In an interview with TimeOut Chicago, author and reptile afficionado Alice Walker answers a question regarding her BDSholing:
In terms of wanting artists to boycott Israel, oftentimes the counterargument is that arts can bridge the divide where there’s political strife. In your opinion, is this a case that calls for more drastic measures?
Yes, we’ve tried everything, and everything has universally failed us on this issue. Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get. I was very happy when Stevie Wonder declined singing for the JDL [Jewish Defense League]. But it’s really about your own spirit and your own soul and what you do with yourself. I love my own culture. I love my African-American culture very deeply, and I know it deserves to be honored. You have to be aware that people are suffering unjustly, and given our own history—in remembrance of our struggle, which isn’t over—we have a duty to stand for the people who are being treated like our parents and grandparents and children were treated.
Stevie Wonder declined singing for Friends of the IDF, not the Jewish Defense League, which is considered a terrorist group by some including the FBI. The JDL has nothing to do with the IDF.
My guess is Walker is not knowingly lying – it is too easy to refute her claim – but perhaps by conflating the Jewish Defense League with Israel’s national army, she is revealing that to her, Jews are synonymous with Israel.
Perhaps this is yet another indication that her opposition to Israel stems more from a loathing of Jews than anything else.
