In tomorrow’s JC, the Guardian says “We reject completely the charge of antisemitism”.
Calling Israel “racist” is antisemitic. Here is “Ilan” (Pappé?) doing precisely that on CIF a few hours ago. The post has been there for three hours now. Does The Guardian expect anyone to seriously believe them?
Ilan
27 Aug 09, 6:35pm
Richard Moore is being disingenuous here on at least two counts.
First up, if he knows anything about Israel at all he will know that Israel is not simply a common or garden serial human rights abuser like other states he names. Israel’s existence is predicated on its on going human rights abuses much as South Africa’s was during the apartheid era.
Second (no particular order) there is, as Loach says, an established boycott of the racist war criminals of the State of Israel. It has been called for by many representative groups of the most numerous and longest suffering of Israel’s victims: the Palestinians. Who in China and Iran has called for a boycott of those states?
The fact that the boycott of Israel is established and that there are not representative groups of victims of other regimes calling for a boycott of those regimes means that it is not Ken Loach granting dispensation to other human rights abusers. Richard Moore must surely know this.
Far be it for me to act as an apologist for Israel but….. But of course Richard Moore is acting as an apologist for Israel by trying to have the racist war criminals of Israel carry on business as usual while he is ignoring the expressed pleas of Israel’s victims.
There is a third issue distinguishing Israel from other serial human rights abusers and that is the fact that whilst Richard Moore claims not to be an apologist for Israel he clearly is one as are many who write in the mainstream media. Can he tell us who is China, Iran and Burma’s Jonathan Freedland at the Guardian? Can he name Zimbabwe’s Matt Seaton at Cif? Do China, Iran and Burma have a Kilroy-Silk at the Express and the Star to abuse their victims? Do they have a Richard Littlejohn at first the Sun then the Mail? Israel has legions of apologists and smear merchants in the mainstream media that other serial human rights abusers just do not have. It is thanks to these that many people still don’t know what it is that is wrong about Israel and of course Richard Moore isn’t going to enlighten anybody by trying to undermine the principled position and the standing of Ken Loach.
There are principled opponents of the boycott of Israel though as we have seen with Neve Gordon’s recent conversion to the cause, they are becoming a rarity. Richard Moore is certainly not a principled opponent of boycott as a potentially effective weapon against the racist war criminals of the State of Israel.
Of course he needn’t be ashamed of himself. Israel apologists are ten a penny in the mainstream media and this disingenuous article certainly won’t do his career any harm.
Since I have space to do so, I may as well mention Richard Moore’s ludicrous and no less dishonest equation of Ken Loach with the chinese state! Perhaps he really can’t distinguish an illegitimate state from an oppressive regime. One individual is not as powerful as a state, certainly not a state like China. Sometimes I worry that Israel apologetics might be taken seriously by the non-committed but I don’t think that’s a worry in the case of this ludicrous and dishonest article.
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Watch what I do, not what I say……
In tomorrow’s JC, the Guardian says “We reject completely the charge of antisemitism”.
Calling Israel “racist” is antisemitic. Here is “Ilan” (Pappé?) doing precisely that on CIF a few hours ago. The post has been there for three hours now. Does The Guardian expect anyone to seriously believe them?
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Not All Comment is Free (but we knew that)
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