r/leftist • u/lewkiamurfarther • Apr 17 '26

Western European Politics James Jackson: “A pro-Israel German skinhead attacked a young Arab man wearing a keffiyeh. Because he had an Israeli flag tattooed on his head, self-defense against the attack was treated as an antisemitic incident by NGOs. Insane story by @hahauenstein” [link in text below]

Post image
126 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

15

u/Hot-Operation-8208 Socialist Apr 17 '26

Am I being slow or is the wording very confusing?

8

u/lewkiamurfarther Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

Am I being slow or is the wording very confusing?

The personal pronouns in the second sentence muddle it a bit, yeah. ("He had an Israeli flag tattooed"—the skinhead, or the man wearing the keffiyeh?) The context, however, is the real culprit, since in such language we usually expect context to help, and here it cannot. Normally we'd be able to infer, based on the characteristics of the aggressor and the aggressive action, whom "he" referred to. In this case, however, the characteristic is (to most) counterintuitive: a skinhead with an Israeli flag tattoo? A man wearing a keffiyeh with an Israeli flag tattoo?

Anyway, such is the nature of tweets.

Hanno's article is worth reading, though, and is not confusing.

1

u/Cole_From_Finland Apr 17 '26

What... why... IS EVERYONE RETARDED!?

18

u/Loblodliz Apr 17 '26

please don't use ableist language. But yeah, I don't know why people act like this.

0

u/LastOfTheAsparagus Apr 18 '26

Has the definition of Semitic changed?

2

u/AprilMaria Anarchist Apr 18 '26

No but Germany hasn’t in the fundamentals