Ice cream entrepreneur frozen out for Israel photos

Local ice cream entrepreneur Paul Ballen felt the viciousness of the anti-Israel lobby when he posted enchanting photographs of his holiday in Israel on his personal Instagram account.

Ballen, the owner of Paul’s Homemade Ice Cream, is an avid photographer, so when he visited Israel for his cousin’s wedding this month, he shared his images online.

His holiday snapshots show life in Jerusalem, from a child eating candyfloss to a man praying at the Kotel.

None of the images were political, but anti-Israel extremists quickly began trolling his personal account and spamming his photos, mostly with calls to “free Palestine” and Palestinian flags. Others spammed his business account. The ugly comments were from local and international social-media users.

One user in particular saw positive comments from customers, and approached multiple people individually to stop supporting Paul’s Homemade Ice Cream. “Does your ice cream come in the flavour ‘heartless, cruel, merciless murder’?” commented one user, tying into the classic antisemitic blood-libel accusation.

Ballen told the SA Jewish Report he had kept his cool during the onslaught. “I always take photos when I travel, and this was no different,” he says. “The titles of my photos are neutral, for example, ‘Popcorn Kid’ of a young boy enjoying popcorn. I expressed no political views, and didn’t even mention Israel.”

But soon after he posted these pictures, he said, “we started getting emails, comments on my personal page, and some on my business page. Some customers, who are wholesalers, sent us long emails asking us to ‘uplift our freezers from their forecourts’.”

His colleague, Amir Laufert, says, “We told these wholesalers that we’re Jewish-owned, and two of us are Israeli. We said that we didn’t believe Israel was an apartheid state. We said we were proud Jews entitled to visit our holy sites. We believe there’s pressure on Muslim-owned dealers, and this is antisemitism hiding behind anti-Zionism.”

At the same time, their stores have reported “plenty of Muslim customers buying ice cream”. “I refuse to hide that I’m Jewish – it’s their problem, not mine,” Ballen says.

He has advised that other Jewish business owners be proudly Jewish, never hiding who they are. He refused to make his profile private, and would rather ignore the trolls than let them make him feel he has to hide any aspect of his identity.

He notes that some Muslims have criticised the social-media onslaught. At first, Fatima Asmal wrote “Kudos to all the people voicing their support for Palestine on Paul Ballen’s Instagram page.” However she then backtracked, and shared another post by Mohamed Kharwa.

Kharwa wrote, “I think someone has jumped the gun here. Does his visiting a place that’s important to his faith imply support for the government of that country? I haven’t seen pics of pro-Zionism. Could be pics of almost any tourist. I don’t know the person or his beliefs, but if we jump to conclusions based on pics, what happens when people do the same to us? All we are using is a set of pictures to determine what a person stands for. The same could be said of someone who visits Saudi Arabia, supporting what its government stands for. Our shoot-from-the-hip approach hasn’t worked. This could be a picture any tourist takes visiting Jerusalem. We need to find out first, and engage people before we jump to boycotts.”

Asmal described this post as “food for thought”.

Benji Shulman, the director of public policy at the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), says, “The attack on Paul’s personal social-media accounts clearly shows the antisemitic intent of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions organisation’s] campaign and its followers. What triggered the incident was an innocent image taken on holiday of a religious man praying at the Kotel.

“This sparked a boycott call, leading to a swarm of trolls aggressively commenting on posts in an attempt to create a groundswell of public hostility and undermine the business. Their sole intention is to target the Jewish community and its associated institutions, which evidently has nothing to do with the fight for rights or support for peace. The SAZF continues to work proactively to combat hatred against Israel and assist community members who have been affected by these bullying tactics.”

South African Jewish Board of Deputies National Director Wendy Kahn says, “Once again, we see these thuggish tactics being used to attempt to bully and silence any individuals who don’t conform to the views of these BDS trolls. We affirm our right as South African citizens to visit Israel, and cherish our proud connection to the Jewish state. With these temperatures rising, it’s never a better time for a Paul’s Ice Cream.”