Apparently not.

I’ll tell you why. 

I take a fitness class on Zoom.  There are six or eight women participants and an instructor. I don’t know the women, we just signed up to take the class. My guess is all of us are over 55 years old.  I know the instructor slightly: she is a good and well-meaning person.   

Yesterday, it was chilly in my house, so I looped my red keffiyeh around my neck before the start of the class. A keffiyeh is a Palestinian scarf– not an outrageous t-shirt, not a maga-cap.  

Just as the class began, one of the women bellowed “take that scarf off.”  All of us were startled;  I had no idea she was talking to me – neither did the others.  

She shouted it again and added that she “couldn’t stand the sight of me”. She repeated, “Take the scarf off!!” I replied in a normal tone of voice “No.”  Then I added, “I don’t take orders.” 

I smiled but she was not smiling –she was furious.  She persisted in an ugly and authoritarian voice she said she was “offended”;  she “wouldn’t stand for it.” She demanded I remove the scarf or leave the zoom call. 

She said this was a “non-political” class, and no one had the right to bring in politics.  She said, “speaking as a Jew, it is not appropriate to wear even a Jewish Star around my neck” at the class, let alone what I was wearing.  So she was making the rules now? I said that I too was Jewish – but she was not listening – except to herself. She didn’t pause an instant in her outrage –even when I stated I too was Jewish.

Emotional Blackmail

Then she started the emotional blackmail; she told us all that she was crying and shaking. Couldn’t we see that, she demanded?  She wanted us all to notice how terribly affected she was by me, how triggering — someone she’s never met –who said the word NO to her. Then she repeated she couldn’t even look at me.  

The tantrum did the trick.  Several of the women “pinged” indicating they were exiting the class.  The women were frightened; they didn’t expect an uproar and wanted to escape.  

I could see why the instructor was concerned.  This was her business that she had taken years to build. If some women drop out because they don’t like nastiness, they could stop their subscriptions.  And worse, the instructor’s reputation could be ruined so new people might stay away.  

The Privilege of being Jewish

The woman’s threats against me and the instructor were obvious. If the instructor could not “control” me, and what I wore, then that Jewish woman was going to make a lot of trouble for the instructor. 

This form of blackmail is de rigueur  from those Jews who want to silence anyone who dares to support Palestinians—and criticise Israel.  This was brought home by Simone Zimmerman, who played herself  in the 2023 documentary film, Israelism.  Zimmerman, who attended parochial Jewish school from kindergarten to grade 12, joined Hillel (the main pro-Israel Jewish campus group in the US and Canada) when she was a student at  Berkeley. She later was a founder of the non-Zionist organization “If Not Now” and has led many campaigns against Israel.

In leadership training at Hillel, Zimmerman was told to cry and throw a tantrum as a way to emphasise her unquestioning loyalty to Israel. I can see how an outburst like the one by the Jewish woman at my fitness class certainly had the effect of silencing disagreement and cowing everyone else. 

She uses her privilege to shut down any discussion (or even a symbol) of Palestinian resistance.  Her attempt to erase my keffiyeh mirrors a desire to erase the Palestinians.

The instructor tried to put an end to the Jewish woman’s harassment by suggesting she and I talk this over after the class.  I nodded “okay”, but the Jewish woman screamed she would “never” talk to me.  Again –I smiled. 

This is what I know:  The Jewish woman is entitled and privileged.  She uses her privilege to shut down any discussion (or even a symbol) of Palestinian resistance.  Her attempt to erase my keffiyeh mirrors a desire to erase the Palestinians – much like kings in the middle ages who vanquished, burned, hanged anyone they didn’t fancy who did not do as they were told.  

The Jewish woman at fitness had absolutely no shame about the state that represents her, and claims to represent the 10 million Jews outside of Israel that has just murdered more than 40,000 Palestinian women, babies, children and the elderly in seven months.  It is also a fact that more than 100,000 Palestinians have been heinously injured by Israel in its war on Gaza.  The Jewish woman at my class will refuse to admit the killings and maimings even occurred. 

It is the Israeli missiles and bombs (supplied and paid for by the US and its allies including Canada) which targeted and destroyed almost every apartment building, every home, every school, every hospital, every university in Gaza.  The 10,000 victims who are trapped in collapsed buildings are women, children and the elderly – those who had to stay in their homes because they thought it was safer to have shelter.  

I wonder if that Jewish woman even considers what is like to eat grass, or animal feed day after day. To have no clean water, no medicine, to have a baby (180 are born every day in Gaza ) or an amputation with no anaesthetic.  

The Jewish woman in the fitness class is full of privilege.  Her privilege means she has the right to silence Israel’s critics.  Her feelings are more important than millions of Palestinians’ lives in Gaza.  

She has the right to call the shots on any matter that pertains to Israel — wherever she happens to be.  So it is in order for her to veto what I wear in my home to an exercise class.  

Writer Caitlin Johnstone describes what should be our reaction to the Jewish woman’s nastiness and exactly how her privilege tries to shape our protests: 

“The correct thing to do when someone tries to tell you that opposing an active genocide is discriminatory against Jews is to laugh uproariously and then ignore everything else they say for the rest of their lives.

“Jewish Zionists are like ‘Excuse me, it’s actually against my religion for you to oppose genocide. You need to stop religiously persecuting me with peace activism.’ “

We should all bow to the feelings of Jews who are pro-Israel – we have to bow and scrape actually.  We know now that in Canada dozens of medical students and doctors have been threatened (STAR), chastised or even disciplined for signing petitions that support Palestinians; a clerk at a Co-op food store, servers in restaurants have been disciplined for daring to support Palestinians; journalists have been fired; writers and producers at the CBC have been disciplined or let go; teachers have faced abuse and threats to their careers for speaking about Palestine.  Ontario MPP Sara Jama was both thrown out of the NDP caucus and kicked out of the legislature. The Speaker of the Ontario legislature has forbidden the wearing of the keffiyeh by anyone in the chamber.

And now across Canada there are encampments of students and their supporters who say we want our university to boycott Israel, divest from Israel, and sanction Israel; we need a ceasefire now. Police have viciously attacked people in encampments at the University of Calgary, University of Alberta and at UQAM.  McGill University, arguably the most elite university in the country, twice failed to get an injunction to tear up the encampment there.  Toronto will likely seek an injunction on Monday, but may send in the police to tear the encampment down, beat up campers. The U of T threatens to suspend or expel students.  Their only crime is to support Palestinian human rights—and to fly in the face of Jewish privilege wielded by those such as my fitness friend. 

Featured cartoon at the top: by Carlos Latuff (credit: MiddleEastMonitor)