SlutWalk Accuses New 'Progressive Zionist' Group Of 'Disgusting' Appropriation Of Annual Protest

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 10, 2017 6:09PM

Photo of Slutwalk 2012, via Samantha Abernethy.

Nearly two months after events at Chicago's Dyke March launched a controversy about the Star of David what constitutes Zionist expressions, a rift is emerging between a group of leftist activists and self-described "Zionist progressives" ahead of an annual march against rape culture.

SlutWalk Chicago says it does not support a group called the Zioness Movement—a just-emerged organization that plans to join SlutWalk's annual demonstration on Saturday afternoon. SlutWalk accuses the group of appropriating the day to promote a "nationalist agenda"—a charge that a Zioness organizer called "bigoted."

Amanda Berman, a New York-based attorney and one of the leaders of Zioness, told Chicagoist that the organization was founded in order to address the "alienation of sincere progressive Zionists from important social justice movements and civil rights causes." The group advocates for the same women's rights, civil rights, sexual rights and anti-patriarchy causes as SlutWalk, insists Berman, who serves as Director of Legal Affairs at The Lawfare Project, a group that describes itself as the legal arm of the pro-Israel movement.

“The purpose [of Slutwalk] is to say women should be free to wear what they want with out being targeted, to wear nothing in fact… We want to express ourselves, too. We are progressive Jewish Zionists and in fact maybe there may be progressive non-Jewish Zionists" present, Berman said.

The group largely grew out of feeling "targeted and discriminated against" after the Dyke March controversy, in which two women carrying rainbow pride flags with Stars of David were ejected. (Each side offered different accounts.)

SlutWalk Chicago had originally said the protest—which is scheduled for Saturday at noon, at Lake Shore Park—would similarly prohibit "Zionist displays" before updating its stance, while also underscoring that Stars of David were never to be banned. A statement released in July noted that "all symbols of faith and heritage are welcome."

While Zioness claims solidarity with the anti-racist. anti-sexist, pro-queer mission of SlutWalk, the people behind the annual protest were suspicious of Zioness and declared their lack of support for the new group in a statement released on Thursday morning.

SlutWalk Chicago said in the statement:

"SlutWalk Chicago does not support the 'Zioness progressives' planning on coming to the walk Saturday. We at SlutWalk Chicago stand with Jewish people, just as we stand for Palestinian human rights. Those two ideologies can exist in the same realm, and taking a stance against anti-semitism is not an affirmation of support for the state of Israel and its occupation of Palestine. We oppose all oppressive governments whether they be the United States or Israel, as we recognize these regimes often disproportionately oppress women and femmes. We find it disgusting that any group would appropriate a day dedicated to survivors fighting rape culture in order to promote their own nationalist agenda.

On Saturday, SlutWalk will march against rape culture, against victim blaming, against slut shaming, against whorephobia, and for all survivors internationally."

Berman meanwhile pushed back against a link being drawn between Zioness and support of Israeli policy. "I am not the government of Israel, that's not who I am," Berman told Chicagoist. "To exclude me because they oppose the government of Israel is to say that because I am Jewish—and therefore they think that I may be responsible for the policies of the Israeli government—is deeply offensive to me and bigoted." Berman also denied that the group was co-opting the day. "There are Jewish victims and survivors of rape. There are Zionist women who face sexual assault," she said.

A SlutWalk organizer responded on behalf of the group that Slutwalk thinks Zioness was "putting their position on Israel ahead of their identities as or solidarity with survivors." The organizer also claimed that the group's flyer was released in a misleading fashion so as to imply a link between the groups.

The organizer told Chicagoist:

"It's frankly disturbing how they're re-framing our position on Israel as a personal issue. We are not excluding anyone by saying that nationalist agendas are not welcome at the event, we are simply asking that people leave those agendas at home if they plan on attending.

This Zioness group is putting their position on Israel ahead of their identities as or solidarity with survivors. While we don't agree with their politics regarding Israel, it isn't the politics themselves we take greatest issue with, it's the centering of those politics over the fight for equality and against patriarchy, rape culture, slut shaming, victim blaming, the intersections of all those things, and the state agencies that further these oppressive systems. That's where the issue of appropriation comes up: when they released their flyer they did so in a way that implied that they were associated with us, had been invited, and by extension that their position on Israel, which we do not share, would be centered at the march. Needless to say, this is absolutely not the case.

As we said in our statement, we fight for equality for everyone which means we stand with Jewish AND Palestinian people, while taking a firmly anti-state, anti-imperialist position that necessarily includes Israel."