A rather strange article by Jason Rodrigues appeared in the World News section of the Guardian on August 2nd. Entitled “The Global reach of Neo-Nazis”, the piece gave a very short bullet point type account of the alleged “rise” of neo-Nazism in several countries around the world; India, Taiwan, Russia, Chile and – top of the list – Israel. The photograph used to illustrate the article was captioned “A young Israeli neo-Nazi points at a religious Jewish man, as if to shoot him at a shopping mall. Israeli police later broke up a neo-Nazi group amd (sic) arrested members”.
Such was the superficial nature of this article that no in-depth details or statistics were given and the reading public was therefore simply left with the impression that neo-Nazism is on the rise in Israel as in other countries.
“Israel In 2008, four suspects were charged with neo-Nazi activities. They were members of a gang called Patrol 35 (sic) which targeted other minorities and desecrated synagogues. Some of the gang were Soviet immigrants who refused to accept their Jewish ancestry.”
The above mentioned gang is actually called ‘Patrol 36’ and is estimated to have some 20 to 30 members. Estimates of the total number of people in Israel sympathising with neo-Nazi ideology vary from ‘tens of’, through ‘a few dozen’ and to a maximum of around a hundred out of a total population of some 7.5 million people. Whilst undoubtedly the existence of such groups is profoundly worrying, it can hardly be labelled a phenomenon, particularly when compared to some European countries, including Britain itself.
In the 2009 elections for the EU parliament the British National Party (BNP) won two seats. In Yorkshire and Humber they gained 9.8% of the vote and in the North West region 8%. Nationally, the BNP received 6.26% of the total votes. In the local elections held in May 2003 the BNP took 38.7% of the votes in the area of Illingworth in West Yorkshire. Teachers in the Calderdale region of West Yorkshire have complained that the BNP recruits children as young as 9 years old which could well account for the Nazi graffiti signed by Combat 18 groups which it is not rare to see in the area.
What Jason Rodrigues fails to mention in his article is that unlike in Britain where neo-Nazis in suits can and do stand in local, national and European elections, political parties advocating incitement to racism are banned by Israeli law (Amendment no. 9 ) from running for the Knesset . Israeli society as a whole is far more intolerant of, and shocked by, any expression of Nazi sympathy than many other countries for obvious reasons. To include Israel at the top of this list and to illustrate the subject by means of a photograph taken in Israel of all the possible venues in the world therefore obviously defies all logic: Israel is hardly the prime example in the world of the spread of far-right groups.
So what is the Guardian actually up to here? Its putative, if easily refuted, message to the reader is that neo-Nazism is a growing or spreading phenomenon in Israel. When taken in the context of the anti-Semitic claims often made by the far Left and Islamists in the UK that “Israel is the new Nazi regime” and the employment of Nazi-related imagery and terminology increasingly used (and not just by fringe elements) in discussions about Israeli acts of self-defence, as well as the Guardian’s rather nasty habit of insufficient moderation of comments containing similar themes on its CiF blog, it would seem that the Guardian is being either dangerously careless and professionally inept in providing fuel for such dialogue or maliciously contriving to do so by means of subliminal messages.
So which is it Mr. Rusbridger: fools or knaves?
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COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
A Subliminal Message from the Guardian
A rather strange article by Jason Rodrigues appeared in the World News section of the Guardian on August 2nd. Entitled “The Global reach of Neo-Nazis”, the piece gave a very short bullet point type account of the alleged “rise” of neo-Nazism in several countries around the world; India, Taiwan, Russia, Chile and – top of the list – Israel. The photograph used to illustrate the article was captioned “A young Israeli neo-Nazi points at a religious Jewish man, as if to shoot him at a shopping mall. Israeli police later broke up a neo-Nazi group amd (sic) arrested members”.
Such was the superficial nature of this article that no in-depth details or statistics were given and the reading public was therefore simply left with the impression that neo-Nazism is on the rise in Israel as in other countries.
“Israel In 2008, four suspects were charged with neo-Nazi activities. They were members of a gang called Patrol 35 (sic) which targeted other minorities and desecrated synagogues. Some of the gang were Soviet immigrants who refused to accept their Jewish ancestry.”
The above mentioned gang is actually called ‘Patrol 36’ and is estimated to have some 20 to 30 members. Estimates of the total number of people in Israel sympathising with neo-Nazi ideology vary from ‘tens of’, through ‘a few dozen’ and to a maximum of around a hundred out of a total population of some 7.5 million people. Whilst undoubtedly the existence of such groups is profoundly worrying, it can hardly be labelled a phenomenon, particularly when compared to some European countries, including Britain itself.
In the 2009 elections for the EU parliament the British National Party (BNP) won two seats. In Yorkshire and Humber they gained 9.8% of the vote and in the North West region 8%. Nationally, the BNP received 6.26% of the total votes. In the local elections held in May 2003 the BNP took 38.7% of the votes in the area of Illingworth in West Yorkshire. Teachers in the Calderdale region of West Yorkshire have complained that the BNP recruits children as young as 9 years old which could well account for the Nazi graffiti signed by Combat 18 groups which it is not rare to see in the area.
What Jason Rodrigues fails to mention in his article is that unlike in Britain where neo-Nazis in suits can and do stand in local, national and European elections, political parties advocating incitement to racism are banned by Israeli law (Amendment no. 9 ) from running for the Knesset . Israeli society as a whole is far more intolerant of, and shocked by, any expression of Nazi sympathy than many other countries for obvious reasons. To include Israel at the top of this list and to illustrate the subject by means of a photograph taken in Israel of all the possible venues in the world therefore obviously defies all logic: Israel is hardly the prime example in the world of the spread of far-right groups.
So what is the Guardian actually up to here? Its putative, if easily refuted, message to the reader is that neo-Nazism is a growing or spreading phenomenon in Israel. When taken in the context of the anti-Semitic claims often made by the far Left and Islamists in the UK that “Israel is the new Nazi regime” and the employment of Nazi-related imagery and terminology increasingly used (and not just by fringe elements) in discussions about Israeli acts of self-defence, as well as the Guardian’s rather nasty habit of insufficient moderation of comments containing similar themes on its CiF blog, it would seem that the Guardian is being either dangerously careless and professionally inept in providing fuel for such dialogue or maliciously contriving to do so by means of subliminal messages.
So which is it Mr. Rusbridger: fools or knaves?
Like this:
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