{"id":55330,"date":"2015-03-16T12:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55330"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:57","slug":"how-the-guardian-told-me-to-steer-clear-of-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/how-the-guardian-told-me-to-steer-clear-of-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Guardian Told Me to Steer Clear of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog_media_watch-hatem-omar-maanimages<\/a><\/p>\n

11 Mar 2015 – <\/em>When I started out as a journalist in the 1980s, I asked an experienced Irish reporter for advice. \u201cRead The Guardian<\/a><\/em>,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

The message that there was no better newspaper had a lasting effect. For years, I wanted to write for The Guardian<\/em>. Eventually, this desire was realized after I emailed the late Georgina Henry<\/a>, then editor of its Comment is Free section, in 2007. Henry was immediately receptive to my idea of tackling the European Union<\/a> from a critical, left-wing perspective.<\/p>\n

I very much enjoyed contributing<\/a> to The Guardian<\/em>. Having previously worked for quite a stuffy publication, it felt liberating to be able to express opinions.<\/p>\n

There was one issue, however, on which I felt my freedom curtailed: Palestine. Although The Guardian<\/em> did publish a few of my articles denouncing<\/a> Israeli atrocities, I began to encounter obstacles in 2009.<\/p>\n

Sensitive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early that year, I submitted an expos\u00e9 of how the pro-Israel lobby<\/a> operates in Brussels<\/a>. While waiting to find out if the piece would be used, I phoned Matt Seaton<\/a>, who had taken over as comment editor. We had a pleasant conversation but Seaton stressed that he regarded the subject as sensitive.<\/p>\n

I, then, modified the piece to make its tone less polemical. Still, it was not published. (Seaton has subsequently moved<\/a> to The New York Times<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n

A few months later, I paid a visit\u00a0to Gaza<\/a>. From there, I contacted The Guardian<\/em> to say that I had interviewed<\/a> Sayed Abu Musameh, a founding member of Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abu Musameh had expressed an interest in visiting Belfast<\/a> to study how the Irish peace process worked. He had already held discussions with Gerry Adams<\/a>, the Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> leader who had persuaded the Irish Republican Army to call a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Abu Musameh, I felt, was saying something that jarred with the official view of Hamas presented by Israel and its Western supporters. Far from being addicted to violence, he was eager to learn about what policy wonks call \u201cconflict resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em> was not keen to have me writing from Gaza. Brian Whitaker<\/a>, a commissioning editor at the time, told me that its comment section received more submissions about Palestine than any other subject. Whitaker, ironically a Middle East specialist, effectively recommended that I stick to writing about the EU. (The recommendation was bizarre both because Palestine is a key issue for the EU and because I am one of the few journalists to examine the Union\u2019s complicity in Israel\u2019s crimes.)<\/p>\n

Frustration<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have decided to make my frustrating encounters with The Guardian<\/em> public after reading the diatribe<\/a> it published last week by Daniel Taub, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the UK. Taub uses a quotation\u00a0attributed to Golda Meir<\/a>, Israel\u2019s prime minister from 1969 to 1974, to hit back at aid agencies who accuse Israel of impeding Gaza\u2019s reconstruction: \u201cWe will only have peace when our enemies love their children more than they hate ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inference that Palestinians hate Israelis more than they love their children is a racist caricature brilliantly demolished by Rafeef Ziadah<\/a> in her poem<\/a> \u201cWe teach life, Sir.\u201d Yet, according to Taub, Meir\u2019s words represent a \u201cbitter truism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Comment is Free section of The Guardian<\/em>, where Taub\u2019s nasty rant appears, is now overseen<\/a> by Jonathan Freedland<\/a>, a liberal Zionist. I contacted Freedland to enquire if he approved Taub\u2019s article for publication.<\/p>\n

Freedland referred my message to the paper\u2019s \u201cmedia enquiries\u201d unit. A spokesperson, who did not give his or her name, replied by email that Comment is Free \u201chosts hundreds of discussions every month on a wide range of topics across the entire political and ideological spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe receive a huge amount of submissions for articles and aim to publish a plurality of voices from all over the world,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cNaturally, not all of these voices reflect The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> own editorial position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apologist for ethnic cleansing<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not in the least reassured by that response. Taub\u2019s article was the second one published by The Guardian<\/em> in as many months from a senior Israeli political or diplomatic figure. In February, the paper gave Yair Lapid<\/a>, until recently Israel\u2019s finance minister, a platform<\/a> to describe calls for a cultural boycott<\/a> of Israel as \u201cshallow and lacking in coherence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lapid\u2019s view chimes with The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> \u201cown editorial position,\u201d to quote its anonymous spokesperson. While Israel was bombing Gaza last\u00a0August, it ran a leader<\/a> accusing London\u2019s Tricycle Theatre<\/a> of making a \u201cbad error of judgment\u201d in refusing to host a film festival sponsored by Israel.<\/p>\n

As Ben White<\/a> demonstrated in a trenchant 2014 analysis<\/a> for Middle East Monitor<\/em>, Jonathan Freedland is an apologist for ethnic cleansing<\/a>. Freedland has\u00a0tried to justify how \u201c400 [Palestinian] villages\u201d were \u201cemptied\u201d by Zionist forces in 1948 on the grounds that \u201cthe creation of a Jewish state was a moral necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Freedland is prepared to defend Zionist war crimes<\/a>, I guess it is\u00a0not surprising that he is reserving space for naked Israeli propaganda in The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> comment section. While it is\u00a0difficult to imagine that this bastion of liberalism would welcome openly racist submissions from far-right organizations like the British National Party or English Defence League<\/a>, it is somehow acceptable for an Israeli diplomat to peddle bigotry against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Freedland has been tipped<\/a> as a\u00a0contender for The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> editor-in-chief, a post that is soon to be vacant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a perverse way, it might be a good thing if he gets the job. With Freedland at the helm, it would be easier to show how a supposedly progressive newspaper is in thrall to the toxic ideology of Zionism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

David Cronin is an Irish journalist and political activist, living in Belgium. His new book is Corporate Europe: How Big Business Sets Policies on Food, Climate and War<\/a><\/em><\/em> (Pluto, 2013). His earlier book is Europe\u2019s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation<\/a><\/em><\/em> (Pluto, 2011).<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 electronicintifada.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 Mar 2015 – When I started out as a journalist in the 1980s, I asked an experienced Irish reporter for advice. \u201cRead The Guardian,\u201d he told me. The message that there was no better newspaper had a lasting effect. For years, I wanted to write for The Guardian. Eventually, this desire was realized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}