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Chicago Dyke March Changes Cartoon Showing American, Israeli Flags Burning

The Chicago Dyke March changed its cartoon showing American and Israeli flags being burned following backlash.
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June 24, 2021
Antonio_g_m/Getty Images

The Chicago Dyke March changed its cartoon showing American and Israeli flags being burned following backlash.

The cartoon, which was posted to the march’s Instagram account on June 20 to advertise for its upcoming June 26 march, initially showed a woman standing on top of a burning police car with the letters “ACAB”—an apparent reference to the “All Cops Are Bastards” slogan—on her rear end. The woman also can be seen holding an Israeli flag in her left hand and an American flag in her right hand, both of which are burning.

Additionally, the march’s Instagram account also shared an image of playing cards stating “Queers for Palestine” and “Zionism is queerphobic” with an image of someone holding a firearm.

Various Jewish groups condemned the cartoon.

“Israel continues to be a safe haven for LGBTQ people around the world,” the American Jewish Committee (AJC) tweeted. “Meanwhile, the Chicago Dyke March continues to traffic in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment. Their despicable and hateful rhetoric must be denounced by all.”

Anti-Defamation League Midwest also released a joint statement with Chicago’s Jewish Community Relations Council as well as AJC Chicago calling the cartoon “deeply troubling.”

“No member of the LGBTQ+ community should be made to feel excluded—or intimidated—by any facet of their identity. In 2017 the Chicago Dyke March made the antisemitic decision to ban ‘Jewish Pride’ flags with Stars of David. Now, four years later, they are doubling down on their exclusionary messaging.”

They added that the cartoon “further fans the flames of hatred and bigotry. It further inflicts harm on members of the LGBTQ+ community who ally or identify as Zionists, for a whom a connection to Israel is part of their Jewish identity, and are seemingly being compelled to choose between important parts of their individual identities.”

Stop Antisemitism also tweeted that there are 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa “where being gay is legally punishable by death” and yet the march “vilifies” Israel and the United States. “Insanity at its finest.”

The Chicago Dyke March announced in a June 22 Instagram post that Instagram had deleted their prior account because of “social media attacks by Z10N1ST who have bombarded our account with threats of violence, racist, sexist and homophobic comments.” The post was accompanied with a graphic stating: “Israel strategically and actively targets queer Palestinians” as well as accusing Israel of “pinkwashing” to “cover up/wash over Israel’s Apartheid regime and ethnic cleansing.” The cartoon now shows the woman holding plain white flags.

 

 

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A post shared by @chi_dykemarch

 

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A post shared by @chi_dykemarch

A Wider Bridge, an organization that aims to connect LBTQ+ communities in Israel and the United States, tweeted on June 21 that while the initial cartoon had been removed, “the message remains the same unless we hear otherwise: that dykes who wish to attend the Dyke March must choose between their identities. We Refuse to Choose.” They also announced that they are releasing a new image of a Pride Flag with a Star of David on it.

Blake Flayton, a student at George Washington University and co-founder of New Zionist Congress, also tweeted on June 21: “I’m noticing a familiar trend where the antisemites do something antisemitic, get confronted, and then say they’re being silenced.” In a separate tweet, he wrote that “the term ‘pinkwashing’ is an antisemitic trick used to force gay Jews to relinquish their national pride in order to be accepted in progressive spaces. It’s despicable.”

The Chicago Dyke March did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.

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