British novelist and producer J.K. Rowling entered a Twitter spat on Thursday, triggered by a user on the social media platform insisting that “Judaism is a religion not a race.” The renowned author – who is not a Jew herself – took apart this argument by pointing out that atheist Jews weren’t “exempted from wearing the yellow star.”
Most UK Jews in my timeline are currently having to field this kind of crap, so perhaps some of us non-Jews should start shouldering the burden. Antisemites thinks this is a clever argument, so tell us, do: were atheist Jews exempted from wearing the yellow star? #antisemitism pic.twitter.com/H5xLLXTdQO
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 18, 2018
The novelist went on to respond to a user who claimed that arguing against anti-Semitism is “culturally insensitive to Muslims.”
“When you only understand bigotry in terms of "pick a team" and get a mind- boggling response,” J.K. Rowling tweeted in response to the remark.
She made good use of a GIF featuring Hugh Laurie captioned “The 'Arabs are Semitic too' hot takes have arrived #Antisemitism,” responding to a gaggle of users who argued that Arabs can’t be anti-Semitic because they are Semites themselves.
The 'Arabs are semitic too' hot takes have arrived. #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/4vrAbnwVB6
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 18, 2018
J.K. Rowling concluded her defense by posting a screenshot of the definition of anti-Semitism, captioned “Split hairs. Debate etymology. Gloss over the abuse of your fellow citizens by attacking the actions of another country's government. Would your response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify?”
Split hairs. Debate etymology. Gloss over the abuse of your fellow citizens by attacking the actions of another country's government. Would your response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify? pic.twitter.com/PPmb4zQWxo
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 18, 2018
On a lighter note, she almost confused a tweet by one of her followers which reads “How wonderful that you’re experiencing it for the first time! Enjoy!”
She initially mistook the tweet for telling her to enjoy her first exposure to anti-Semitism when the user was actually tweeting to another follower who had just finished reading Rowling’s Harry Potter series for the first time.
For a second there I thought @jessiebacho was telling me it was wonderful that I was experiencing antisemitism for the first time… then I realised she was responding to somebody who just finished reading Harry Potter for the first time 💞 #ReadCarefullyBeforeCursing https://t.co/PL2X9fhzdc
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 18, 2018
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