Alice Walkers history of antisemitism returns to spotlight The Jerusalem Post | Makemetechie.com Summary
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- Last year, a book festival in Berkeley, California, disinvited her from a major event over what the festival said was her “endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke.” Walker had been promoting “Gathering Blossoms Under Fire,” a newly published collection of her journals..
- The poem includes a link to an interview she conducted with controversial Israeli pro-Palestinian activist Miko Peled.Walker’s troubles with antisemitism would break into public view the following year, when The New York Times Book Review asked her to list her favorite books for a regular column..
- At the time, film critic Roger Ebert, who named Spielberg’s film the best of the year, suspected this was due to the racism of a nearly entirely white Academy.In the midst of Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Walker has continued to advocate for Palestinians..
- Married to a prominent Jewish civil rights lawyer when she was younger, Walker in the mid-2010s began promoting works by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and authored an antisemitic poem of her own..
- Walker’s activism around Israel for years was contentious but largely in line with most pro-Palestinian thought.In 2010, she published a short essay book, “Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel,” that originated as an essay in the left-wing Jewish website Tikkun..
- But the university never gave a clear reason, and in fact invited her to speak again the following year without incident.By 2017, Walker’s tone had hardened — not only against Israel, but also Jews more broadly..
The bright, colorful movie musical The Color Purple, which opens in theaters on Christmas, tells a story that has by now become a familiar part of the American canon of a young Black womans self [+10559 chars]