Guardian removes antisemitic trope from op-ed

Last week, we complained to Guardian Readers’ Editor Elisabeth Ribbans about a Nov. 8th, opinion piece, “Where is the Gaza ‘peace process’ really going?“, by Palestinian-American writer Ahmad Ibsais who, a contributor so radical that he’s praised the Oct . 7th massacre on his Substack page.

His Guardian piece included the following antisemitic trope:

I feel the ways Palestine has been carved, dehumanized, and brutalized to carry out an extermination campaign by those who call themselves “chosen”. [emphasis ours]

The word “chosen” in that sentence links to a 2018 article by the pro-Hamas site MEMO titled “New Poll: Majority of Israelis believe they are the chosen people“, which was illustrated with a cartoon by the notorious antisemitic cartoonist Carlos Latuff – which, as you’ll see here, represents at least the second time the outlet has legitimised the anti-Jewish propagandist’s work.

Given the context of its use in his Guardian op-ed, Ibsais distorted “chosen people” – a term merely referring to the belief that Jews have a unique moral and spiritual responsibility to make the world a better place – to promote the antisemitic idea of “Jewish supremacy”.

In fact, we noted to editors in our current complaint that, in 2011, after emails to the Guardian by prominent organisations noting the antisemitic pedigree of a similar distortion of the term “chosen people” in a column by the Guardian’s Deborah Orr, her piece was amended to note that her language was “inconsistent with Guardian guidelines“.

It also included a footnote linking to a subsequent apology by Ms. Orr, published in the Guardian, about the poor judgment she showed in using that term to suggest that Jews, unique among religious faiths or ethnicities, see themselves as superior to other people.

Later, then Guardian Readers’ Editor Chris Elliott addressed complaints over Orr’s original piece, and he wrote this:

Two weeks ago a columnist used the term “the chosen” in an item on the release of Gilad Shalit, which brought more than 40 complaints to the Guardian, and an apology from the columnist the following week. “Chosenness”, in Jewish theology, tends to refer to the sense in which Jews are “burdened” by religious responsibilities; it has never meant that the Jews are better than anyone else. Historically it has been antisemites, not Jews, who have read “chosen” as code for Jewish supremacism. [emphasis ours]

Our complaint concerning Ibsais’s op-ed was upheld, and the original sentence revised, which now reads as follows:

I feel the ways Palestine has been carved, dehumanized, and brutalized to carry out an extermination campaign by Israel, where three-quarters of the right-wing believe the Land of Israel stems from a divine promise. [emphasis ours]

The following completely insufficient editor’s note was added at the bottom of the piece, noting the change, while, unfortunately, not apologising for the initial text’s promotion of antisemitism.

Finally, as you can see, the op-ed still promotes the toxic antizionist libel that the Jewish state is carrying out an “extermination campaign” against the Palestinians. As grotesque as that charge is, we were certain that a complaint centering on that accusation wouldn’t have prompted a correction, as the Guardian has been promoting variations of the genocide lie continually since shortly after the Oct. 7th massacre.

See the Jewish Chronicle’s Nov. 14th write-up about the “chosen people” trope in the Guardian op-ed, and our complaint, here.