JTA — When Ita Skoblinski learned that a favorite dance studio in Montreal was boycotting a movement style that originated in Israel, she wasn’t sure what to think.

An Israeli designer who moved to Canada a decade ago, she was sympathetic to efforts to add pressure against the Israeli government over its war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank. But she was also increasingly uncomfortable with how opposition to the war was manifesting itself where she lived.

“I find myself in a very weird and confused situation in which something that I worked a big chunk of my life towards, awareness to the Palestinian people and their plight, is now happening,” Skoblinski said in an interview. “But it’s also coming at this unexpected price of hatred… hatred towards Jews, and a lot of misunderstanding and lack of context.”

So Skoblinski took to social media, inviting her Facebook followers to weigh in on her reaction to the announcement by Studio 303 that it would boycott Israel and drop Gaga dance classes, which she had enjoyed.

“As someone who stands against the routine killing of children, the starvation of civilians, and public declarations of ethnic cleansing… As someone who left Israel, in part, because of its moral collapse… As someone who stands in full solidarity with the civilians of Gaza, I still feel, as a person and as a dancer (and I believe we are all dancers), that this boycott might be missing the mark,” she wrote. “I’m open to being convinced otherwise.”

The response was stark. In comments, some accused the studio of “virtue signaling” while another called the boycott a “principled decision.”

Soon, the conversation had ricocheted out of Skoblinski’s circle to include pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian voices beyond Montreal — and to highlight how an escalation of anti-Israel sentiment in the dance world is pitting pro-Palestinian voices against some of Israel’s most vociferous internal critics.

Studio 303 announced on May 21 that it was joining the........

© The Times of Israel