New Guardian polemic against Israel relies on children for denigration of Jewish state
There is no longer anything remarkable about a lop-sided, anti-Israeli polemic in the Guardian. It is a daily occurrence and forms what has clearly become a campaign of vilification and denigration. Journalism and the standards that are supposed to go with it have ceased to be the issue. This is political activism.
But it is noteworthy when the sheer desperation of the newspaper’s editorial team to get something, anything, on the page to smear the reputation of Israel reduces them to levels which make it impossible to deny that a campaign is precisely what they are engaged in.
To wit, today’s edition carries an extraordinary piece of writing which relies heavily on the reported (not quoted) views of a group of children to demonstrate Israeli perfidy in Jerusalem towards the Palestinians.
The piece, entitled “Fifteen Minutes of Hate in Silwan”, is written by a member of a three-man team of far-Left Israeli video reporters. The use of far-Left anti-Zionist Israelis is now a familiar tactic by the Guardian designed to parry charges of anti-Semitism. However, the use of children to push the case against Israel is new.
“Even before we position the camera,” the author of the article says, “a group of orthodox Jewish girls, aged about eight to 10, come walking up the path in their ankle-long skirts, pretty, chattering, carefree. One of them slows down beside us, and pleasantly asks us if we want to film her. What would you like to tell us, we ask. I want to say that Jerusalem belongs to us Jews, she says as she walks on, only it’s a pity there are Arabs here. The messiah will only come when there isn’t a single Arab left here. She walks on, and her girlfriends giggle and rejoin her.”
Now, even if we make the very generous assumption that this happened in the manner described — a group of under tens just happened to saunter along at exactly the right moment and just happened to proffer exactly the kind of opinions the crew was looking for — what is this supposed to prove?
If one tried, one could easily find white children in any European city peddling naive and derogatory opinions of blacks: ditto for Arab children about Jews, Muslim children about Christians, black children about whites.
To generalise on the basis of particular instances can only be justified if one is illustrating a broader picture whose validity is supported by convincing evidence, of the kind offered by opinion polls for example.
The piece in question offers nothing of the sort. In legal terms, it is pure hearsay. In journalistic terms it is a non-story that would be laughed out of court by any editor with an ounce of integrity.
But this, after all, is the Guardian. And this, after all, is a piece which demeans the reputation of Israel.
“Hate flowed toward us like a river to the sea, freely,” the author of the piece says ruefully. I really wonder whether the author himself or the people at the Guardian who approved his article can possibly see the irony in those words.
To read the full article, click here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/31/silwan-jerusalem-hate?showallcomments=true
Tags: Israel
August 31st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
You can read about this digrace here too
http://cifwatch.com/2009/08/31/very-cif-very-guardian/
Robin you can’t see the full picture. The Guardian can’t condemn the Holocaust denial of their beloved Hamas and became desperate.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1111110.html
Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews “a lie invented by the Zionists,” the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior UN official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in UN schools.
In an open letter to local UNRWA chief John Ging, the movement’s Popular Committees for Refugees said: “We refuse to let our children study a lie invented by the Zionists.”
August 31st, 2009 at 8:09 pm
G-d forbid the Guardian should ever reveal some of the hate on the other side. Their bias is so sickening and obvious it should not be allowed!
August 31st, 2009 at 8:24 pm
The use of far-Left anti-Zionist Israelis is now a familiar tactic by the Guardian designed to parry charges of anti-Semitism.
Very true. It is also a chilling, if milder, echo of the NSDAP use of Judenrat councils, or of the Inquisition’s use of Jews to condemn their own.
Thanks for your article, Robin.
Thanks also to CiFWatch for opposing Rapoport:
http://cifwatch.com/2009/08/31/very-cif-very-guardian/
August 31st, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Excellent, Robin
See also CiFWatch article at
http://cifwatch.com/2009/08/31/very-cif-very-guardian/
The use of children by the Guardian is indeed new, but is a commonly-used tactic of its favourite freedom fighters, isn’t it?
August 31st, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Robin,
I almost want to put your excellent articles in a time capsule. In the future they can be the proof that not everyone was afflicted by the current (and growing) jew-hate pandemic in Europe. A few hardy souls such as you withstood the disease and did their best to stop its spread.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Robin,
Words alone never win wars. More robust means are required in the endeavour. Play hardball with the Guardian. Go after their bottom line. No revenues from Google and others, no funds to pay help.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I have very strong doubts about the veracity of the article. The Orthodox are notoriously camera shy, and certainly women and girls would never consider approaching a group of strangers and just start chatting to them, and horror of horrors, ask if they want to film them!
And if that part of the story is not true, all the rest is most likely equally false.
Then again, did we expect anything different from CiF?
September 1st, 2009 at 4:26 am
‘make it impossible to deny that a campaign is precisely what they are engaged in.’
Robin. The Guardian management are on a crusade against Israel. They ‘live’ hate of Israel.
It is what they live for.
September 1st, 2009 at 9:20 am
Surely these guys are inciting racial hatred?
Regards
Mailman
September 1st, 2009 at 9:37 am
Sergio, I agree wholeheartedly. On the issue of hurting the bottom line, what about a campaign in New York to persuade people not to fly Virgin Atlantic because of Richard Branson’s vile comments last week?
September 1st, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Peter,
Many thanks for your support. We should go after their bottom line. We have to kick that where it hurts or they will never learn. No money, no honey.In all honesty. I am not aware of Branson’s outburst. Kindly give me a link to look it up.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I agree with Anne -this article just does not ring true.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Sergio - this is Branson’s quote: “I think it’s something similar to what happened after 9/11. You know after 9/11 the world had enormous sympathy for America, and you know that sympathy was somehow lost. And obviously after the Second World War, the world had enormous sympathy for the Jewish people. Over a number of decades, that sympathy has been lost.”
For the full article, go to http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110414.html
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Thanks again Peter,
Organized boycotts are like trench warfare. It takes time to see results. You’re in for a long haul. For starters, HonestReporting.com and ADL must be contacted forthwith. They have the muscle to put this to work.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804468644&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
According to an AFP report, Gaddafi - speaking to some 30 African leaders gathered at a special African Union summit in Tripoli Monday to mark 40 years of his rule - said Israel was “behind all of Africa’s conflicts.” He demanded the closure of all Israeli embassies across Africa, describing Israel as a “gang” and saying it used “the protection of minorities as an excuse to launch conflicts.”
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Arab site to be sued for Shoah cartoon
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804472393&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
How come the Guardian ignores this nasty affair? Friggin’ Jew-haters!!!