Occupy Wall Street supported the latest (failed) attempt by activists to break Israel’s naval blockade — until it didn’t.
Last night, the Twitter feed of Occupywallst.org tweeted: “@OccupyWallSt: We support and would like to express #solidarity to #FreedomWaves #Palestine.”
But within an hour it had been deleted, leaving behind only orphaned re-tweets from the excited (then disappointed) pro-Palestinian activists and the amused opponents of the movement, who for weeks have been arguing the movement contains elements of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment.
Meanwhile, one frustrated Jewish activist was left explaining away the off-message tweet.
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According to Dan Sieradski, the organizer behind Occupy Judaism, nothing has changed in the Occupy Wall Street movement’s line and the tweet was just an example of someone going rogue. He tweeted after the deletion: “#OWS is a consensus based movement. The GA has never discussed the I/P issue & even if it did, it would never reach consensus. #FreedomWaves.”
Occupywallst.org, which runs the Twitter feed, does insist on its website that it is only an unofficial resource, and in no way represents the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly.
At my old blogging home, Tablet’s The Scroll, Marc Tracy notes that it is still easy for activists to debunk accusations of anti-Semitism, but "it is going to become more and more difficult to deny that there are pro-Palestinian, and if you like pro-Hamas, elements among the occupiers, at which point, for many people, the compelling economic message will be drowned out."
I’m not sure I agree with the last part. There have always been pro-Palestinian elements — or at least sympathies — in Zuccotti Park, but although the occupiers have been criticized about lacking a clear focus, they’ve more or less managed the difficult task of accepting — or at least tolerating — activists of all stripes and maintaining a domestic economic focus.
Pro-Palestinian activists have been frustrated — much like animal rights groups, and other single-issue activists — by an inability to get official recognition from the Occupy General Assembly. This effort to keep the focus on economics, and away from extrraneous issues, is similar to the #J14 movement in Israel this summer — and a big part of why both movements maintained their momentum.
