Feminist Who Celebrated October 7 Accuses Surf Media of ‘Cultural Violence’ Over Praise for Israeli Surfer

"Cultural violence is when tools of culture are used to make direct and structural violence seem normal or natural."

The surf feminist and prizewinning filmmaker Lucy Small, well known on these pages, first, for campaigning for equal prizemoney for women then trans-rights-in-sports, followed by a real hard pivot into the liberation of Arabs trapped under the jackboot of the Jewish ethnostate.

Read about Lucy Small, here, here, here, here, here and here.

You’ll remember Lucy Small posting a series of stories after the attack.

These included a reel  from Al Jazeera showing Hamas terrorists in paragliders landing in Israel and about to murder and rape indiscriminately with the caption, “Palestinians in Gaza made history as they escaped the world’s largest prison”. 

Lucy Small describes Israel as being “at the nexus of colonisation, white supremacy, capitalism and (the) military industrial complex…” and explains the contradiction of a feminist and trans-activist supporting a religious fascist group notorious for killing gays and subjugating women with “The end of occupation may allow for healing. It is common in communities affected by armed violence, rates of domestic violence and violence against women are higher – it’s a tragic part of war.”

Phew!

Anyway, a week or so ago, the surf world was delighted when Anat Leilor became Israel’s first-ever surfer on the Championship Tour, prompting an outpouring of love from some of the biggest names in the biz including sexy senior Shane Dorian, ageless surf god Brad Gerlach and multi-pronged world champ Carissa Moore.

It came only year after Israeli surfers, including Anat Lelior, asked the WSL to remove their nationality and flag against their names at a Qualifying event in Morocco citing security concerns.

Now, in a heart-felt post to Instagram, Lucy Small has slammed the celebration of Anat Lelior’s historic achievement, accusing surf media, and tagging Tracks, Stab, TheInertia and Surfer, of “cultural violence.

Lucy Small writes,

Peace studies describes violence in three different ways: direct violence is physical or the threat of physical violence; structural violence is when systems are used to create a violent outcome (starving an entire people to death, for example); and cultural violence.

Cultural violence is when tools of culture are used to make direct and structural violence seem normal or natural.

And here we have some surf media engaging in cultural violence – celebrating the qualification of an Israeli surfer to the CT without mentioning the context within which it has happened. Is it critical context that, while Palestinians in Gaza are unable to leave, unable to get surfboards, unable to do anything but watch their own genocide, Israel has athletes travelling the world to compete in sports? Is it critical context that, while Lelior can live five minutes from the beach, Palestinians in the West Bank cannot access the Mediterranean Sea? That Palestinians around the world cannot set foot in their homelands that are now Tel Aviv? That Israeli access to the Med has come at a deadly cost to Palestinians?

While these stories have been published, Israel introduced the death penalty for Palestinians alone. Not even South Africa did this during its apartheid. Palestinians are tried in military courts in Israel, not civilian courts, and are often denied fair process and coerced into confession. Now, those convicted under these conditions will be put to death.

My point is, Israel continues to be granted impunity for its actions internationally through cultural violence – media and sports and other things that make its actions feel normal, its relations with us thinking, feeling people normalised through moments like this. But we see it for what it is.

The Israeli flag should be banned in pro surfing, and these rags should stop with the propaganda.

Powerful!

Note, Craig Anderson, who liked the post, had a terrific time in Israel a while back, which you can examine below. An interesting tidbit about the movie Tel Aviv Jumps was it was the last thing I made at Stab before my own pivot to BeachGrit alongside a dear friend from Cardiff-by-the-Sea called Charlie Smith.

The original edit included footage from the Holocaust and the 1948 War of Independence, alongside quotes from Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, “Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion”, and JFK, “Israel is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom”.

This opening gambit was subsequently cut by Stab after a couple of loons called up the mag and told ’em they were Zionist shills.