{"id":20197,"date":"2021-12-29T20:57:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T20:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=20197"},"modified":"2023-10-09T10:50:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T10:50:50","slug":"open-letter-from-tony-greenstein-to-the-guardian-after-its-coverage-of-desmond-tutus-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/29\/open-letter-from-tony-greenstein-to-the-guardian-after-its-coverage-of-desmond-tutus-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Open letter from Tony Greenstein to the Guardian after its coverage of Desmond Tutu’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are posting the following open letter to the Guardian<\/em> from Tony Greenstein. \u00a0It is addressed to Kath Viner, and The Guardian<\/em>‘s \u00a0Zionist gatekeeper, Jonathon Freedland, following the paper’s dedication to Archbishop Desmond Tutu following his death on 26.12.21.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0OPEN LETTER FROM TONY GREENSTEIN AFTER ITS COVERAGE OF DESMOND TUTU’S DEATH<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Do You Not Have a Shred of Decency? Why did the Guardian<\/em> remove from its coverage of Archbishop Desmond Tutu\u2019s death any reference to the Palestinians?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dear Kath and Jonathon,<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s Guardian<\/em> has 4 pages dedicated to the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 60% of the front page was also devoted to his death. As someone whose first political activity, as a 16 year old schoolboy, was demonstrating against the 1970 Springbok Rugby tour, I am the last person to quarrel with the extent of your coverage.<\/p>\n

What I find amazing though is that there wasn\u2019t even a passing mention of Tutu\u2019s support for the Palestinians or his\u00a0description<\/a>\u00a0of Israel as worse than its South African counterpart:<\/p>\n

“Your struggle will be harder than ours, as Israel\u2019s apartheid is even worse than South Africa\u2019s. We never had F-16s bomb our bantustans killing hundreds of our children. Remember that.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tutu never lost an opportunity to criticise what he termed an apartheid state. This was well before B\u2019Tselem\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>Report<\/a>\u00a0describing Israel as \u2018A regime of Jewish supremacy<\/em>\u2019 and Human Rights Watch\u2019s\u00a0Report<\/a>\u00a0\u2018A Threshold Crossed \u2013 Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I can make a more general observation? When people pay a tribute to someone and deliberately, for unspoken political reasons, excise a part of their life, they end up saying more about themselves than their subject. Your coverage of Desmond Tutu\u2019s death says more about the Guardian<\/em> than it does about him.<\/p>\n

To do all these things and distort someone\u2019s life, because it\u2019s politically inconvenient to tell the truth, and is at variance with the Guardian<\/em>\u2019s editorial line, is not merely dishonest but politically odious. It suggests that the tribute you paid to Archbishop Tutu\u2019s struggle against Apartheid is just hot air. Pious and empty words aimed at convincing your readers that you retain some integrity.<\/a><\/p>\n

We all know the reasons for the Guardian<\/em>\u2019s dilemmas. You spent five years demonising Jeremy Corbyn and the Left as \u2018anti-Semites\u2019. You lost no opportunity to portray people who were opposed to apartheid as racists. Even worse you did it in the company of genuine racists and anti-Semites.<\/p>\n

People like\u00a0Boris Johnson, who in his 2004 novel \u201872 Virgins<\/em>\u2019\u00a0<\/a>depicted<\/a>\u00a0Jews as controlling the media and being able to \u201cfiddle\u201d elections. Not forgetting Jacob Rees-Mogg who, apart from\u00a0tweeting in support<\/a>\u00a0of the neo-Nazi AfD in Germany,\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0fellow Jewish MPs John Bercow and Oliver Letwin as\u00a0\u201cIlluminati who are taking the powers to themselves.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0A comment\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0\u2018expressly anti-Semitic\u2019\u00a0<\/em>by Professor Michael Berkowitz of UCL.<\/p>\n

Let me remind you both of one of Desmond Tutu\u2019s most famous speeches when he said:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI have witnessed the systemic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What is there in this that you or your fellow scribes at the Guardian don\u2019t understand? Either your opposition to what happened in South Africa, the subjugation of people according to the doctrines of racial supremacy, is a principle or it is a narrow political calculus dependent on the circumstances of the time.<\/a><\/p>\n

The omission of any mention of Desmond Tutu\u2019s longstanding support for the Palestinians was not accidental, an unfortunate oversight but a deliberate editorial decision. We know this because a critical comment from Professor David Mond, who pointed this out, was\u00a0<\/a>deleted<\/a>\u00a0 by the Guardian<\/em>. It did not accord with your \u2018community standards.\u2019 Likewise two comments from Mark Seddon, the former Editor of Tribune<\/em>, were also\u00a0deleted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Desmond Tutu was a strong supporter of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, just as he supported sanctions against South Africa. That was the real reason for your selective editing.<\/p>\n

Of course you did not want to mention Tutu\u2019s position on Palestine. Tutu\u2019s opposition to Israeli apartheid routinely\u00a0<\/a>attracted<\/a>\u00a0cries of \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 from those who refuse to understand that opposing the Israeli state for what it does is not the same as hostility to Jew.<\/p>\n

I fully understand your dilemma. The Guardian<\/em> has spent so much of its time making false accusations of anti-Semitism that you don\u2019t know how to handle the legacy of someone who, according to your definition, was anti-Semitic. Desmond Tutu was an opponent of apartheid in all its forms, including its Jewish equivalent, Zionism.<\/p>\n

Just one final thing. The Guardian<\/em> seems to have gone quiet on Labour \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019. I presume that you are satisfied with the fact that in order to eradicate \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019, Starmer is expelling dozens of Jewish members? If you are Jewish in the Labour Party today you are\u00a05 times more likely<\/a>\u00a0to be expelled as non-Jews. It seems a strange way to oppose anti-Semitism which is presumably why the Guardian<\/em> says nothing?<\/p>\n

Is it too much for you now to come clean and admit that the campaign against Labour \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 was never about Jews and always about Israel and its apartheid practices?<\/p>\n

Yours truly,<\/p>\n

Tony Greenstein<\/p>\n

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This letter was was first posted at:-<\/p>\n

https:\/\/tonygreenstein.com\/2021\/12\/open-letter-to-the-guardians-editor-kath-viner-its-zionist-gatekeeper-jonathan-freedland\/<\/a><\/p>\n

___________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

1. A Jewish socialist responds to Guardian <\/em>article on the holocaust \u2013 Jeff Lever, Republican Socialist Alliance<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A Jewish socialist responds to Guardian article on the Holocaust<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n