British Journalists March for Palestine
However, the boycott of greatest impact was tabled at the 2007 conference of the largest trade union of all in Britain, UNISON. Its proposed divestment was designed to affect Israeli pension funds. (Frankly, with the Russian oligarchs and Warren Buffett investing there, I am not too worried about Zionist cherries being spurned by irate English housewives in Suffolk.)
Long ago the Left in Britain admired Israel for its cooperative farming and embrace of socialist ideals. The same Britons who are now marching to condemn the Jewish state would have spent a year or so on kibbutz as teenagers. In the early days of Israel’s existence in the 1940s and 1950s, British trade unionists encouraged investment in Israel. In the intervening decades Israel has become an “expansionist” military power and is supported by the “Great Satan” America, which the fulminating Left in Britain sees today as a murderous torture factory. Gaza 2009 was the nail in the coffin for any rational discussion of Israel’s protracted fight for survival.
So, back to Groundhog Day: in retrospect I am glad I was unable to attend the May 11 meeting of the magazine branch of the NUJ. I would have had apoplexy. In 2007 the loathing of Israel and America was brought home to me at a particularly rancorous meeting of the union, which had called a special gathering to discuss the Israel boycott motion that had been passed on April 15 at their national delegates’ meeting. The hatred of me, of Israel, of Zionists, and of Holocaust remembrance will last a lifetime. Am I overreacting? Here is what happened:
I went along armed with a book by Hillel Halkin, Letters to an American Jewish Friend: A Zionist’s Polemic, written after the Yom Kippur War and chronicling daily life as a long-suffering reservist in Israel. I never had a chance to read from the book because the meeting degenerated into a series of furious diatribes by NUJ members.
Each member who spoke made sure to tell us that they had “been boycotting absolutely anything and everything from Israel for years and years,” and the editor of the union’s Journalist magazine spat out the comment I hear almost every day in London about rich American Zionists funding and driving Israel’s disgraceful policies. I was refused the floor when I wanted to correct the calumnies being articulated. Later I escaped to a nearby pub but the angry members piled in to continue their assault. One said, “You need to get the Holocaust out of your system and get that chip off your shoulder because slavery was a much worse genocide,” whilst yet another said, “Israel is plain thievery — you nicked their land in ’48 and Zionism is out-and-out racism.” This barely contained venom was something that left me paralyzed with — yes — fear. What is the difference between a tattooed BNP (neo-Nazi) member screaming at a Jew and these so-called anti-war activists? In fact, the BNP is more even in its analysis of the issues than the NUJ!
As so many Israel boycotters shrilly proclaim, criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. They use as their protective shield the fact that many prominent Anglo-Jews, including rabbis, actors, academics, and scientists, deplore Israel’s policies to defend her shores. The purple-faced British journalists who lambasted me could barely contain their hatred not just of Israel but of everything I am.
There will, no doubt, be a good turnout at the May 16, 2009, rally in Trafalgar Square. But as thousands die and are made homeless in Sudan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, why do non-Jews in Britain obsess, boycott, and march only about Israel? This is Groundhog Day.
Is it anti-Semitism? Your views, please.
Notice the unwitting admission in the phrasing: “YOU nicked their land…” In other words, Ms Gould, a Briton, is guilty- because, of course, she’s Jewish.
‘Antizionism’ is of course just a figleaf for the same old bigotry. Spend five minutes with anyone who says “I’m not an antisemite, I’m an antizionist,” and soon enough he’ll be telling you how the ‘Zionists’ control the world’s banks, media and governments.
———
And whatever happened to the ethical rule that journalists are never, ever supposed to engage in public political advocacy?
The entire question is one of backbone, pure and simple. If one is anti-Israel then they presume themselves to be in the clear of the worldwide onslaught of Global Islamic Theocracy. Simple appeasement of the left and it’s inability to stand firm against mindless Jihad is the crux of the problem. Journalists have lost the neutrality that was the once upon a time basis of their industry. A white flag is raised with each and every word that they type. The spinelessness that prevails perpetuates the myth that if we do not offend anyone then everyone will be at peace. This of course is not the case at all, especially when it come to the radical followers of Islam. Appeasement or bowing to Global Islamic Theocracy will not stem it’s tide. Appeasers just look foolish in the eyes of the Jihadists.
marching for Palestine (Palestine being a region, Israel proper is also technically part of Palestine but I degress) with it’s strategy of destroying Israel not to mention virtually ungovernable corruption is to actually march against Israel. This is not so much a march FOR something as it is a march AGAINST…Israel
“Is it anti-Semitism?”
For a large portion of the crowd, separating anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism is not an option.
For the remainder, it is their inability to think for themselves. Rational and critical thinking for liberals is as rare as a Vegan at an Outback Steakhouse.
Thank you for this article. It highlights the uselessness of most so-called journalists as source s of information.
The sad thing is that with all this hatred, the obvious solution to the problem is being ignored. If these useful idiots really cared about the plight of the Palestinians, they would pressure the Palestinians to renounce the so-called ‘armed struggle’, recognize Israel, negotiate their state and get on with their lives. Armed struggle by the Pals has failed totally. They will never get out of their misery until they accept that they have lost. Once that happens, they will find that the Israelis will be more than happy to leave them alone. But perhaps that’s the rub. Maybe the Palestinians have been so dependent on handouts for 60 years that they wouldn’t know how to build a country and would prefer to steal someone elses.
Stories like this are a perfect illustration of what happens to a society that turns over control over their govt to academics and control over their culture to artists.
Britain – along with France – are powder kegs, sitting atop ticking time-bombs of ideological and cultural dynamite. And unfortunately, those time-bombs are going to explode in the next 20 years…perhaps sooner…depending on how badly their economic situations deteriorate over the coming few years.
The only “good” thing that can be drawn from this is that they will be serving as canaries-in-the-coal mine for the rest of Western Civilization. They will be providing the masses of naive, indoctrinated Westerners with brutally clear and unambiguous lessons about the true nature of the world.
Funny that they don’t march for Darfur or for the Tamuls (a thousand victims a month). Also anybody noticecd that they support people who want the extermination of Jews?
This is not old-fashioned antisemitism this is Nazi-style antisemitism.
Yes, it is anti-semetism.
The Brits, by the way, are great ones to talk about any other group “nicing” someone else’s land. The sun never sets, oh, right-oh!
It’s always easier to blame your problems on the Jews rather than actually, you know, do something about them. I think the Brits will welcome their Islamic masters.
If they don’t, they can blame the Jews.
These are people who are willingly bowing to Islam, in order to get of (what they think) is the menace of the Jews.
It’s a devil’s bargain. Like most devil’s bargains, it’s going to bite them in the ass.
Hey! Why is everybody being so negative?
At least the Brit media-types are honest about their opinions. With that knowlege you can judge for yourself wether you care to trust thier news products.
Here in the USA the MSM liars pretend to provide balanced and trustworthy information products that have the same underlying thoughts scarcely veiled in their artificial “objectivity” and stuffy demeanor. The brit media-types might be a bunch of hate-filled wankers but at least they will let you know that the ARE hate-filled wankers!
They don’t think of themselves as “hate-filled wankers”, anton, that’s the problem.
They think of themselves as champions of civilization, saviors of oppressed, third-world Moslems, and defenders against the eeeeeeevil Jews.
I do agree that any talk at this point about MSM objectivity, or balanced viewpoints, on either side of the Atlantic should be met with a great big belly laugh.
The late ENOCH POWELL, a philo-Semite, (lover of the Jews for all you unlettered out there) who in his time was a professor of classics in his 20′s, the youngest Brigadier in the British Army (where he served with Orde Wingate in Palestine in WWII!) and an MP who was driven out by the Tory party in the 1960′s and 1970′s for his view that certain folks from West Asia and Arabia would not assimilate into the British melange must be laughing in his grave.
This is better than even he could have envisaged. West Asian Britons have joined with their Anglo-Saxon fellow countrymen in a display that would make Powell’s older contemporary, the facist Sir Oswald Mosley green with envy. Regretfully I have no appropriate Latin or Greek or Hebrew phrase available at the tip of my tongue to honor him.
BettyBlue, Most child-molesters don’t think what they do is evil either, but the rest of us know what we are looking at. They can call themselves “heroes of civilization” but I know them for what they are and will treat them accordingly.
What concerns me is that the decades of indoctrination of the youths that have left them with little desire/ability to make the distinctions. Having been exposed for years to intellectually flaccid and morally compromised teachers/professors has left them with few tools to employ in the winnowing-out process that following the news has become. They often buy the story as told and question little (despite their motto of “question authority”).
Sigh
“Britain – along with France…”
uh no, we don’t promote communautarism and sharia law
Carol: Let me disagree with you on one point. The NUJ are not journalists. That assortment of leftists ass-kissers, leftist shills, and leftist butt-boys and but-girls wouldn’t know a real journalist if they bumped into one. As far as the Palestinians are concerned, they have elected Nazi-Hamas to represent them. If they want a homeland, find a place where Nazis are welcome. Iran would be a good place to start looking.
They must really enjoy seeing those Hamas rockets over Israel.
It has always amazed me the way that israel is always the one asked to
give up land, I dont recall a great uproar years ago when the Palestinians
then lead by Arafat were run out of Jordan by the king even though most
of the population there is Palestinian by heritage. It also is amazing that any place the so called Palestinian refugees go they are not
allowed to asimilate into to the local populace, still camps after 60 years
in Lebanon. I guess it is not a good thing to be know as Palestinian!
So what’s new? The Brits conspired with the Arabs to undermine the Jews after they handed most of the mandated territory to primitive nomadic Hashemite Arabs in Jordan. The catastrophe of their insidious incompetent “management” of the spoils of the shattered Ottoman empire still reverberates today.
It is a disgusting habit many Brits have of smearing our (America’s) nose in “the genocide of slavery”… The cancer of negro slavery was a horrible legacy we inherited from them as one of their colonies after all. Most Brits seem blissfully unconscious of the enormities they’re guilty of. Perhaps some suppressed guilt over these matters is responsible for their nasty behavior? Some of the (but not all) do an awful lot of very ugly projecting onto America (and Jews), and that’s a fact.
Oh, those impartial journalists.
Thanks for drawing our attention to these campaigning journalists. They are all unprofessional tools.
“In 2009 boycotting Israel is a national passion.”
Hello Ms Gould – which country are you actually in?
I have no doubt that President Obama will in no way be coerced by the new Israeli premier into continuing the tragic play-act whereby Israelis live and Palestinians die on the basis that Israeli swimming pools are more important than drinking-water for the indigenous people of Gaza and the West Bank.
Our President is patently not a patsy of a foreign power as was his predecessor and will insist that Netanyahu recognizes that he speaks for a small minority nation of just 4.8 million. We are 308 million and we shall overcome this bigotry and prejudice that has so damaged the world over the past decades. Enough is enough.
Brits are feeding the Jews to the Islamic crocodile in the hope (wish) that the crocodile won’t eat them.
Our president is a patsy of foreign powers.
He supports Islamic nations, at the expense of American interests.
Morton, I suspect repressed guilt is at the bottom of much British behavior. Also, the knowledge—which they try to deny—that their left-Labour, multi-culti society just doesn’t work.
22: Yes, Obama has demonstrated his strong leadership, and is no patsy. We’ll see.(What planet are you from BTW?)
Michael, either you are an idiot or a venal, eyes closed hypocrite. I live in Britain and witness daily the visceral hatred towards Jews under the cloak of anti zionism. Do you watch the BBC, a serial offender with a man whose ego is almost dwarfed by his Jew hate? He’s called Jeremy Bowen.
That’s just one. Dip into the Guardian or Independent and you’ll see a similar warped mindset.
However those people live in a little bubble and do not reflect what we actually think.
As for BettyBlue, don’t count on it. Right now the whole edifice is about to be shattered. We hate the multicultural madness.
The gap between these so called journo’s and reality on the street is yawning and getting wider as I hit the keyboard.
Read our media on MP expenses then read the comment. Britain is afire. We want it back from the Islamists and Quisling MP’s who have sold our souls to a bunch of whining immigrants whilst creaming off the maximum money they can lay hands on.
A massive change is in the air. All I can say is, not before time!
Colindale:
Thank you for proving Ms Gould’s point by example.
It’s easy to prove that Israel is the greatest country to ever be…and it’s easy to prove that the Palestinians are the lowest culture to walk on Earth. I saw a British army officer on TV after the Gaza war say, “This was the most compassionate war to ever be waged.” Israel made millions of phone calls and sent millions of text messagest to Arabs to leave certain areas of Gaza so they wouldn’t be hurt by Israel’s destruction of Hamas weaponry. No other country in history has or would do that.
In fact, Israel tried to liberate Palestine from the terrorists who besieged them. Israel should be commended.
Mr Colindale
I for one zm tired of people who have been living fior sixty one fricking pone years on our meoney, without working and in addition theratening or bpm!binfg us. I for one am tired of people who spend yersz firing rockets on their neighbirs and when they het a thousandth of what they desrve everyione piles up to protext them of the storm (more exactly the two rain drops) they have unleasehed upon thel. I for one am tired of seeing some people dropping crocodile tears upon people who use their children as expendable bombs, have tried to bomn ùaternities and say ope,ly that their goal is extermination of theor oponnets. I for one believe tyhat there wil be peace only when Pallestions are cut off fro! any aid so every bomb comes fromù their pocker not ours and in addition they are forced to pay damages for the damages and disturbance in Ireal.
I for one don’t believe for a second when there are so many people (eg the Blacks in Darfir or the Tamuls) who get far worse from their enemies without them, unlike the Palestinans havung done nothing heinous, that those who spouse their cause do it from sympathy for “sufferings” of the Palestinians.
I for pone belmieve that them (and that includes you) are just Nazsis who don’t have the coj.s to say it openly.
So Carol,
As you are a journalist and a member of the NUJ,i look forward to reading your unbiased view.
So Carol ,as you are a journalist and nju member i look forward to reading an unbiased article from you.
When your 45 years or older President still calls himself a “kid” how can you expect responsible behaviour from people who have only been potty trained?
The so-called primitive people of the world take their 12 year old sons out hunting and gathering to train them to take on the responsibiliies of leadership, while so-called civilized people keep their “youth” ( any age upto and beyond 60 years )trapped in everlasting recreational facilities where they are not required to think about anything other that catching, or kicking or throwing a ball. Is it any wonder that you have only Peter Pans?
More than 50 % of Al jazeras Staff are active memebers of the Muslim Brotherhood (hamas is the palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood)Now There is a free press we can all trust.
The BBC the British/Irish Newspapers have thrown their integrity of Journalism to the four winds and have become hyperactive tools in the propaganda war both against Jewish nationalism and the jews themselves. The narrative re the Palestinian /Israel conflict, purveyed by the MSM in Britain has reached such shrill and biased proportions that facts and truth have become an unnecessary hinderance to promoting the slogan filled narratives they believe in.
This will be the end of honest Journalism and the free press in Britain. I cant see how it will be able to rehabilitate itself.
These “journalists” are not journalists at all. They are terrorists with British, Scottish and Irish accents. And they are Nazis with British, Scottish and Irish accents.
Israel must threat them like any other Islamist/Nazi terrorists bent on exterminating the Jews.
If you know what I mean.
It amazes me when people state that many in Jordan are of ‘Palestinian’ origin. Jordan is ‘Palestine,’ created by the British on the 3/5 of the territory of Palestinian Mandate so obviously the majority must be of ‘Palestinian’ origin. And yet, nobody suggests that the Palestinian state ought to be created in Jordan, an artificial entity without history, to become a home Arab/Palestinian refugees. After all Israel found place for all Jewish refugees from around the world.
The wholesale rewriting of the history of the Middle East allows even the Pope to advocate the creation of an Arab/Muslim state in Bethlehem, the place of birth of a Jewish king David and alleged place of birth of another Jew, Jesus, venerated by the Pope and billions of Christians as the Son of God and in Jerusalem, the spiritual and historical home of the Jewish Nation.
JFM you must be tired or on the nerves (not dyslexic ?) cuz your orthograph isn’t understandable, well I guess what you mean though !
becuz you lke to read history through images, don’t miss this next movie :
http://www.20minutes.fr/article/326667/Cannes-Virginie-Ledoyen-nouvelle-recrue-de-Robert-Guediguian.php
Why would the pro-Pali crowd want to boycott Israeli medical services? Don’t they know that Israeli hospitals, doctors and medicine are constantly treating palestinians who are harmed in terrorist infighting or the bombings that Hamas frequently provokes?
Logdon, you may very hate the multicultural madness, and it may very well be going down.
But I’ll believe it when I actually see it.
Colinedale:
Palestinians are A-r-a-b-s. They come from the Saudi Peninsula. They are as indigenous to Palestine as Europeans and Africans are to North America (i.e we came here a long time ago, and now we aren’t leaving)
Who gives a rat’s arse what the Brits think? These sherry-sipping bastards with bad teeth still think anyone pays attention to them,which is hilarious. They are totally been either gulled by the moslems,or live in fear of them. Remember the words to the song”Britons never ever will be slaves”. They’re wrong;they are.
Does nobody get the irony of condemning journalistic bias not only from the land of Fox News but even on this site.
Carol’s remit seems to be anything to suggest the British are anti-semite’s and on the verge of sharia law.
When myself and others try to explain what really is going on,all we get is abuse.
The NUJ have joined journalists union’s around the world to investigate the targeting of media forces by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip.
Asking the UN to take action against israel where it has violated international law and a security council resolution on protecting media in conflict zone
Even ignoring it’s own Supreme court.
The claims of anti-semitism if you disagree with the action’s of the Israeli government is pathetic.
Even people in Israel has condemned it’s attack on Gaza.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b277b7aa-14ac-11de-8cd1-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=be75219e-940a-11da-82ea-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1
Anti-Semitism?
Beyond question.
Sorry you had to endure those brutes, Carol.
The claims of anti-semitism if you disagree with the action’s of the Israeli government is pathetic.
You are pathetic. Tell me how much time and energy have they spent on the actions of the Srri Lanka governemnt. on the geonocidical Sudanese regime (fifty times more dead plus mass rapes), on the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Zero, zilch, nada. However I agree that the word antisemitism doesn’t apply to them since there have been antisemites who nevertheless saved Jews during WWII. Using the word antisemites to designate pro-Palestinian activists would sully thiose “honorable antisemites” I mentioned Given that they support organizations whose goal is not the mere destruction of a state but extermination of Jews, Nazis is a far better word.
JFM,
What are you going about? Firstly as you must know in sri lanka 70% follow buddhism.
The brutal LTTE are not muslims. They do carry out suicide bombing and kill in huge numbers.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iXSZdPEoCce6BZD-1J0F5li7Y7zw
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1183453/Gordon-Browns-warning-Sri-Lanka-crushes-rebels.html?ITO=1490
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/srilanka/4605772/Sri-Lanka-rejects-Gordon-Browns-intrusive-offer-of-special-envoy-Des-Browne.html
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/international/Brown-pledges-25m-for-Sri.5208334.jp
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1183453/Gordon-Browns-warning-Sri-Lanka-crushes-rebels.html?ITO=1490
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1183453/Gordon-Browns-warning-Sri-Lanka-crushes-rebels.html?ITO=1490
I agree ,the Sudanese regime is geonocidical does that make us both anti-Buddhist?
Could you tell me what is the relationship between the non sense in your post and that pro-Palestinim is Nazism for cowards?
JFM,
I don’t think we are making are points clear to eachother.
I think what you are saying,that in the U.K we only critise Israel because we are all closet nazi’s who want to gas all the jews,and use it as just a vehicle.
If that is what you think,then you have made my point for me.
I have been saying that Carol has been reporting from the U.K and that is how opinion is formed.
You have claimed that we only condemn and protest against Israel’s actions because of anti-semtism. Give others a free ride, your words,zero,zilch ,nada.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17619
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/20/sri-lanka-protests-parliament
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/tami-a13.shtml
When the protests are against Israel i am sure it woul be reported and you would know about it
Anti-semitism is the racist belief that Jews are genetically evil and subversive and should be persecuted.
It’s misdefined for use as a political weapon to silence any critism.
There is no such thing as ‘honerable’ anti-semitism.
Like there is no ‘honerable’ racism against black people.
It’s like having genuine critism of the actions of a black person, and the reply being,’it’s because i am black’ and calling you racist.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17619
Yes I do.
If you weren’t nazis you wouldn’t care for people who are treated with kid gloves butr for the people who are being murdered by the thousands or the tens of thousands. You wouldn’t care for people who are well fed but for thsose who are starving, you wouldn’t care for those who use their children as expendable amunition (a Palestinian woman: I want to have lots of children an d make shahid of them. She didn’t say it but every shahid means money for the family) but for those who love their ones, you wouldn’t care for those who have thrown people on whel chairs to the sea, tried to bomb maternities, crushed choildren’s skulls in cold blood anad who instead of being spoit upon by their won mothers are hailed as heroes and get marrriage proposals. You would care about those who don’t perpetrate those atrocities. You wouldn’t care bout those who have told time after time that their goal is extermination.
You would give to the Palestinians betewne zero and one thousandth of the energy you give to the others. Instead it is the opposite. No demonatrations agaionst Soudan, no burning of Turkish flags, no calls to boycott Sri Lankan products.
The little Nazis care only for those who want to exterminate the Jews.
Hello JFM,
Ok,lets go,
http://ru.truveo.com/Boycott-Sri-Lankan-Airlines/id/2752802556
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/boycott-made-sri-lanka-apparels-do-not-support-genocide
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/sri-lanka-escorts-british-journalist-jeremy-page-detention
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29306
Israel is held to a higher standard thats because they are supposed to be’ like us’-a western democracy.The good guy’s.
That doesn’t mean that you agree with terrorism.
The ruling government during aparteid in south africa was judged the same.
Even if other african leaders were brutal we expect more from a democracy
The dehumanization of Palestinians and the demonization of Islam has led to you all being able to view a whole area of the world as evil.
It is possible in everywhere but the U.S to be an allie and support israel,but not blindly and not be anti semitic.
Who gives a rat’s arse what the Brits think? These sherry-sipping bastards with bad teeth still think anyone pays attention to them,which is hilarious
Well, you obviously do. And it’s tea-sipping, not sherry-sipping.
The British government had a plan for dealing with the Jewish issue from the 1920′s through the post WWII period.
Simple plan. Take those pesky folks, who never belonged in Europe anyway (except the few ‘civilized’ Hyde Park sorts) and the scruffy unwanted remnants of the Holocaust and dump them into a malaria infested, poverty stricken wasteland with no natural resources. Give them no financial or material support. Make sure that there is no hope of developing an economy; no trading partners, banking, or Universities.
Train and equip their enemies. Then outlaw any self defense organization and impose a strict arms embargo. Surround them on all sides. Block any ships bringing reinforcements to provide labor and fresh fighters. Then leave, but keep some of your best officers around to advise the Arab Legion.
It is forver irritating to certain members of the British elite that this plan did not work as expected. I can understand the guilt that they feel towords the Palestinians whom they used so badly.
Spindok
Spindok,
Are you expecting us to defend the British Empire?
Are you still apologizing for slavery?
It is because of that interference in the middle east that problems have occured.
Sixty years on we are able to reflect and learn from that history.
Maybe this could explain how our views may differ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
Your description of Palestine pre 1948 isn’t really accurate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiRBT02cBcY&feature=related