Ms. Magazine Decision Is Called 'Contemptible'
Jewish feminists are criticizing Ms. magazine for refusing to run a full-page advertisement submitted by the American Jewish Congress that features three prominent Israeli women.
Calling the decision "contemptible" and "hostile" toward Israel, the women — some of whom helped to found the feminist magazine — said that the decision seemed to be motivated by anti-Israel sentiment among the publication's staff and its readers. The advertisement, which includes the words "This is Israel," features photographs of the president of Israel's Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch; Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and the speaker of the Knesset, Dalia Itzik.
"It breaks my heart to have to recognize that the magazine that taught the world about the power and possibilities of women has banned an ad featuring women at the height of political power because they are Israeli," Francine Klagsbrun, the editor of "Free to Be … You and Me," and "The First Ms. Reader," a compilation of articles published in Ms., said.
According to officials at the American Jewish Congress, Ms. magazine declined the advertisement due to a feeling it would incite a "firestorm." "It has been a firestorm, only different than the one Ms. predicted," the director of the group's Commission for Women's Empowerment, Harriet Kurlander, said at a news conference yesterday.
Last night, Ms. magazine refuted the charges. "It simply isn't true and it's not fair," the magazine's executive editor, Katherine Spillar, said. She said the magazine turned down the advertisement because it was outside the publication's mission. "Our role at Ms. magazine is not to promote countries, it is to report on what's happening to women in different countries."
Earlier this week, the magazine posted a profile of Ms. Livni on its site. "We wanted people to see it, so that we couldn't be accused of not covering Israel or Israeli women leaders," Ms. Spillar said.
At least one author who was involved in the magazine during its early days, Phyllis Chesler, said: "This is not the Ms. I once knew so long ago." Recent articles in the magazine "are consistently and sickeningly anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian," she said.
The author Blu Greenberg described a culture of anti-Israel sentiment within parts of the feminist movement: "The forces at Ms. that decide matters have aligned themselves with those on the political far left whose agenda is to totally delegitimize Israel on the state of world opinion."
