By Richard Millett, London.
It seems the Guardian is resorting to favouriting its own journalism. Maybe there aren’t many objective commentators who will do it for them?
First, it endorses its own anti-Israel play My Name is Rachel Corrie. Now Donald Macintyre is heavily plugging his own forthcoming book in the Guardian. In this latest article by him, in which he is waving the flag of Hamas (metaphorically speaking), he quotes sources from his own book without telling us he’s the book’s author.
This latest anti-Israel activism journalism centres on how he thinks everything for Gazans could have been so much better if only Hamas had been treated with more respect. In one hilarious comment (hilarious if only it wasn’t so tragic) Macintyre quotes from Whitehall documents of 2006 which stated that instead of ostracising Hamas after their election win in 2005:
“ultimately Hamas’s participation in the realities of political responsibility might bring about Hamas’s transformation to a political rather than terrorist organisation”.
Hamas’ desire to give up their ultimate goal of destroying the only Jewish state and in the meantime killing as many Jews as possible (all explicitly stated in their own words in their 1988 Charter) is as likely as Islamic State dropping their desire for a caliphate and donning tweed suits instead.
Macintyre quotes from Tony Blair and his former chief of staff in a possible effort to give his book some sort of credibility ahead of publication. Here’s the screenshot of the sentence:
Gaza: Preparing for Dawn is written by none other than…Donald Macintyre. Not mentioning his own authorship seems to be a breach of the Guardian’s Editorial Code on Conflicts of Interest and on Declarations of Interest which state:
“Staff should be transparent about any…financial interests that might conflict with their professional performance, or could be perceived to do so….It is always necessary to declare an interest when the journalist is writing about something with which he or she has a significant connection…”
There is no mention of his authorship at the bottom of this article unlike at the bottom of another piece plugging his book in the Guardian.
Mind you judging by those officially endorsing his book he needs all the help he can, however sneakily obtained. Some of the very few endorsements include one by the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen (reprimanded for breaches of accuracy and impartiality on Israel), Ramzy Baroud of the hardly impartial Palestine Chronicle and Shlomo Sand who wrote a sickening article in the Guardian in 2014 invoking the notoriously anti-semitic “Chosen People” mantra.
Macintyre mentions a UN report that supposedly claims that “the combined effects of the blockade and the three military offensives conducted in Gaza by Israel since 2009 could make the territory “uninhabitable” by 2020.” Macintyre ignores all the work that Israel’s COGAT facilitates, despite the obstructions by Hamas, in supplying Gaza with all its basic needs so making the 2020 doomsday prediction the usual anti-Israel hyperbole.
Macintyre doesn’t like ascribing any blame to the Palestinians whatsoever as we also saw in his recent article (his third Guardian article plugging his book!) blaming the reason that there is no Palestinian state solely on Israel.
If Macintyre’s book is true to form like these recent articles of his for the Guardian then it will be yet another dark day for academia if this book makes it to University library shelves.
(H/T Gerald)
