Support for the Balfour Declaration was a mistake, says The Guardian

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The Guardian says supporting the pro-Zionist Balfour Declaration in 1917 was a mistake
https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/the-guardian-says-supporting-the-pro-zionist-balfour-declaration-in-1917-was-a-mistake

(JTA) — In an article about its "worst errors of judgment" from its 200-year history, a Guardian writer implied that the storied British paper's editorial support of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 — the then-British foreign minister's approval of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine — was a mistake.

"The Guardian of 1917 supported, celebrated and could even be said to have helped facilitate the Balfour declaration," editorial writer Randeep Ramesh wrote in the article published Friday.

"Whatever else can be said, Israel today is not the country the Guardian foresaw or would have wanted," he added, arguing that the Guardian's editor at the time, Charles Prestwich Scott, was ignorant about Palestinian rights.

Like many news organizations, the Guardian is reckoning with the ways its past coverage may have offended certain groups, and how some of it is now seen as on the wrong side of history. Other examples Ramesh mentions include the paper's support of the Confederacy during the Civil War and its opinions on voting rights before women were allowed to vote.

The Balfour Declaration, in which the United Kingdom committed itself to creating a national home for Jews in lands it controlled and today comprise the territories of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, was an important milestone for the Zionist movement.




IN THE GUARDIAN, ANTISEMITES ARE AUTHORITIES ON ANTISEMITISM
https://www.camera.org/article/in-the-guardian-antisemites-are-authorities-on-antisemitism/

It was in July 2019 that the Guardian published a letter, said to have been signed by more than 100 "prominent members of the Jewish community," about the antisemitism crisis roiling the British Labour party. The letter didn't take issue with the antisemitism itself. Rather, it criticized those raising concerns about the problem. Casting opponents of antisemitism as the real villains, the co-signers charged the mainstream British Jewish community and its allies with using the guise of fighting antisemitism to "undermine not only the Labour party's leadership but also all pro-Palestinian members."

It was also in July 2019 that the Guardian pulled the letter from its website. The signatories, it turned out, included hardcore antisemites, defenders of hardcore antisemites, collaborators with hardcore antisemites, non-Jews posing as Jews, and people purporting to speak for respected organizations without authorization. One signer, Michael Morgan, had previously accused Jews of pedophilia, blamed wars on Jewish financiers, charged Jews with deicide, laughed at the expulsion of Jews, and referred to Zionists as animals to be exterminated.

It was a fiasco. Or in Guardian speak, there were "errors in the list of signatories provided."

the Guardian allowed people who have disseminated, defended, and denied antisemitism to talk over the Jewish community on the topic

One might expect the incident to have left Guardian editors somewhat chastened. Before publishing another letter lecturing the Jewish community about antisemitism, surely they would pause, if only long enough to ensure the signers have credibility and authority on the topic.

Or not. On Nov. 29, 2020, about a year and a half after its bungled letter, the Guardian ran a similar letter by "122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals," which again took aim at those leading the fight against antisemitism. This letter focused its ire on a working definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which has been endorsed by a number of countries and organizations. In an echo of the earlier letter, the new one suggested that this definition of antisemitism, drawn up by Jewish experts, is used as a "stratagem" to harm Palestinians.

CAMERA UK addressed the content of the second letter elsewhere. Here, with the help of CAMERA's Arabic department, we take a closer look at some of the signers to reveal that, yet again, the Guardian allowed people who have disseminated, defended, and denied antisemitism to talk over the Jewish community on the topic and to accuse those genuinely concerned with antisemitism of malfeasance.

Signers of the Guardian letter had previously accused Jews of dual loyalty; of using their control over the media and banks to manipulate others; of "whining" about the Holocaust and pedaling "fairy tales" about the Final Solution; and of being part of a "pampered religion." They had celebrated terrorists who targeted and murdered innocent Jewish civilians. And they had excused those responsible for vile antisemitism, including the claim that Jews use Christian blood in their rituals, Holocaust denial, and calls to "kill the Jews."