If Lara Alqasaem had been in a leadership position with a right-wing extremist group, instead of a pro-Palestinian extremist group, the media wouldn’t have batted an eye, and Alqasaem wouldn’t represent a political cause among ‘human rights’ activists.
We contacted Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer by email, to ask him if, as The Economist claimed, he’s used the term “modern concentration camps”, to characterize the detention of African migrants. Bauer promptly replied to our email and flatly denied ever using any version of the term.
In addition to the incendiary, hateful, anti-historial and intellectually unserious nature of the charge that Israeli “atrocities” against Palestinians are anywhere in the same moral universe as Nazi atrocities against the Jews, such comparisons of are defined as a form of antisemitism by the EU Parliament and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, of which Ireland is a member.
The Guardian frames events at the University of Manchester not as a reasonable attempt to avoid creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, but through the predictable lens suggesting the nefarious influence of a free-speech stifling ‘Israel lobby’, a distortion which speaks volumes about the media group’s continuing double standards when covering allegations of antisemitism.
The Independent reported that former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters complained that his pro-Palestinian views have been ‘silenced’ in the US by what he suggests is some sort of ‘media conspiracy’ by top editors, producers and executives.
Those familiar with the Guardian’s decades-long history of institutional anti-Israel bias – which sometimes crosses the line into outright antisemitism – are understandably wary of suggestions that otherwise ideologically rigid far-left editors have changed course on matters of concern to British Jewry. But, it is our view that a modest editorial pivot concerning antisemitism is evident. Though it’s difficult to explain with any degree of certainty the reason for the slight shift, noting the radically different tones of two official Guardian editorials on the issue of antisemitism within five years of each other is instructive.
Once again, the Indy fails to include information that would undercut their desired narrative about the UK debate over Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, mischaracterising sincere efforts to no-platform extremism as a cynical effort to stifle criticism of the Jewish state.
Whilst we commend Indy editors for removing the article, the fact that one of their Middle East correspondents respects and was willing to amplify the views of such an anti-Zionist extremist serves as a troubling reminder of institutional anti-Israel bias which informs so much of their coverage of the region.
The Guardian decision to publish Greenstein’s complimentary reference to Kaufman’s grotesque Nazi accusation may not itself be an act of antisemitism, but certainly represents another example of editorial decisions which have the effect of normalising such expressions of anti-Jewish racism.
The Guardian’s failure to convey to readers the antisemitic nature of the anti-Netanyahu placard in Sydney is not in itself antisemitic. However we do believe it’s indicative of their continuing obfuscation of endemic antisemitism within the pro-Palestinian movement and, more broadly, representative of how media outlets can normalise antisemitism without setting out to do so.
To teach people to relate to the overwhelming majority of Jews, that is Jews do not agree with BDS, as apologists for apartheid, Nazism or colonialism is to teach people to relate to those Jews in an antisemitic way. If BDS says that Israel is apartheid and that anybody who does not agree with boycotting Israel is a supporter of apartheid, then it is setting up a framework for Jew-baiting. If anti-Zionists say that Israel is genocidal, is like the Nazis, that Zionism is similar to Nazism, then they are inciting people to treat Jews as though they were Nazis.
One of the antisemitic tropes on display within the current Labour Party antisemitism row is some variation of the claim that Israeli policies are like those of Nazi Germany. This simply repellent […]
The suggestion by Mr. Greenstein that his being Jewish should inculcate him from charges of antisemitism – which evidently seemed plausible to Times of London editors – is of course absurd.
What’s the role of a journalist while conducting an interview about a charged political topic? In the UK, it seems that the accuracy clause of the Editors’ Code likely demands that questionable claims […]
Mira Bar-Hillel is a journalist for the London Evening Standard (on property and land issues) who’s been a frequent contributor at The Independent on issues pertaining to British Jewry and antisemitism – this despite the fact […]
Whilst you can get a good view of Abulhawa’s extremist views in her posts at EI, Mondoweiss and MEMO, which includes support for terrorism, we found it particularly interesting to take a look at her Facebook updates.
Alvin Rosenfeld, in a recent essay at The Forward (Moral Emptiness of Holocaust Survivors Who Took on Israel, Aug. 28), argued that “stamping” Israel-Nazi analogies “with the moral authority that supposedly belongs […]
Before posting two of the letters that Guardian editors decided to publish, on July 30, first let’s look at the headline. Again, remember that these are not simply comments below the line, […]
Cross posted from The CST CST wrote last week about the danger of anti-Israel protests in the UK involving or encouraging antisemitism, either by targeting British Jews or by featuring antisemitic language and imagery. […]
Cross posted by Richard Millett Some mocked the Holocaust, others disfigured the Israeli flag, a few screamed “Allahu Akbar”, they all called for the destruction of the Jewish state. That was the […]
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