CITY HOSTS ANTI-ISRAEL, ANTI-JEWISH FEST

"NON-POLITICAL" EVENT HAS ANTI-ISRAEL CRAFTS, LITERATURE / 3RD ANNUAL CHICAGO ARABESQUE / JUF DECRIES ANTI-SEMITIC HANDOUT, CHICAGO HUMAN RELATIONS INACTION

By DOUGLAS WERTHEIMER, Editor

CITY HOSTS ANTI-ISRAEL, ANTI-JEWISH FEST — Chicago Jewish Star, 3 July 2009 — Chicago Jewish Star · Chicago, IL · 3 July 2009

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Transcribed from the clipping

Continuing a trend first described in these pages nearly six years ago, a program hosted by the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR), with the explicit approval of Mayor Richard M. Daley, has again included an anti-Israel — and this year, an anti-Semitic — component.

The third annual "Chicago Arabesque" was described as "a non-religious, non-political festival that promotes public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of the Arab World," by Dana V. Starks, CCHR Chairman, in a June 8 letter printed in a City of Chicago promotional brochure for the event.

That description — the exact same words were used for the 2007 event — was not accurate then nor in 2009, judging by items sold at those events. In both years, they included material featuring geographic images labelled "Palestine" (in English and Arabic) which extend from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, obliterating the State of Israel.

One such image listed, in Arabic, the names of cities in the area covered by the Palestinian flag. Those cities — Acre, Tiberias, Haifa, Tsfat, Lod and Jerusalem — are in Israel.

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

LABEL ORDER: Maria's label lists slide 78 as 'Wisconsin State Journal Aug 8 2009' then 'Chicago Jewish Star July 3 2009'; s078_1 is the Wisconsin State Journal column and s078_2 is the Chicago Jewish Star, so on this slide the order matches the label.

Front page of the Chicago Jewish Star; the masthead itself is above the top of the scan and is not visible, so the date is label-only. Attribution to the paper is secure from its own body text, which refers to 'the JEWISH STAR' twice and to a translation done 'for the JEWISH STAR by Alexandra Dunietz'.

The three stacked lines recorded in dek are the paper's own deck stack, set between rules beneath the banner headline. WORTH SHOWING MARIA: the typographic argument.

This paper puts the word Palestine in quotation marks every time it appears for a place — 'an image of "Palestine"', 'a PLO-like image of "Palestine"', 'geographic images labelled "Palestine"' — while printing Israel, the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea without them. It uses 'Palestinian' without quotation marks only as an adjective for a flag and for an organisation.

The clipping is the mirror image of the 1949-1959 group: there, Palestine was a neutral geographical word and Palestinians did not exist; here, Palestinians exist and the word Palestine is what is in dispute.

Photo caption, transcribed from a magnified crop, three photographs across the top of the page: 'FOR SALE AT THE "NON-RELIGIOUS, NON-POLITICAL" CHICAGO ARABESQUE — At the booth run by Arabica, a Bridgeview store, at Chicago Arabesque last week, wall hangings and key chains (at left) featured an image of "Palestine" with the Palestinian flag covering the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, blotting out the State of Israel.

The silhouette is identical to that used by the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose Charter calls for "purg[ing] the Zionist presence from Palestine". / A t-shirt (center) at the Palestine Solidarity Group booth featured the words "ZIONISM MAKES ME SO ANGRY!". / At another booth, wooden table top carvings featured a Palestinian flag flying over a PLO-like image of "Palestine".

The Arabic text, translated for the JEWISH STAR by Alexandra Dunietz, lists the names of cities of this geographical area, including Acre, Tiberias, Haifa, Tsfat, Lod, and Jerusalem — all of which are in present-day Israel.' Credit: '— LEFT AND RIGHT IMAGES: CHICAGO JEWISH STAR PHOTOS'. A sidebar box reads 'EDITORIAL, PAGE 4: Shut down the Arab Advisory Council'.

Three unrelated articles share the page — 'NO MEZUZAH LAW FOR TEXAS', 'Controversial prof gets tenure' (Joseph Massad at Columbia) and 'Kosher packer on the block' — and none is transcribed here. The story continues on page 2 and that continuation is not in the scan.

Cite this clipping

"CITY HOSTS ANTI-ISRAEL, ANTI-JEWISH FEST," Chicago Jewish Star, 3 July 2009, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2009-045. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2009-045