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Why did this secular actor pretend to be a gay, ultra-Orthodox man?
Under fire, Oved justified his fraud by claiming he was standing up for a disempowered, voiceless community.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
A secular Israeli actor who portrayed himself as a gay member of the ultra-Orthodox community has been exposed as a fraud, to the shock of his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Yaakov Levy was a popular influencer known for his viral clips about his personal life, detailing his struggles, triumphs and day-to-day challenges as a gay, religious Jew.
Praised by his followers for his bravery and authenticity, he recently attended the Tel Aviv LGBTQ pride parade dressed in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) garb and waving a rainbow fan emblazoned with the word “kosher.”
But in reality, Yaakov Levy is Erez Oved, a secular Jewish Israeli actor who lives in Tel Aviv, one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
“I had no idea that he had another online alter ego until about a year after I met him,” Jack Lawson, a neighbor of the actor, told the Jewish Chronicle.
He said that he had seen a video on Instagram of what “appeared to be a Haredi” man waving a gay pride flag and instantly recognized Oved as the subject of the clip.
“Erez comes across as your standard, secular gay Israeli from southern Tel Aviv, so it was kind of weird when I found out about ‘Yaakov’,” Lawson said, adding that he was “disturbed” by the revelation and cut ties with Oved after seeing the video.
Lawson said that “the “Yaakov outfit is just a costume he keeps in his closet at home” and that Oved is usually seen biking around the neighborhood “wearing a tank top, shorts and flip flops.”
Despite being exposed as a fraud, Oved justified his behavior by claiming he was standing up for a disempowered, voiceless community.
“I decided to create a character that could be a symbol for everyone who has difficulties with the subject [of homosexuality], but whose purpose was to raise awareness, and be the voice that it is okay to be ultra-Orthodox and gay, for all those who can’t make their voices heard,” Oved wrote in a lengthy post.
“We live in a terrible reality,” he said. “I came to fight and try to change people’s lives,” adding that his goal was to bring about “positive change.”
‘Aren’t you embarrassed?’
Oved’s claim to have been acting for the benefit of gay ultra-Orthodox Jews did not acknowledge that he is not from that community and likely does not understand the challenges they face, nor did he explain why he believes members of the sector cannot advocate for themselves.
“Why were you pretending to be Haredi though and not just a normal gay Jew?” asked one of Oved’s confused followers in a reply to his explanatory post, in which Oved admitted to the fraud.
“Aren’t you embarrassed? You lied to two vulnerable minority communities for followers [and social media attention],” an additional user commented on Oved’s page.
“Maybe [being gay] is not a mental illness, but pretending to be an ultra-Orthodox gay [man] is a very serious mental illness,” wrote another user.
It’s unclear why Oved chose to perpetuate the elaborate ruse for such a lengthy period of time, but a recent post under the identity of Levy raises questions regarding one potential motive – media attention.
Presenting himself as his ultra-Orthodox character, Oved said that he had a “dream” for a documentary film to be made about his life.
“If you know a documentary director and/or a producer, I would appreciate it if you could send me their email address,” he captioned a video posted to his social media accounts.
“I would be happy if you would agree to share this post so that you might see my movie soon on Netflix or HBO.”
Oved’s fraud calls to mind the story of Rachel Dolezal, a white American woman who pretended to be black for more than a decade. Dolezal was so successful in her false identity that she even became the president of her local chapter of the NAACP.
Similarly to Oved, Dolezal claimed that she did not perpetuate a false identity in order “to upset people.” She later added in a media statement that “challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving human consciousness”.
The post Why did this secular actor pretend to be a gay, ultra-Orthodox man? appeared first on World Israel News.
WATCH: Why are Israeli-made tanks heading to Europe?
In a historic deal, hundreds of Israeli Merkava tanks will be sold to countries in Europe amid Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The post WATCH: Why are Israeli-made tanks heading to Europe? appeared first on World Israel News.
Africa’s 10 Point Peace Plan: Mission: President Cyril Ramaphosa
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BBC: Not fair to call anyone a ‘terrorist’
The BBC statement came in response to an MK’s letter demanding that it stop “fanning terrorism.”
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The BBC has responded to an MK’s demand to call out terrorism by saying that it would be unfair to “label people.”
MK Ohad Tal had written to the British broadcaster to protest the depiction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as “illegal” and a “crime,” noting that respected international law experts have determined otherwise. Tal said that their repetitive assertion is “fanning terrorism” because Palestinians justify the murder of civilians by saying that it’s a “natural reaction” to Israeli “crimes.”
At the very least, the lawmaker wrote, “If ‘settlements’ are consistently presented as illegal, then a fortiori, terrorism should certainly be presented as illegal.”
BBC Deputy CEO Jonathan Munro disagrees.
“We would argue that this is false equivalence and they are two entirely separate issues,” he responded. “The BBC doesn’t change the word ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorism’ when quoting other people. But at the core of the policy is the decision – taken many years ago – not to label people, groups or acts as ‘terrorist.’ This is because the word ‘terrorism’ means different things to different people and a universal definition is always out of reach.”
He also defended the BBC position by pointing out that the UN member states have “no agreed definition” for terrorism.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a running list of victims of Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000. There are more than 1,400 names on the list, the vast majority of them civilians who were murdered via suicide bombings, knife attacks, car rammings, shootings and rock throwing, among other means.
More than 100 of these victims are minors, including some dozen infants and toddlers. Ten-month- old Shalhevet Pass, for example, was killed while sitting in her baby carriage by sniper fire in Hebron in 2001, and Hadas Fogel, three months old, was stabbed and killed along with her parents and two young siblings in their Itamar home while asleep in 2011.
Munro also dismissed Tal’s assertion that the settlements are legal, saying that “their establishment is predicated on the supposed rights of Jewish people to settle the land,” whereas UN resolutions, which have called them illegal, “are an additional source of international law.”
“The position held by the majority international community outweighs the views of any individual lawyer,” he added.
Tal reacted Monday by saying that the Jewish rights to settle the land of Israel were not “supposed” rights. He also regretted that the BBC director did not know that the rights of the Jewish people to settle the land were recognized irrevocably by the international community “including in Article 80 of the UN’s own charter.”
The post BBC: Not fair to call anyone a ‘terrorist’ appeared first on World Israel News.
NATO Attacks Europe. Manlio Dinucci
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Ireland’s ‘Hate Speech’ Laws – Censoring Ukraine Truth?
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