The Guardian’s letters section, July 13th, included the following about G4S – the company providing security for the London Olympics:
While the letter was signed by a veritable Algonquin round table of Israel haters, Sarah Colborne – director of the anti-Zionist cult known as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign – is the star of the show, as she continues to demonstrate a talent for convincing Guardian editors that her malign obsession with the Jewish state is consistent with liberal sensibilities.

The claim advanced by Colborne and her clan of radical “activists”, that there are Palestinian “political prisoners” being held in Israeli jails, is actually not the first time this fiction has been advanced in the Guardian.
In June, I posted about the following throw away line in a report in the Guardian/Observer “Business” section (which no doubt reports, in classical Marxist tradition, on the last desperate breaths of End Stage Capitalism):
“It is against that backdrop that campaigners will make their way to the AGM of security specialists G4S this week, where they will voice concerns on issues as varied as: the death of asylum seeker Jimmy Mubenga while under G4S guard (a decision on whether or not to prosecute will be made soon); charges for security to the Olympic Games (the same margin as usual, says G4S); and the group’s service contract with an Israeli jail that holds political prisoners.”
As I noted at the time, there was no link provided and therefore no way of knowing which Palestinians, being held in Israeli jails, they were characterizing as “political prisoners”.
However, I guess a broad understanding of the term could include Palestinians being held by Israel due to their affiliation with Islamic Jihad and other such terrorist movements – those sensitive souls whose only crime is their aspiration to murder Jews, and whom those of us who are “political prisoners” of a false consciousness fail to view as the Jeffersonian democrats they are.
By the way, if you find my characterization of PSC as a cult a bit over the top, take a look at PSC activist Amena Saleem at an event announcing the launch of an aid convoy to Gaza. I’ve trimmed the video so that you only see Saleem (for a full minute) as she’s introduced to the raucous crowd.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSxbBcSkv7c]
Creepy, isn’t it? Her expressionless (robotic) affect doesn’t change at all the entire time.
Though, in fairness, the indoctrination she must have gone through to enable her to portray would-be Palestinian suicide bombers as social activists must require the suspension of disbelief, reason and critical thinking – a level of double-think which would frighten even die-hard Stalinists, such as Guardian associate editor Seumas Milne.
Related articles
- The Guardian: aspiring to become the PSC’s ventriloquist’s dummy? (cifwatch.com)
- Fiction Alert: Palestinian “political prisoners” and a Guardian “Business” section (cifwatch.com)
- The Gaza you’ll never see in the Guardian (cifwatch.com)
- The Guardian’s Giles Fraser, and the Palestinian ‘weapon of the womb’ (cifwatch.com)
- Harriet Sherwood’s continuing advocacy journalism on behalf of Palestinian terror suspects (cifwatch.com)
- An ongoing Guardian investigation into Israel’s immutable guilt: Gaza healthcare crisis edition (cifwatch.com)
- The racism of no expectations: The Palestinians on the pages of the Guardian (A six month review) (cifwatch.com)
- What Harriet Sherwood won’t report: Palestinians beaten by PA police (cifwatch.com)
- Palestinian woman on hunger strike for 3 weeks. She’s not in Israel, so the Guardian yawns (cifwatch.com)
- Chair of Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign declares Israeli Hoopoe birds ‘Aves non gratae’. (cifwatch.com)