It seems the
Guardian wants to shut down all social and cultural life in Israel. Last week it published an article which accused the Jewish state of “sportswashing” its reputation by hosting the
Giro d’Italia‘s first leg, irrespective of the fact that Israel had obviously been invited to host it!
Implicit in the accusation of “sportswashing” is the historical
antisemitic trope of “dishonest Jews” manipulating the world via unethical business practice.
This antisemitic trope has reared its ugly head yet again today with the
Guardian publishing a
letter by artists. The letter is about the
Seret International Film Festival currently underway in London. The letter states:
(vide online)
Again there’s the implicit notion of “dishonest Jews” manipulating others in an unethical manner.
The artists then use Israel’s dealing of the current unrest in Gaza to “call on our cinema, media and cultural institutions to uphold basic ethical standards: they should refuse to provide platforms for national celebrations sponsored by a regime that is guilty of systematic and large-scale human rights violations.”
This is a call for a racist boycott. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) is simply a call for the destruction of the Jewish state (mainly via the so-called Palestinian “right of return”). In 2014 the Tricycle Theatre cancelled the Jewish Film Festival in response to similar pressure but London’s Jewish community protested outside. The Tricycle
eventually apologised.
The artists in this letter claim “large numbers of unarmed protesters in Gaza are killed or maimed with impunity by Israeli snipers”. However, it seems, 80% of those killed in the recent Gaza riots
have been terrorists. And the two “journalists” cited in the letter who died,
Yaser Murtaja and
Ahmed Abu Hussein, seem to have had links to terrorist groups; Murtaja with Hamas and Abu Hussein with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
(full article online)
Guardian publishes antisemitic letter which calls for a boycott of Israel.