Alternative to append in JQuery

Alternative to append in JQuery

I am looking for an alternative to the append command to insert a table into a webpage.  My co worker, who shall rename nameless is telling me that I can't use "append" because it is a "Hackers" way and a security risk to use append.  *Rolling eyes*  (Of course he won't even tell me or make any suggestions on what to replace it with!  He never gives any suggestions only criticism!)

So, I would appreciate any suggestions on what else I can use instead of append to get my table into the webpage. 

Here is the code that I have that I need to remove the append from:

  1. <script>
    $(document).ready(function () {
         var html = '<table id="partners" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">';
         var html = html + '<tr>';

    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "WellCityPartners.xml",
        dataType: "xml",
        success: function( xmldata ) {
         
        $(xmldata).find("Partners").each(function (index) {
    html = html + '<td style=" background-image:url('  +  $(this).find("backgroundURL").text() + '); height:100px; width:234px" align="center">'+  '<a href="' + $(this).find("hrefURL").text() + '" target="_blank">'  + '<img src="' + $(this).find("imgURL").text() + '">' + '</a>' +  '</td>' ;
     
         if ( (index + 1) % 3 === 0 )
         {
             html = html + '</tr>';
         }

         });
         html = html + '</table>';
         $( "body" ).append( $( html ) );
        }
       });
    });
    </script>

























Thank you so very much for any suggestions you may have!  I will still be searching the web to see what I can come up with even though I am not having much luck since I am not sure what words to type in the search.