The Guardian’s sports section is currently running a series entitled ’50 stunning Olympic moments’.
The placing of an article about the murders of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 games under that heading may well be considered a failure of judgment and good taste, but the article itself is very competent – especially in highlighting the gross failures of the both the German and Olympic authorities throughout and after the terror attack.
More, then, is the pity that the author – Simon Burnton – chose to end a lengthy, informative and well-written piece with the following unfortunate sentence, for which he was duly taken to task by commenters below the line.
“Away from the Olympic gaze, meanwhile, Palestinians continue to die for their cause, and Israelis for theirs.”
But still, we are in the realms of taste and decency here, just as we were in July 2010 when the Guardian chose to run an obituary for the mastermind of the Munich attack – Abu Daoud – in which the terrorist was described as:
“Mohammed Daoud Oudeh (Abu Daoud), guerrilla leader, teacher and lawyer, born 1937; died 3 July 2010”.
However, even the Guardian’s sports section is not immune to the malaise of racist stereotyping as so often seen at ‘Comment is Free’.
Related articles
- ‘Comment is Free’ places obituary for Israeli PM’s father on ‘Palestinian Territories’ page. (cifwatch.com)
- Mehdi Hasan croons the Iran chorus on ‘Comment is Free’. (cifwatch.com)
- Faces of the IDF & faces of stereotypes: Countering the Guardian’s crude caricature of Israelis (cifwatch.com)
- The Guardian, Raed Salah and Yom HaShoah. (cifwatch.com)
- Anti-Zionist propaganda as literary criticism: How the Guardian demonizes Israel without really trying (cifwatch.com)
- ‘Elder of Ziyon’ responds to the Guardian’s Ben White on BDS. (cifwatch.com)
- CST secures amendments on the ‘Comment is Free’ website. (cifwatch.com)
- New Think Tank Formed to Combat Campus Antisemitism (cifwatch.com)
- You may need to read this twice – the Guardian Denies that Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital. (cifwatch.com)
