Why no self-respecting socialist or Labour supporter should buy the Guardian
I have long campaigned for people to shed their illusions in
the Guardian and not buy it. The Guardian for a long time was
something like Israel’s Ha’aretz. It contained a variety of
different views and the only coverage of Israel/Palestine that differed in any
way from the mainstream press. It boasted correspondents like
Michael Adams and David Hirst, both knowledgeable about the Palestinians and
Zionism.
Today it’s
Middle East coverage is pitiful. It’s Comment is Free blog,
which was supposed to be a space for free speech on issues, including Israel,
has felt the heavy hand of Guardian censorship as its moderators take the
scissors to any anti-Zionist critiques. Comparison of Israel with
Nazi Germany is a particular no go area, even though Israelis make the
comparison every day.
The following
story from Jewish Voice for Labour site is about how the Guardian has refused
to print a letter from over 650 members of the Labour Party counteracting it
constant barrage of lies that the Labour Party is overrun by anti-Semitism.
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| Jonathan Freedland - a member of the foreign policy elite and an ardent Zionist and columnist for the right-wing Jewish Chronicle has pioneered the censorship of anti-Zionist voices at The Guardian |
Unfortunately
the Guardian has been getting worse for some time ago. I have published a
series of articles over the years detailing how the Guardian has moved further
to the Right and how it has become more friendly to Israel and Zionism under
its senior editor Jonathan Freedland
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| The disgusting ad that the Guardian carried in 2014 as the Israelis were committing massacres in Gaza |
People may
recall that in 2014 the Guardian printed an advert from Elie Wiesel during
Operation Protective Edge, which killed 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza, including
551 children. It's title was 'Jews
rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago now it's Hamas' turn.' Electronic
Intifada's Asa Winstanley best summed up this decision: “Liberal” Guardian to print
pro-genocide ad
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| The Guardian's disingenuous attempt to defend its appalling decision |
Even Rupert
Murdoch's Times rejected the advert, but not the Guardian. At a time when
Palestinian children were being slaughtered by Israeli armaments, the Guardian
printed this vicious racist propaganda. All the letters it printed
were hostile.
Today it would seem such letters would not even be printed.
Tony
Greenstein
Guardian
denies space to 650+ Labour Party members challenging hostile media coverage
The Guardian has refused to publish a letter
submitted over a week ago challenging hostile media coverage of the Labour
Party, even though it attracted more than 650 signatures from party members in
barely 24 hours.
Those who
signed, and hundreds more who sent in their names after the noon deadline on
Friday April 6, are entitled to ask why the Guardian cannot feature the views
of huge numbers of ordinary Party members while devoting so much space to
attacking Jeremy Corbyn.
This is
especially pertinent today, Monday April 16, as the Parliamentary Labour Party
is due to meet this evening for the first time since March 26 and a
parliamentary debate about antisemitism is scheduled to take place tomorrow,
Tuesday April 17.
We hope that
the latter debate will pay ample attention to the virulent antisemitism
expressed by friends of the Tory party in this country and across
Europe.
To give voice
to the silenced Corbyn-supporting members of the Labour Party, we publish below
the original letter as submitted to the Guardian.
For
clarification, JVL recognises that there is evidence of racist attitudes,
including antisemitism, among some party members. This is why we propose, in
line with recommendations in the Chakrabarti Report, open debate and discussion
combined with non-factional training to help members recognise and deal with
prejudices which have no place in an anti-racist party.
We also
recognise that we live in a racist society in which many prejudices persist,
including towards Jews. This is true within the Labour Party as elsewhere, but
we do NOT accept, as widely alleged, that party members are especially
susceptible to holding antisemitic views, unconscious or otherwise.
Please share
this post widely on social media and invite more Labour Party members to join
in demonstrating support for Corbyn’s leadership.
ORIGINAL TEXT OF SOLIDARITY LETTER
We are Labour Party members who have watched with growing astonishment
and anger as our Party has been traduced with claims of widespread
antisemitism. We stand absolutely against any form of
discrimination and if there are any in our Party who are guilty of
racist attitudes or behaviour then they should be expelled. But such action
should only be after due process including evidence and the right to appeal
and not through the trial by media which we are currently seeing.
Most importantly we do not accept that the disputed actions of a tiny
minority of people in any way represent our Party as a whole and its 570,000
members. Neither do we accept the absurd claim that racist attitudes are
widespread but we are somehow unable to recognise them because they are
unconscious. We recognise racism because we have been fighting it for
much of our lives and that fight was a key reason for joining our Party in the
first place.
The current febrile atmosphere has been encouraged by a hostile
right-wing media and by those who seek to damage the Party or its leadership
for their own ends. We absolutely reject the gross calumny which is thus being
perpetrated against the Party as a whole and the integrity of its members.
There is a great task ahead of us, to re-build and regenerate our
society so that all may live with security and dignity. The cruel legacy
of successive governments has left people desperate for change. The Labour Party
led by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell can achieve that transformation. Let us
make certain that nothing can distract us from this historic opportunity.
Signed by 650+ Labour party members
A few of the monotonous Guardian articles on the fake antisemitism campaign against the Labour Party
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| The right-wing and anti-migrant Daily Express sings from the same song sheet as the Guardian |
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