This is straightforwardly a consequence of the Israeli appropriation of the symbols of Judaism, is it not?
What (percentage of?) symbols of the state of Israel are not based on (potentially ambiguous) preexisting Jewish symbols or myths they’ve hijacked? How many of those are widely recognized by people who are not Israeli?
The result, very much intentional, is that, absent context or caption, symbolic reference to Israel is often ambiguous with symbolic reference to Jews and Judaism. But that’s not up to anyone but the Zionist project which has taken up those symbols in that way.
So what’s the proposition? Just say ‘well I guess we can’t ever make any iconographic reference to the state of Israel if we’re critical of it’? Or, more weakly, should we limit our use of Israeli iconography in some cases (e.g., say ‘sorry, but a Star of David with a skull in the middle, in particular, is just too much for reasons XYZ’)?
A couple of alternatives I can think of that might help:
try to incorporate text or other, less ambiguous symbols to make the meaning and target of our disapproval clear (which the OP does, to some extent)
when using the Star of David to represent Israel in a negative way, include other elements of the flag like the bars of the general aspect ratio of flags
This is straightforwardly a consequence of the Israeli appropriation of the symbols of Judaism
Hexagram was adopted as official symbol of zionism in 1897. Before it was not even used exclusively by Jews, christians used it too and it’s very prominent in islam. Not to mention as a simple and pleasing to the eyes regular geometric construct basically all civilisations came on it independently and used it.
This is straightforwardly a consequence of the Israeli appropriation of the symbols of Judaism, is it not?
What (percentage of?) symbols of the state of Israel are not based on (potentially ambiguous) preexisting Jewish symbols or myths they’ve hijacked? How many of those are widely recognized by people who are not Israeli?
The result, very much intentional, is that, absent context or caption, symbolic reference to Israel is often ambiguous with symbolic reference to Jews and Judaism. But that’s not up to anyone but the Zionist project which has taken up those symbols in that way.
So what’s the proposition? Just say ‘well I guess we can’t ever make any iconographic reference to the state of Israel if we’re critical of it’? Or, more weakly, should we limit our use of Israeli iconography in some cases (e.g., say ‘sorry, but a Star of David with a skull in the middle, in particular, is just too much for reasons XYZ’)?
A couple of alternatives I can think of that might help:
What else?
Hexagram was adopted as official symbol of zionism in 1897. Before it was not even used exclusively by Jews, christians used it too and it’s very prominent in islam. Not to mention as a simple and pleasing to the eyes regular geometric construct basically all civilisations came on it independently and used it.
Thanks for letting me know all this!
And yeah that latter point makes perfect sense to me.