful responses of varying perspectives! So first of all, thank you so much to everyone who has responded or reblogged, and second of all, if you’re reading this and you want more info or more perspectives I encourage you to read through the replies/rbs of this post because there are plenty of them!

I want to… re-reblog?? this one in particular because it’s particularly nuanced and thoughtful (@concertinacheatingheartbeat​ thank you so much for this amazing response), and because it’s really important to me to gain insight from Muslims on this issue.

I’m also reblogging because of the link at the bottom, which provides some insight into some things that Gal has said between 2014 and now. From that article I ended up finding this blog post, which has some of the same content as the other article, but with some additional information so imo they’re both worth the read. 

I agree that what she’s said is troubling. I find it callous to declare unconditional support to a military that is guilty of human rights violations. (As a US citizen…. yeah.) You don’t have to hate a country or a military or the veterans of that military to call it out for doing bad things, yanno? 

I now understand everyone’s mixed feelings. A female-led superhero movie is awesome. A Jewish lead in any movie is awesome. And what Gal Gadot, specifically, has said is NOT awesome, and by ‘not awesome’, I mean ‘incongruous with the character of Wonder Woman, whose entire character arc is her high regard for defending all human life.’ All three of these factors are relevant here. And I think that regardless of boycotting, everyone should continue to speak up about these concerns. Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins, DC, and everyone else involved in the production of this movie (and future movies) should know how strongly we feel about all of the above.

In closing, I gotta say: when I first saw my post start blowing up I was like ONE FEAR!! ONE FEAR!! but now I’m glad I was able to inadvertently spearhead such a necessary discussion. Thanks, everyone. Idk how likely I’ll be to reply directly to things from here on out (unless additional facts surface) but I’m going to keep reading as many of your replies as possible, and I hope that everyone who comes across this post will read up, as well.