Tag

US Politics

Browsing

On July 31, 2014, the New York Times published an interactive article about the Israeli assault that was underway in Gaza. In an expertly designed data visualization, the Times guided us through its own version of events, which boils down to: Hamas started it, and Israel responded in self-defense. A common misconception about data journalism is that it’s somehow less biased than traditional print journalism, but Anna Flagg and Moiz Syed breakdown some ways that design can be misused to tell a slanted story. This New York Times article reminds us that design is just as much an editorial tool as it is a tool of aesthetics.

When Batya Kahana-Dror tells a NY Jewish audience that she wants “maximal territory with minimal Arab citizens” inside Israeli borders, no one criticizes her. But when a woman in the audience calls on ending US aid to Israel, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen says that she’s being disrespectful.

You’d think that the legal threat against Guilford College Hillel for hosting civil rights veterans in North Carolina came from some old white desegregationists. Nope– it was threatened by Hillel International, the Jewish organization based in Washington, D.C., because the veterans were speaking out Thursday night for Palestinian human rights.

Imagine stepping out of your house of worship and seeing a group of screaming, belligerent hecklers ripping apart your holy book – spitting on and stomping on the pages. Imagine being shouted down, and told your faith is a lie by a group of people flashing gaudy, hate-filled signs and matching tee-shirts. This has become the reality for worshippers at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe.