A recent Irish Times review of a book about the history of political hunger strikes was written by Dublin-born US academic David Lloyd, a founding member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Lloyd previously accused Israel of committing an “incremental genocide” against Palestinians, has defended Palestinian terrorism and opposes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, within any borders.
The review by Lloyd, published in the the Irish Times Weekend Magazine on Jan. 29th (print only), and titled “Weapon of the Weakest”, begins with two lies:
As I write this review, the news pops up that Palestinian political prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash, who has been held without charges under “administrative detention” since October 2020 in Israel’s extensive system of political prisons, will end his 141-day hunger strike on the brink of death.
Hisham Abu Hawash is NOT a “political prisoner”, a term which refers to those imprisoned for merely expressing their political or religious views. As Associated Press (AP) and other media outlets have reported, he’s a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an illegal terror group, according to the US, UK and EU, and was being held by Israel on suspicion of carrying out terrorist activity.
Lloyd’s subsequent assertion that Israel has an “extensive system of political prisons” is pure fiction, an allegation only peddled by the most extreme, conspiratorial anti-Israel activists.
Further in the review, Lloyd invents another Israeli ‘crime’:
Studies…have detailed the remarkable capacity of the prisoners to find ways to smuggle their accounts out of the prison and to take control of the narrative. And just as in their case, the publicity that Abu Hisham’s case received and the protests it generated across the West Bank, despite his isolation, forced feeding and portrayal as a terrorist, was instrumental in attaining his release.
Hisham was never force-fed. Even the most unserious Palestinian propaganda sites have narrowly claimed that Abu Hisham’s family expressed concern over “a possible Israeli attempt to force-feed” him.
We’ll be complaining to Irish Times editors over these egregious lies, per the ‘Truth and Accuracy’ clause of the Press Council of Ireland’s Code of Practice.
David Lloyd – a Dublin-born US “academic” ?
From your report, he should be described as a Dublin-born US antisemitic moron.
Lloyd is Irish so his lies come as no surprise.