An attendee of San Francisco’s Israel in the Gardens points both of his middle fingers at activists protesting the hasbara event. (Photo: Mordechai Tarnovsky/Facebook)
This summer San Francisco has hasbara in the air with three major pro-Israel events ripping across the windy city: Israel in the Gardens, Frameline Film Festival (an official SF Pride event), and the flagship Israel China Cultural Festival, which includes a film festival, book fair, lecture series, and cultural events.
Israel in the Gardens
Kicking off the hasbara upswing earlier this month on June 10, 2012, the Jewish Community Federation hosted “Israel in the Gardens.” After passing through the metal detectors, festival-goers were offered opportunities to join the Israeli military and make aliyah (emigrate to Israel) at booths from Friends of the IDF, the World Zionist Organization and Nfesh B’Nefesh . And the 15,000 attendees were entertained by all-Jewish musical groups and a flock of ceremoniously released doves flying to their “old new home in Israel.”
Captain Israel Issue 2, Stand With Us.
Advocacy groups—AIPAC, Stand With Us and J Street—were also present with tables full of pro-Israel take-aways. Stand With Us passed out their Captain Israel comic, a cartoon of a hasbara super-hero who fights “the venomous BDS”– a bloodthirsty, swastika-wielding snake that represents BDS supporters.
Not surprisingly, J Street was the only organization at the entire festival with materials critical of Israel’s occupation. For this, some attendees offered drive-by insults, “self-hating Jews,” to the volunteers. Also critical of Israel’s occupation, outside of the gardens, 20 people from Jewish Voices for Peace and Women in Black protested against the amalgamation of pinkwashing, greenwashing and bluewashing. Dave Holsey, a local pro-Israel agitator, filmed the event and demonstration. Holsey can be heard on camera calling the protesters “scumbags,” and “mentally deficient Jews.”
Re-cap of Israel in the Gardens. (Video: Dave Holsey)
Frameline Film Festival
Re-branded Frameline film festival poster in Civic Center BART station, San Francisco.
From June 14 to June 24, the Bay Area is home to the Israeli Consulate-sponsored Frameline Film Festival. Since 2010, Palestine Solidarity and queer groups have called to get “Israel out of our festival,” by protesting outside of screenings and re-branding the promotional posters. This year’s film festival theme is “find your story,” and activists have already augmented the advertisement to read: “my story tells the truth about pinkwashing or profiting from Israeli Apartheid. Shame on Frameline for taking blood money!!” [emphasis in original]
Activists protesting Frameline have also launched a social media campaign to highlight the Israeli Consulate’s sponsorship of the festival as part of the “brand Israel campaign”:
The Israeli Consulate’s sponsorship of Frameline is not an isolated case of generosity. In 2005, several Israeli government departments launched a multimillion-dollar “Brand Israel” marketing campaign to gain international support by making the country seem more “relevant and modern.” Both the San Francisco Bay Area and the LGBT community have been specifically named as target populations in subsequent reports, and Israel frequently enlists cultural institutions to try to improve its image. In this light, the Consulate’s financial support forces Frameline into a divisive position that is especially alienating to queer Palestinian and Middle Eastern communities. This is far from altruistic.
To read leaked emails between event organizers and the Israeli Consulate from previous years, showing how the Israeli government worked with Frameline to squash protest against the festival, read our post from earlier this year.
Israel China Cultural Festival
Screen shot of Israel China Cultural Festival, 2012.
Reaching out with hasbara to San Francisco’s Chinese community, mainstream Jewish institutions have teamed up with the Israeli consulate and Chinese cultural groups to host a two-month “Israel China Cultural Festival” event series. Celebrating 20 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the list of activities includes a film festival, book fair with publications on the Holocaust translated to Mandarin, and dance performances. The event’s website explains:
Despite the differences in size of population and geographical area, the Chinese people and the Jewish people share many similarities. Both are from the most ancient, continuous civilizations in the world; both place a high value on family and tradition, education and scholarship, persistence and hard work. Each is very aware of its rich historical heritage and both strive to contribute to the development of humankind.
Stand With Us pro-Israel summer BART ads
New Stand With Us BART ad in the Bay Area, in transport stations from June 18-July 7, 2012. (Image: Stand With Us)
In addition to the public programs, over the next three weeks Stand With Us has advertisements in San Francisco’s transportation system promoting Israeli technological advances in the fields of health and sciences. The posters are less controversial than last years, which were taken down early by the municipality for racist content.
Stand With Us ad removed due to racist content in Downtown Berkeley BART, 2011. (Photo: Jaime Omar Yassin)
a two-month “Israel China Cultural Festival” event series
why not just make it 12 months?
Both are from the most ancient, continuous civilizations in the world
okkkkkay.
that video is a real keeper. who thought up the white man costumes? and those antics? genius.
great fun report allison.
RE: “Both are from the most ancient, continuous civilizations in the world. . .” ~ from the Israel China Cultural Festival website
MY COMMENT: How incredibly racist!
FROM WIKIPEDIA [Native Americans in the United States]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
P.S. AS TO “CONTINUOUS CIVILIZATIONS”,
ALSO SEE: “How white were the Israelites? Facial reconstruction may be surprising”, By Ofri Ilani and Haaretz Correspondent, 11/14/08
Israeli anthropologist claims the subjects of the Kingdom of Judea looked more like black Africans.
LINK – link to haaretz.com
So they are throwing out the wrong group?
“Both are from the most ancient, continuous civilizations in the world”
This is laughable as applied to israel. China has existed as a polity and civilization throughout recorded history. israel is a colonial state less than a hundred years old. It’s not “from” the ancient Jewish tribal chiefdoms (to call them “civilizations” on par with ancient Chinese civilization is a laughable bit of nonsense). A modern citizen of Italy has a greater claim to saying his state is “from” the Roman Empire.
Plus, India’s religion is what those of the Abrahamic religions would consider paganism, and is very ancient. Since China accepted Buddhism later, it seems India’s religion and civilization could be older.
Plus, Greek civilization is ancient too.
Zoroaster predates the formal establishment of the Hebrew religion. In fact, as Norton Mezvinsky and numerous bona fide scholars of Middle East history and religion acknowledge, Judaism was ‘born’ in Cyrus’s Persian empire.
Putin knows it: link to mondoweiss.net
Richard Foltz has written a definitive history of Zoroastrian relationship to Judaism link to amazon.com
Karen Armstrong describes the relationship between Judaism and Zoroaster link to amazon.com
Serious archeologists acknowledge that if the kingdoms of David & Solomon existed in anything other than mythology, they were relatively small tribal kindgoms, certainly not anything that can be compared to the civilization of China.
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But this current cadre of hasbarats is not the first to cast Israel as a “great civilization.” The title of Martin Goodman’s book on the conflict between Rome and Jerusalem is “Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations.” A tad presumptuous to place Jerusalem, a local building project sponsored by Roman wealth & political power/puppets, in the era Goodman wrote about, in the same category as the Roman empire.
- – - – -
If zionists are lying about something that is so elemental, and so easily fact-checked, what else are they lying about?
How long do zionists think they can get away with their lies?
Have zionists not learned the #1 lesson of Watergate: do not try to lie your way out of a bad situation; man up, take your medicine, move on.
Haven’t zionists figured out that when people are lied to, they react, um, negatively. link to mondoweiss.net
How about India, Egypt, Iraq (Mesopotamia)? Or do Middle Eastern civilizations stop being continuous when a different religion becomes predominant? India has certainly had a continuous civilization since ancient times.
surely would like to know more about that multi-color (colors are SOOO useful to juice up an emotional response) comic book that was mentioned in the video.
the way the hasbara-apparatus keeps jamming ‘Nazism’ down everyone’s throat sounds like “brand spanking” to me. The MFA must fear that the hatred they’ve spent so much effort engendering is wearing thin.
We should compare with an earlier post, citing Barak who acknowledged antiquity of the Persian civilization saying “they were pursuing nuclear bomb for 4000 years”. He had to have in mind a network of laboratories in Central Asia that developed horse charriots later used by Arians to invade India, Iran and so on, including Egypt. Horse charriots were the nukes of the Bronze Age.
Of course, there are some specific analogies between China and Israel, including emulations of the Great Wall in Israel, or periodic violent messianic cults among Jews and Chinese.
Israel doesn’t have the people to replicate this extravaganza of hasbara in the rest of the 50 big cities around the OECD where people are losing their faith in Israel.
LA is not as big or as important as London.
RE: “Activists protesting Frameline have also launched a social media campaign…” ~ Deger
FACEBOOK: Frameline – Stop Pinkwashing Israeli Apartheid
TO “LIKE” – link to facebook.com
RE: “Dave Holsey, a local pro-Israel agitator, filmed the event and demonstration. Holsey can be heard on camera calling the protesters ‘scumbags’, and ‘mentally deficient Jews’.” ~ Allison Deger
MY COMMENT: How uncivilized! Cognitive dissonance can make people do the craziest and most vile things!
OTHER EXAMPLES OF ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR:
• Video: Pro-Israel Activist Knocks Camera Out of Hands of Alison Weir (VIDEO, 02:36) – link to youtube.com
• Stand With Us’ Assault on the Jewish Peace Movement –
link to richardsilverstein.com
• The Pogromists at Stand With Us – link to richardsilverstein.com
• ‘AIPAC activists beat me’ – link to ynetnews.com
• Activist files suit against Netanyahu supporters who attacked her in Capitol – link to mondoweiss.net
• JudeoFascists Attack Home of Progressive Rabbi Michael Lerner – link to blogs.alternet.org
• ALSO SEE – Jewish Values vs. Israeli Policies: Why five young Jews disrupted PM Netanyahu in New Orleans, by Rae Abileah, Mondoweiss, 11/09/12
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to mondoweiss.net
“Uncivilized” is right, and this is one of the factors the hasbarists didn’t consider. “Uncivilized” turns a lot of people off. Unfortunately, most hasbarists have no manners and no argument left — just the usual slurs, middle fingers from the youth in the photo, ad hominem attacks, and thuggish violence. This behavior has changed many people’s attitudes towards Israel forever. We may not know the facts on the ground, but we know what we don’t like. A seventh grade teacher, with help from “all sides”, attacking a lone female demonstrator… how manly. Say yes to peace, right.
They’re good at bullying girls — not so hot otherwise.
My son and I were at the 2011 Israel in the Gardens thing. For the record, my son presents as every scrawny White kid’s worst nightmare (well, second worst). He’s big, brown, shaves his head, and likes to fight. Good at that stone-eyed ‘I am completely not afraid of you’ look. Happily, he’s not actually a bully, but like a Rottweiler, he IS intimidating.
Anyway, we’d been exiled to across the street along with the other people holding up signs that might disrupt the festivities. Some twenty-year old or so comes along and starts getting in the face of an elderly woman who’s near us. You know the kind of thing — there’s no actual violence, but there’s a clear element of physical intimidation in the mix.
My son decides he doesn’t like it. Gives ‘Josh’ (as his dad was desperately calling him) a chance to confront someone his own (and plus some) size.
Josh doesn’t take him up on it. VERY promptly scurries off.
Your son is the future, in’shallah.
Israel doesn’t need to occupy the West Bank and Gaza to save lives .
Nfesh bnefesh isn’t going to get anyone to make aliyah to Israel. Aliyah is finished. More people die in Israel each year than make aliyah. Fact.
Friends of the IDF are accessories to war crimes.
Captain Israel is the wrong strategy. BDS isn’t evil. It’s non violent. It is no longer 1949. Anyone can look up youtube and search for Israeli atrocities.
I think ‘Captain Israel’ is great.
I’ve never seen anything so asinine in my life. You sure that’s not some kind of Black propaganda?
Say yes to peace- such a pity Israel killed it
What’s the deal with Cap’t Israel glowing like that? Is that some kind of subconscious Dimona metaphor? Did he derive his superpowers from plutonium?
Now why am I getting the impression that Israel’s ardent supporters are getting a little hysterical. What is going on in their troubled psyches.
Israel China Cultural Festival 2012: Israel Firsters hedging their bets with an investment in “special relationship” to the next super power. Makes me wonder what it is that Israel has to offer the Chinese. US military technology, perhaps?
‘Makes me wonder what it is that Israel has to offer the Chinese. US military technology, perhaps?’
I don’t know why the ‘perhaps.’ Weren’t the Israelis already caught once selling US technology to China?
…but if they think they’re going to snuggle up to China, they’re on a fools’ errand. China is positively reptilian in the absence of sentiment with which she approaches the rest of the world — and there’s more to be gained from opposing Israel than from supporting her.
Our support for Israel is based on a lot of nonsense. I shan’t bother to parse it now — suffice it to say that not one element in the mix would hold the least appeal for China.
All those smart Jews could have made the AIDS treatment living as Jewish people in Europe, or the Americas, or Australia, or South Africa, or anywhere for that matter as Jews. They didn’t need to be in Israel to make the product. Do they think that Jews can only invent things as Israelis? There are many countries that have high tech medical fields. Like, I don’t know, Japan for one. Do they even stop to consider how absurd it sounds?
YMJ: Good point. They could be in Cuba! That “Stand with Us” ad is completely ludicrous. Also, even if they were the sole geniuses responsible for all medical advancement, how does that justify supporting odious foreign policy? This isn’t clever hasbara; it’s lowest common denominator argument; the end of the road.
‘They didn’t need to be in Israel to make the product.’
Kinda the reverse, actually.
I remember looking up Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, etc. Conveniently, the Nobels have been around just about twice as long as Israel, and also conveniently, Israel has about half the world’s Jews.
It would follow that a quarter of the Nobels that have gone to Jews should have gone to Israeli Jews. More or less.
It’s not even close to that. Israel’s share of Nobels is still disproportionate to its population, but not nearly as disproportionate as it is for Jews in general. Obviously, other factors enter into the mix, but on the face of it, either (a) Israel makes Jews stupid, or (b) the Jews that go there are disproportionately the stupid ones. Certainly that would help to explain a great deal…
that David Holsey guy in the video what a pain in the ass he is!