As we noted in the following tweet, editors at The Irish Independent, the country’s largest-selling daily newspaper, chose, as it’s letter of the week published on Jan. 7th, an anti-Israel screed which includes a comparison between the Nazi treatment of Jews and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Troubling decision by editors @cormacbourke at @Independent_ie to choose, as the 'letter of the week', a letter comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of Jews – a comparison characterised as antisemitic by the EU Parliament https://t.co/4bNfNh1kHO pic.twitter.com/aBBY1hEGsn
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) January 8, 2018
In addition to the incendiary, anti-historical and intellectually unserious nature of the suggestion that Israeli “atrocities” against Palestinians are anywhere in the same moral universe as Nazi atrocities against the Jews, such comparisons are codified as antisemitic by the EU Parliament and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, of which Ireland is a member.
Moreover, note that the Editors’ Code published by the Press Council of Ireland includes a Prejudice clause (Principle 8), which reads as follows:
Principle 8 − Prejudice
The press shall not publish material intended or likely to cause grave offence or stir up hatred against an individual or group on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, colour, ethnic origin, membership of the travelling community, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness or age.
We urge our Irish readers to consider lodging a complaint with the Press Council’s Ombudsman under the terms of Principle 8.
Information on how to do so can be found here.