Dear Sunflower Philly,
You victim-blamed on your Instagram announcement when reporting why you canceled the “Taste of Home” event that was to take place on Sunday, June 20th.
Before I go further into unpacking that, I do want to thank you, and Eat Up the Borders (EUTB), for finally taking proper action to cancel Sunday’s event in which you were given a choice to either; include all initial participants and fear the follow-through of threats, cancel the event, or hold the event at the exclusion of a completely innocent victim who was targeted for a bullying campaign.
Such targeting against any business owner, specifically for just their race, religion and place of origin is completely unacceptable. I can’t imagine you would disagree if the victim was of any other race, practiced any other religion or originated from any other country. I certainly hope not. Yet, until you and EUTB got pushback, you arranged to go ahead with an event after making sure that the innocent target of harassment, a Jewish business owner and his partners, was eliminated from it. And then, your Instagram post which announced the cancelation said, “Due to the ongoing situation with one of our event partners @eatuptheborders and @moshava_philly we have decided to cancel the ‘Taste of Home’ Event today.”
That was dangerously wrong. Moshava was not part, at all, of any ongoing situation. They were the involuntary targets of people who either pleaded or threatened action against the event should Moshava participate as planned – people who EUTB either feared or “wish to serve and love.”
The owner of Moshava is a Jew who immigrated from Israel, quite arguably one of the happiest, most productive, most generous, and most threatened countries in the world. Israel is the most ethnically and religiously diverse country in the Middle East. Israel is 1/5 the size of your state of Pennsylvania and it’s erroneously accused of all kinds things. I urge you to read, “Institutionalized Gaslighting of the World’s Most Bullied Population,” also published by Israellycool. Please click on the links within the article and see the sources for yourself.
What isn’t addressed in that article is the malicious argument that has been becoming too prevalent and that might have been tossed at you, too – the erroneous accusation that Jews appropriated Middle Eastern food. Think about that. Judaism is the oldest, by millennium, of the three monotheistic faiths, which qualifies the Jewish people as an ancient people. What did the Jewish people of the Levant eat before they were conquered by Islamic warriors or Christian crusaders? Or even after? The answer is a variation of the foods that today’s Israelis eat, which, by no coincidence, is also what many other Middle Easterners eat.
Imagine how you would feel if you were unjustly eliminated from an event and were told by event organizers, as EUTB explained in their Instagram post, that, “This decision came from listening to the community we wish to serve and love.” That statement comes across as “Sorry, Jew, we are listening to those we wish to serve and love – please don’t take it personally when we ask you to step aside on this one.” It’s a sentiment that unites neo-Nazis with jihadists and the sympathizers in between. When people chant “from the river to the sea” it might as well be “Jews will not replace us.”
Yours was not the first time in modern history that Jews have been asked to leave an event open to people of all backgrounds. Examples range from Matisyahu, who was banned from a music festival in Spain before pressure reversed that decision to Jewish students who have been bullied out of student government. The isolation campaign also urges celebrities and people of influences to distance themselves from the only Jewish state in the world.
Israel is home to the world’s largest Jewish community. It’s become the targeted Jew among nations whereas people like the owner of Moshava have become the targeted Jew among Westerners. With gratitude, you stopped short of moving this country, the United States, one step closer to annulling, “Never Again.” But it was one step a little too close for comfort.
Sincerely,
Faith Quintero
