None of the celebrities defending the terrorist attacks against Israel are apologizing. None are any of their brands. But the double standard means that a basic defense of Israel requires an apology.
The retail company Zara denounced on Tuesday comments made by one of its head designers about the Israel-Palestinian conflict after the remarks resulted in social media users calling for a boycott of the Spanish fashion brand.
Vanessa Perilman, Zara’s head designer for its women’s department, who is Jewish, got into a heated conversation with Palestinian male model Qaher Harhash on Instagram over the latter’s support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel.
Harhash has accused the Jewish state of perpetrating apartheid and the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. On Thursday morning, the Jerusalem-born model claimed in his Instagram stories that the Israeli government “makes sure [Palestinians] never learn to speak Hebrew, so we could remain unemployed, in order for us to stay under the poverty-line … their whole country is built and continues to be built on our ethnic cleansing.”
Anyone is welcome to learn Hebrew. Israel provides free classes for anyone who wants to. Arab Muslims attend them, but more to improve their language for professional reasons than to learn the language which they generally already know.
The main employers for the so-called “Palestinian” parts of Israel are…
1. Israelis
2. UNRWA
3. Terrorist organizations
Back when there was still some remaining optimism about the peace process, Israel helped finance assorted employment zones.
But making up crazy stories about Israeli oppression is just the default and never requires any apologies. Defending Israel does.
On June 9, Perilman had written to Harhash on Instagram over direct message, saying, “Maybe if your people were educated then they wouldn’t blow up the hospitals and schools that Israel helped to pay for in Gaza. Israelis don’t teach children to hate nor throw stones at soldiers as your people do.”
They’re educated. They still choose to blow up hospitals and schools. Education is overrated.
Did Vanessa Perilman say anything that required an apology? No, but there’s been a history of people condemning terrorism and then being forced to apologize or being fired. The cases of Thomas Klocek at DePaul and Andrew Pessin at Connecticut College come to mind. The current defenders of Emily Wilder have little to say about them or Vanessa Perilman.
The difference between “cancel culture” and “accountability” is compatibility with leftist politics which are increasingly pro-terrorist.
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