Poor
Tim Willcox, now terrorised for doing a professional job at the Paris
anti-terror march.
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In
a live TV report the BBC’s Willcox was interviewing people in the crowd and
talking to a Jewish woman about her fears of persecution. She said: “The
situation is going back to the days of the 1930s in Europe.”
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Willcox
replied: “Many critics, though, of Israel’s policy would suggest that the
Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.”
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She
countered: “We can’t do an amalgam.”
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Willcox
said: “You understand everything is seen from different perspectives.”
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The
reporter’s remarks were widely criticised by viewers, with some calling for his
resignation.
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According
to the Express, historian Simon Schama accused Willcox of “appalling
hectoring” before tweeting: “Then he had gall to patronise her at the end ~
‘you see people see it from all sides’. That Palestinian plight justifies
anti-semitic murder?”
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Uh?
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Anyway,
poor Tim has had to apologise. Why? Did he say something untruthful? Was it
indecent?
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BBC
Watch commented, without explaining the conversational context, by quoting from
the EUMC Working Definition of Antisemitism: “Holding
Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” and implying
that this was what Willcox had done. But Willcox was talking about the Israeli
regime’s policy, right? Not the collective responsibility of Jews worldwide.
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BBC
Watch is linked to CiF Watch, which is “dedicated to monitoring antisemitism
and combating the assault on Israel’s legitimacy”. And to CAMERA. All three
have the same two editors.
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Hadar
Sela is Managing Editor. She “has lived in Israel for over three decades…
and has written pre-emptive reports on several anti-Israel campaigns,
including the flotillas and the Global March to Jerusalem in March 2012”.
Funny, I thought the flotillas were bringing humanitarian aid to the
desperate civilians cruelly imprisoned, blockaded and bombarded in the tiny
enclave of Gaza. How is that deemed to be anti-Israel unless you’re a paranoid
Zionist or one of the mindless criminal thugs imposing the blockade?
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The
other is Adam Levick, also Managing Editor of CiF Watch. He “made aliyah” in
2009. Aliya is moving your home to Israel. Since when did we or our national
broadcaster take orders from a couple of Israelis?
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The
Board of Deputies of British Jews, the self-styled “voice of British Jewry”,
can usually be relied on to jump in on these occasions, and they obliged.
Quoting the same antisemitism definition they go on to say:
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“Not
only was this remark irrelevant ~ after all the target of Friday’s attack were
not Israeli but French Jews ~ it also conflates Middle Eastern politics with
the murder of innocent French Jews, and implies that there was some kind of
justification for the attack. This was bad, biased reporting and an attempt to
misrepresent the events of Friday afternoon… Please take the opportunity to
complain about Tim Willcox. You can use the the BBC’s complaints
procedure…”
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Ed Noor: Caution: Mindset currently being enforced internationally upon chattel. Make no mistake about it. All this fuss about saving freedom of speech is exactly the opposite. If you do not speak the proper speech you will risk your freedom. Just ask Dieudonne M'bala M'bala or Robert Faurisson.
This is so confusing. Israel demands to be recognised as the Jewish State and has just passed laws to that effect. It claims to speak and act for Jews worldwide. Inevitably Israel’s behaviour influences how Jews are regarded locally.
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This is so confusing. Israel demands to be recognised as the Jewish State and has just passed laws to that effect. It claims to speak and act for Jews worldwide. Inevitably Israel’s behaviour influences how Jews are regarded locally.
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Tim
Willcox will remember what happened to another good BBC man, Jeremy Bowen, who was put through the
mangle a few years ago by the Zionist mafia, and his caved-in bosses, for
honest reporting. No doubt they have tried to “re-educate” and re-program him.
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A
kindly member of our group sent Tim a word of encouragement:
Thank you very much for saying publicly that Palestinians also suffer at the hands of Jews. I am sorry you have had to apologise; in my view those who need to apologise are those who do NOT say this at every opportunity.
I
added:
I second Elizabeth’s remarks. Truth doesn’t count for much at the BBC any more, sadly.
Came
the reply:
It’s been quite a heavy few days.
Thank you for your support.
Best wishes,
Tim
Ed Noor: This is an example of the mindset that wishes to protect free speech. They wish to show the similarities between French satirist Diedonne M'Bala M'Bala's gesture of defiance and the Hitler Salute. Under today's "honest" media onslaught, La Quenelle has been distorted into the Nazi salute of the man so deeply reviled by the chosen ones. The positions for Le Quenelle are almost opposite of the above! This pathological need to seek insult where none is intended, or twist things to match personal paranoia, is core methodology for those who wish to control all future discourse to be known as "freedom of speech". The similarities between Hitler's salute and La Quenelle can be seen easily noted by comparing these two photographs....
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, French comedian and political activist currently incarcerated, not assassinated, for freedom of speech in France.
“PLAYING FAST AND LOOSE WITH THE LANGUAGE OF THE HOLOCAUST”
All
this is reminiscent of the flurry of outbursts early last year. The head of the
Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock, succeeded in wringing an apology
from a British MP for remarks in a parliamentary debate about what happened to Jews
in Nazi-occupied Europe and what is happening now to Palestinians in
Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
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Yasmin
Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, told the House that the suffering in Gaza was intolerable.
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The
state of Israel was founded because of what happened to the millions and
millions of Jews who suffered genocide. Their properties, homes and land ~
everything ~ were taken away, and they were deprived of rights. Of course, many
millions perished. It is quite strange that some of the people who are running
the state of Israel seem to be quite complacent and happy to allow the same to
happen in Gaza.
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The
issue is not just about Gaza; let us think about the West Bank and Jerusalem as
well. Many Palestinians are being turfed out of their homes in Jerusalem. The
Israelis are the occupying power in the West Bank, where they have got rid of
Palestinian homes and replaced them with hundreds of thousands of settlements,
recognised by the United Nations as illegal…. The policy pursued by the state
of Israel is not helping to lead to a two-state solution… Let us face it:
if what is happening to Gaza, done by Israel, were happening to any other nation,
the whole world would be up in arms, and rightly so.
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Fair
comment? Or something to apologise for?
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As
reported in The Guardian Ms Pollock accused the MP of
making “offensive and inappropriate comparisons” about the Middle East.
“We expect our politicians to speak responsibly and sensitively about the past and about events today. These lazy and deliberate distortions have no place in British politics… It is astonishing to think that anyone could visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, learn about the industrial nature of the Nazis’ murderous regime, even walk through a gas chamber ~ and then make these offensive and inappropriate comparisons.”
In
the Jewish Chronicle Labour Friends of Israel director Jennifer Gerber strongly condemned the comparisons between
the Holocaust and the situation in Gaza.
“In her remarks, she [Qureshi] directly links Israeli policies towards the Palestinian people to the Nazis’ efforts to exterminate world Jewry. This is both deeply offensive to the memory of the Holocaust and its millions of victims, but also wilfully ignorant of the actual situation in Gaza. We would ask Ms Qureshi to apologise for her remarks, and to cease using such upsetting and offensive comparisons.”
Has
Ms Gerber been to Gaza to see the “actual situation”? Ms Qureshi replied that
she had not intended to draw a direct parallel especially as she had visited
one of the most notorious death camps. “The debate was about the plight of the
Palestinian people and in no way did I mean to equate events in Gaza with the
Holocaust. I apologise for any offence caused.” She didn’t withdraw the remark,
however.
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Two
years ago Liberal Democrat MP David Ward was in hot water for his “use of
language” in condemning the Jewish state’s atrocities against the Palestinians
while the horrors of their own suffering at the hands of the Nazis were still
fresh in memory. He wrote on his website a few days before Holocaust Memorial
Day:
“Having visited Auschwitz twice ~ once with my family and once with local schools ~ I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”
The
sky immediately fell on him. Karen Pollock and Jon Benjamin, chief executive of
the Board of Deputies of British Jews, launched
a vicious attack with Pollock claiming that Ward
“deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust” and his remarks were
“sickening” and had no place in British politics.
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Benjamin
said he was outraged and shocked by Ward’s “offensive” comments. They demanded
the party withdraw the whip. Such was the pressure that wobbly LibDem bosses
appointed a team to lay down language rules, determine whether Ward was
“salvageable” and then “re-educate” him.
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After
that, in Brighton, the Sussex Friends of Israel turned on MP Caroline Lucas.
During a pro-Israel lobby day in Parliament Lucas accused Israel of “blocking
humanitarian aid” and “humiliating” the people of Gaza. Simon Cobbs, a founding
member of the Sussex Friends of Israel, told The Algemeiner: “The
problem we have with Caroline Lucas is that she’s taken a side over and above
her own constituency needs.”
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Ms
Lucas’s remarks were perfectly valid and there was no way Cobbs could deny it.
He should have put his point to the 80 percent of Conservative MPs and MEPs who
have signed up with Friends of Israel, an organisation that flies the Israeli
flag in the British parliament and promotes Israel’s interests. Such activities
are not only “above the needs” but very probably detrimental to the interests
of their constituencies.
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Then
Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell, speaking during a debate on the national schools
curriculum, put a question to Education Secretary Michael Gove about world
history lessons, saying: “On the assumption that the 20th century will include
the Holocaust, will he give me an assurance that the life of Palestinians since
1948 will be given equal attention?”
“These remarks are a shocking piece of Holocaust denigration,” said Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Jeremy Newmark. “There is simply no comparison between the two situations. It is worrying that so soon after the David Ward affair another MP thinks it is acceptable to play fast and loose with the language of the Holocaust in this context.”
Prickly
Ms Pollock also pounced on Russell:
“To try to equate the events of the Holocaust ~ the systematized mass murder of 6 million Jews ~ with the conflict in the Middle East is simply inaccurate as well as inappropriate.”
But,
as everyone and his dog knows, it isn’t a “conflict”. It’s a brutal occupation
and blockade in which millions of innocent civilians have been dispossessed at
gunpoint and put to flight, or collectively punished for decades by a military
force armed to the teeth with high-tech weaponry, and unable to move freely in
their own country. BBC Watch should note that Israel is especially good at
collectively punishing Gazans for the alleged crimes of Hamas.
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As
for the atrocities carried out in Nazi-occupied Europe and Israeli-occupied
Palestine there is no equivalence in terms of scale. But some similarities are
inescapable to those who go and see for themselves. The crucial message of the
Holocaust, that such cruelty must never be allowed to happen again, seems lost
already among those who are supposed to promote it.
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And
it’s that time of year again. Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK is 27 January.
Stand by for more prickliness, more ructions and more “re-education”.
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POSTSCRIPT
As
I was signing off, news came in that MP David Ward had landed himself in hot
water again. The Israeli ambassador Daniel Taub has written to Liberal Democrat
leader Nick Clegg expressing “abhorrence” at “offensive and shocking” comments
made by Ward about Netanyahu’s presence at the solidarity march in Paris on
Sunday.
Ward had tweeted: “#Netanyahu in Paris march ~ what!!! Makes me feel sick”.
Taub
writes: “At a time when leaders were united in condemnation of extremist
atrocities, Mr Ward’s statement is a disgraceful attempt to politicise
suffering, delegitimise Israel, and justify acts of terror.” He also said that
“more shocking still is the continued impunity that [Ward] seems to enjoy from
his party”.
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Taub
himself would do well to curb his language. Israel is in no position to
lecture on extremist atrocities or impunity. Many people, besides Ward,
watching the march and Netanyahu’s antics must have kept a sick bag in reach.
It was widely reported how the Israeli prime minister, who arrived uninvited
(and, I hear, was actually asked to stay away), has been widely criticised for
pushing his way to the front of the parade, positioning himself centre-stage,
linking arms with the invited guests and waving inappropriately on such a
solemn occasion to real or imaginary ‘admirers’ in the crowd.
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On
past form the LibDems will buckle and prostrate themselves before the Israeli
bullies. Their spokesperson has already said the MP ‘s tweet was “clearly in
bad taste”.
Poor
David can look forward to more loony “re-education” in the LibDems’ house of
correction, assuming they consider him “salvageable”. The party, however,
isn’t. It’ll likely be wiped out at the coming general election.
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