Los Angeles Lakers Forward Ron Artest has a history of doing, er, creative things with his hair (check out some photos here), but the other night his hair made a–likely unintentional–Zionist statement: Artest dyed his (short, black) hair blonde and then shaved and dyed the Hebrew word for “defense” — “haganah” — onto the front of his head, along with it in Japanese and Hindi. (See a photo here.)
Artest’s hair-expression was apparently to help the team focus on one aspect of their game against the Orlando Magic on Sunday, but it didn’t seem to work:
However, after an ugly showing that night, it was one-and-done for the crazy coiffure.
Artest and the Lakers allowed Vince Carter to drop 25 points in the Magic’s 96-94 win and it was obvious the message didn’t getting across. So just one day later, Artest shaved it all off.
Perhaps Artest’s Jewish teammate, Jordan Farmar, was able to tell him about what “haganah” means to Israelis (beyond its simple meaning): Formed in 1920, “Ha Haganah” — “The Defense” — was a Jewish paramilitary organization formed to defend Jews and Jewish communities once the Jewish leadership came to the unfortunate conclusion that the British authorities were not going to provide them with adequate defenses against ongoing Arab riots and other attacks.
Originally a loose organization of different local defense groups, it eventually became a para-professional militia that–together with a handful of other Jewish defense organizations–formed the IDF, whose Hebrew name is Tzva l’Haganah L’Yisrael — Defense Army for Israel.
What do you think?