The new swastika?
Author and blogger Judy Mandelbaum recently quoted from my ‘Nakba of Olives‘ post (which is itself an excerpt from my book-in-progress) in her piece called “Is the Star of David becoming the new Swastika?” Mandelbaum writes about instances when Israelis have defaced Palestinian property with spray-painted Stars of David. She quotes the part in my post when I describe the Star of David painted over a mural on a village school in Palestine.
Using walls as a vector for anonymous hate is, of course, not limited to Stars of David on Palestinian walls. Around the world walls are regularly defaced with hateful messages and symbols. Racists love a good, bare wall and a full can of spray-paint.
What is interesting, though, about the spray-painted Star of David that I write about is that it was not painted by a band of crazed, racist Israeli settlers. It was painted by IDF soldiers. How much credibility can an army cling to if its own soldiers, in the course of a military operation, take a break to engage in such cheap vandalism?
Mandelbaum’s article can be found here.
Elsewhere 