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April 4, 2024
Hrag Vartanian
Editor and CEO
Hyperallergic
Dear Mr. Vartanian:
We were horrified and outraged by your cover story, “Israel Flattens Neighboring Pavilions at Venice Biennale,” (April 1). While labeled in fine print as an “April Fools” satire on your website, the piece has been flagged to us by many readers who found the article deeply insensitive and offensive. We agree with those readers – satire label notwithstanding, the article is little more than a gratuitous and underhanded swipe at Israel at a time when the country is still recovering from the trauma of a massive terrorist attack and when hundreds of its hostages are still unaccounted for in Gaza.
What’s more, your April 1 edition also featured a second “story” taking pot-shots at Israel, “Berlin Museum Removes All Artwork Depicting Rivers or Seas,” which, by inference, took an extremely jaundiced view of Germany’s longstanding support for Israel. There were no satirical articles taking a similar swipe at the terrorist group Hamas or their violent actions, which provoked the current crisis. And we also noted that your publication has run a number of news articles on the war itself, almost entirely from the pro-Palestinian perspective.
At ADL, we believe in giving leeway to satire, even when it plays on racial or ethnic stereotypes that are intended to provoke a response. But considering the still-raw trauma of the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 for Israelis – with hundreds of hostages still unaccounted for and families still mourning the dead, as well as the growing loss of civilian life and increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza – this satire was ill-timed, the subject poorly chosen and deeply insensitive and offensive.
At a time when antisemitism is soaring around the world and Israel is facing a serious existential threat from various regional actors in the Middle East – Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran among others – and when civilian lives are being lost both in Israel and Gaza, we would hope that the editors and writers of Hyperallergic would exercise greater caution and better judgment. I hope you’ll agree this satire was a mistake and pull these “stories” from circulation immediately.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Greenblatt
CEO and National Director
ADL (Anti-Defamation League)