As readers know, this week The New Yorker ran a short story by a former Israeli soldier, Shani Boianjiu, in which Palestinian demonstrators at a checkpoint begged Israeli soldiers to shoot them so as to get into the newspapers and manipulate world opinion to pity them– when they are actually leading OK lives. The story erases the many Palestinians killed and maimed during nonviolent protests of a military occupation and misrepresents a famous incident in which an Israeli attack destroyed seven members of a Palestinian family. Boianjiu’s soldier protagonist says that Palestinian ordnance killed the family– and lest there’s any doubt who we’re talking about, the New Yorker used the real name of the child who survived that attack, Huda.

(Adam Horowitz deconstructed Boianjiu’s fiction here. Annie Robbins did it here.)

We’ve been reading periodicals for a long time. Neither of us can remember such an exaltation of the idea of blaming-the-victim in such a prestigious publication.

But maybe Shani Boianjiu has carved out a new literary genre?

We’re announcing a New Yorker fiction parody contest, “Put your spin on history.” Here are the rules:

–Entries must be no longer than 4 paragraphs

–Entries must be works of imagination, but they must deal with a recognizable historic struggle.

–All entries must include a character who is a soldier or officer of the law.

–Submit your entries in the comment section below for all to see and judge or to editors@mondoweiss.net. Entries must be received by next Friday, June 29.

We will announce a winner and runnerups by the Fourth of July. Winner will receive a copy of a wonderful exploration of Palestinian history, Footnotes In Gaza, by Joe Sacco.

Oh, and here is a sample entry aimed at spurring your imaginations: