On the morning of February 8, the IDF spokesperson’s office tweeted this:
To commemorate #BlackHistoryMonth, we find strength in the words of the late author & poet, Maya Angelou. pic.twitter.com/pcdAaTHYCx
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 8, 2016
Perhaps they have forgotten that Angelou stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people when she honored the late Rachel Corrie:
The video above was produced to be part of the Rachel’s Words event to honor the life of Rachel Corrie in 2012. Writer Jen Marlowe was involved in organizing the event and remembers:
Dr. Angelou’s reading of Rachel’s words was powerful and poignant. But I was moved for reasons beyond that. I was moved that Dr. Angelou recognized the importance of Rachel’s writings, and of why we were insisting that Rachel’s voice not be silenced. I was moved that, in participating in the ‘Rachel’s Words’ event, Dr. Angelou was making her own stand to honor not only Rachel, but the dignity and humanity of the families in Gaza that Rachel was there to protect.
There is no doubt that it was the courage of people like Corrie and Palestinians living under occupation that Angelou sought to honor, not that of an occupying military.
Thanks to Dave Reed
I trust the IDF went through all the necessary copyright clearances for using that quotation. And before anyone says “fair use”, I’m pretty sure that if someone else’s words make up 100% of your text, that ain’t fair use.
Black-washing is as bad as pink-washing. H/R-washing is even worse.
Boo-hoo! We want an exclusive on using Maya Angelou for advancing our agenda. Clearly, in order to use Maya Angelou quotes, you must first ask yourself whether you agree with her politics. Otherwise, you’re not permitted to be inspired by her.
Without courage you can’t practice any vice consistently either. Does that make it the greatest of the vices?
Particularly ironic when the quote is juxtaposed with a photo of the most cowardly rabble on earth. You could call that ‘army’ many things, but ‘courageous’ is not one of them.
BTW the only thing that surprises me about that image is that all of the ‘soldiers’ appear to be male. Israel is very keen to stress/invent the ‘feminist’ aspect of their army (even though women very rarely perform in combat roles) so I’m surprised they didn’t manage to put a few conspicuous females in their propaganda shot.