Picture Warfare?

I found this picture over at Gawker, entitled Let The Sunshine In:





and the caption reads:

BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK - DECEMBER 20: Nour, a Palestinian Muslim woman, enjoys the light streaming in from upper windows onto the ancient marble columns as she visits the Church of the Nativity on December 20, 2009 in Bethlehem, West Bank. In his Angelus message to Christians today, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the birthplace of Jesus, which he said is a city-symbol of peace in the Holy Land and throughout the world. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images)

The author of the post is one Anna Holmes (anna@jezebel.com), editor-in-chief [story here



and another here and here, too and it seems 13 years ago she was a celebrity news hack].

Gawker is an odd place for a picture like this (although two years ago, the site flirted with a bit of, well, antisemitism).

But Ms. Anna has been publishing news photos there (here's another; and another and yet another) and also at a sister site with a very distinct but subtle feminist pro-Pal. political message like the Sheikh Jarrah incidents. There may/probably be more but you get the point.

The really odd thing is that the two sites are not political but social, racy entertainment sites of gossip and airy items. The logo: "celebrity, sex, fashion for women".

What's at stake here?

Well, since the readers, most of them I unhesitantly presume, are quite politically unsophisticated as regards the intricacies and complexities of the Middle East and the Israel-Arab conflict in particular, these pics, if they keep appearing in a fairly innocuous presentation, seep in to the subconsciousness.

For example, would anybody actually ask 'what is a Muslim woman doing in a Church?'. Okay, let's guess.

She is thinking of converting.
Naw.
She is a historian of church architecture.
Naw.
She is having a rendezvous with a priest.
Naw.
She loves the light filtering through church windows.
Naw.
She is looking for a Hamas terrorist still holed up there from 2002.
Naw.

The best I can think is that she was posed. Fauxtography it isn't, at least.

Getty posing shots?

It happens to the best - if the photographer or his bureau chief is so inclined to promote Palestinianism.

But maybe he's just a bit venal - looking for a prize for the best news photograph of the year?

Or maybe Anna likes pictures of women?

________________

Over at Jezebel, Anna has Jewish women at prayer at Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.
1. 2.

Wonkette Follow-up at Gawker

Gawker slips back into sleazy antisemitic innuendo:

What the hell is that skywriting going on right now? Um, near as people can tell from 23rd Street, it seems to be about the U.N. We can't tell at all from SoHo. Is it about the black helicopters that run up the East River on behalf of the secret Jewish world government? Because we hear that's true.

Good comments there.

Gawker Does "The Jews"

SHONDA IN SHIMMO
Jews Arrive, Give Nantucket Blues

Men's Vogue fella Hud Morgan is finally reporting in from somewhere as WASPy as his name: Murray's, on Nantucket's Main Street, where the pale people buy those heinous Nantucket Reds. But bad news!

[A]n hour on the premises will reveal items you never ever knew you wanted until you saw them (an over-the-shoulder tote that stows 10 bottles of wine—husbands, lock up your wives) as well as items probably better suited to a Yale secret society (a skull and crossbones needlepoint cummerbund). The Reds alone take up the entire back wall, and in recent years the collection has expanded to shorts, hats, sweaters, and — que scandale! — yarmulkes.

They even have a tag "The Jews".

So genteel.

While the main story is somewhere else, they do a great job highlighting the Jews.

The Gawker References

Someone has provided a link to the Judeophobic material at Gawker that had been mentioned in the debate over Wonkette and other "Jewish-owned" sites that some people feel are not antisemetic:-

Some Holocaust limericks pulled from Gawker

BY FRACTUREDACETABULUM AT 07/20/07 03:28 PM

(ahem)

Adolf Hitler murdered some Jews
At the time, it didn’t make news
Ever since then people been bitchin’
From subways to soup kitchens
About those god damned Jews

BY MINDBLING AT 07/20/07 03:35 PM

There once was a really bad man
who wanted his nation Aryian
so he fired up the stove
and whoosh, in the Jews go
never to be heard from again.

BY HEYTHEREKILLER AT 07/20/07 03:50 PM

The Germans all say it was not in,
their country. Now who would’ve thought’n,
They’d skin all the Jews,
And make them into shoes,
Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!

BY PROCRASTINATOR, ESQ. AT 07/20/07 04:24 PM

A Dutch Jewess was kept in an attic,
To hide her from neighbors fanatic.
But the Nazis, it seems,
Grew wise to her schemes,
But Anne, must you be so dramatic?

from one thread, alone

And If You missed the Gawker Attempt at Being Funny and...

...dare we say, Judeophobic?

Here.

Gawker Apologizes To The Jews

So our earlier post about our wacky Jew-hating ways got the attention of the folks at Heeb, who were name-checked by Mark "I Like Kike" Caro in his admonitory blog post. The Heebs seem to have understood the humor, but a commenter at their site found us less amusing. Well, obviously that won't do. We've drafted a sincere and heartfelt apology.

Dear Jew,

We are sincerely sorry for offending your delicate Jew sensibilities. Yes, it's true, there are a few Jews here in the office—we've crunched the numbers, and four out of five Gawker editors have at least some Jew blood in them (not on them!)—and we do think that gives us the right to make Jew jokes. But you know what? None of us are Irish, thank God, and we still knock the micks every now and again. We're kinda of the opinion that the idea of ethnicity and its accompanying stereotypes are inherently hilarious. So, sure, we may not know a lot about life in Israel — do you guys still eat the Palestinian kids after your tanks run them over, or did you stop that once Rabin came into office? Do we still send Israel billions of dollars a year? — but, guess what, we think the comical ways in which your Jew country kowtows to the craziest Jew elements of crazy Jewiness could not be funnier. Hope that's okay!

Shalom,
Balk

What was this garbage about? Try here.

But nevertheless, I'm guessing only a left-wing, radical, progressive considers-himself-atheist Jews could think this [do you guys still eat the Palestinian kids after your tanks run them over, or did you stop that once Rabin came into office? Do we still send Israel billions of dollars a year?] funny.