Chicago's SlutWalk Apologizes & Updates Stance On 'Zionist Displays,' Post-Dyke March Controversy

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 31, 2017 11:16PM

SlutWalk Chicago, the local chapter of the annual anti-rape-culture protest, apologized on Monday for some of the organization's comments on social media related to the post-Dyke March/"Zionism" controversy. The organization in a statement reiterated that the Star of David is not banned from the protest and said that "all symbols of faith and heritage are welcome."

SlutWalk Chicago had said on Twitter last week that "the Star of David is not banned" but "Zionist displays" would be.

"We are as firmly against anti-Semitism as we are against Islamophobia," SlutWalk said in Monday's statement. At the same time, the organization apologized for two controversial actions it took on social media. including blocking some Jewish activists and retweeting posts that said the Star of David has always been a Zionist symbol, according to SlutWalk:

"That said, our collective has not handled the situation as well as we could have, and we have things to apologize for, specifically the blocking of Jewish activists asking if they would be welcome to display Stars of David at the march. We are working to correct this by unblocking the people who were asking legitimate questions.

We also apologize for two retweets posted to the SlutWalk twitter last weekend that stated that the Magen David was always a zionist symbol and could not be reclaimed as a symbol of Jewish pride outside of the context of Zionism. This is not a position that we as a collective stand behind, and the person responsible for the retweets has removed themselves from the group and we are no longer organizing with them pending an accountability process."

The full statement can be read in the embed below.

The statement follows a story published on Sunday by Haaretz, in which a co-organizer identified as Red S. walked back sentiments expressed in Twitter posts that said SlutWalk stood beside Dyke March's decision and "won't allow Zionist displays at ours."

Red told Haaretz:

“That came out of a very rash tweet that we sent out, that we are banning Zionist symbols that we should not have sent out, as a result of a particular social media team responding very urgently, without talking to the collective."

SlutWalk faced criticism after it announced its intent to ban Zionist displays after the Dyke March dispute. "How, exactly, would organizers differentiate between benign and malign flags? It’s unclear; the only hint provided is that 'context matters,'" wrote Mark Joseph Stern in Slate last week, referring to this SlutWalk tweet.

"Bring symbols of your respective faiths, if that is what you choose to do," SlutWalk said in its statement. "Bring symbols of resistance, but leave symbols of nationalism and oppression at home."