Key points.

Animal cruelty is like the Holocaust:

Yourofsky calls slaughterhouses “concentration camps” and compares factory farming to the Holocaust. He plays a bloody, four-minute montage in which workers slam baby pigs to the ground, force-feed geese, and sear chicken beaks. Ultimately, he urges his audience to give up consuming meat and animal products immediately: “Animals are being abused. It is not your right and it is not your freedom to do this to them. You don’t get to have freedom when somebody else doesn’t.”

When that speaker was asked about Palestinians:

“Since the ‘international community’ is comprised of violent, bloodthirsty thugs who terrorize billions of innocent animals every second of every minute of every hour of every day, the ‘international community’ can go to HELL,” he wrote +972. “When people start eating sliced up Jew flesh, or seared Palestinian children in between two slices of bread with onions, pickles and mustard, then I’ll be concerned about the Middle East situation.”

Veganism under capitalism:

Aleph Farms, the company behind the lab-grown meat that Netanyahu tasted. It’s co-founded by the Strauss Group—a food manufacturer that has provided financial support(Opens in a new tab) to the Israel Defense Forces’ Golani Brigade, which has a history of severe human rights abuses—and the Technion, the university whose research and development in military technology helps sustain the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Future Meat Technologies, meanwhile, is based on founder Yaakov Nahmias’s work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is licensed through its technology transfer company, Yissum. In 2014 the university, which is built in part on occupied Palestinian territory, established a donation page(Opens in a new tab) to support the “warrior students” who joined Israel’s attack on Gaza; in 2019, it was announced that it would host an army base(Opens in a new tab) for IDF intelligence officers. The Technion, Strauss, and Hebrew University have all been targets of the BDS movement

And alternative leftist veganism:

“If veganism truly is about not harming another living thing to the best of our ability, and we can accept that people are animals, it is logical that a ‘vegan’ soldier engaged in armed combat against a civilian population is not just nonsensical, it is simply not veganism,” Safi is obviously right—if one views veganism as a radical and comprehensive liberatory philosophy. But the partial success of Israel’s veganwashing campaign around the world makes clear that his definition of veganism is not universally shared. “Veganism is freedom, abundance, and liberation for all. Or, it can be. But only if there is justice for Palestine.”

  • RandyLahey [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    back in my bad old omni days, i was on a little tour thing in the czech republic with a bunch of people and i met the only actual israeli ive ever met, some dude in his 50s or 60s. we went to this morbidly fascinating bone chapel, and his comment to us was "this must remind you of the bones of your murdered australian aboriginal people", which okay very fair, but also fucking glass houses dude. when my partners zipper got stuck later, his comment was "we have a saying in israel - if force doesnt work, use more force" fucking yikes

    anyway the point of the story - we went to lunch afterwards and he was loudly berating everyone for animal cruelty, as he had recently gone vegetarian. and then for lunch he ordered this giant fucking fish, head and all

    so yeah very anecdotal but thats my experience with israeli animal rights activism

    • Speaker [e/em/eir]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      "Actually, you can tell from the skull shape that this one was from the state of Palestine." and then see if his head explodes.

      Also, that classic vegetable, the fish. :vegan-tofu:

      • RandyLahey [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        yeah i can understand someone being an ethical vegetarian if they arent aware of the real horrors of the dairy and egg industries, but i absolutely cannot fathom pescetarians, i just cannot imagine the mental gymnastics you would have to do

  • pocket_tofu [she/her,fae/faer]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Yourofsky got kicked out of the activist community for being racist years ago. He hasn't been active for like five years.

    But yes, Isreal is the worst veganwasher out there.