Crossing the Line? Promoting Petitions Against Israel
December 10, 2012 12:16 by Simon Plosker
Only in the last week, the Irish Times crossed the line from reporting to outright activism when the paper published what amounted to a guide on how to boycott Israeli goods in Ireland.
Has The Times of London (subscription only) crossed the same line in this news brief (emphasis added)?
Israel is planning to build a military academy at the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. At its base is the Garden of Gethsemane where the Bible says Jesus prayed the night before his Passion. Israel’s Interior Ministry says the building will cover 42,000 square metres, be eight storeys high and contain colleges for training Israeli soldiers. Hagit Ofran from the Israeli group Peace Now says: “The location, at one of the most sensitive and disputed areas in Jerusalem, is a little more than provocative. One can’t think of the Mount of Olives as real estate. It is important for the three monotheistic religions.” A petition against the plans is at https://www.change.org/petitions/reject-plans-to-build-a-military-college-on-the-mount-of-olives
Irrespective of whether or not one agrees with Israeli policy on this issue, is it The Times’s business to promote a petition on the issue?
Update
The Times evidently does not see a problem with this judging from this response from Times Feedback Editor, Rose Wild, to an HonestReporting subscriber who registered a complaint:
I can’t think of a more appropriate place than the Faith page to report this story, and to tell our readers, many of whom will have strong personal feelings about it, how they can register them. If a comparable site anywhere in the world were similarly likely to be affected by plans for building, development or militarisation, then I don’t doubt for a moment that we would do the same.
kate b
6:25 pm
Dec 10, 2012
Good job Israel doesn’t need anyone, yet everyone needs Israeli intelligence.
It’s Israel, it was Israel in King David’s time, it was Israel when the Romans killed Jesus, and from the original mandate and today it’s Israel.
Lots of Jews from Islamic/Muslim/Arabic M.E want to go back to their homeland too with rights and freedom to just be citizens of those countries. If Palestinians say they are from Israel, then the only Palestinian book i know is the Palestinian Talmud, it’s Jewish, Palestinians are not, so they are not who they say they are. If they want to live in Israel, they keep the laws of the land, and no, it’s not for sale, it’s not Muslim, Arabic or Islamic, it is Jewish
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Rote Linie überschritten? Petitionen gegen Israel werden forciert « Medien BackSpin
7:48 pm
Dec 10, 2012
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 10. Dezember 2012 [...]
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Is a Third Intifada Starting to Erupt in West Bank? | Blogs about Israel aggregation
9:29 am
Dec 11, 2012
[...] By promoting an anti-Israel petition, has the Times of London crossed a [...]
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Barbara
3:39 pm
Dec 11, 2012
Hmmmm. Muslims are building a large center in NYC, a lap in the face to Americans. What did you publish then? Israel has to protect itself because no one comes to her aid when attacked by Hamas. You have only to go to the web to see the hate and brainwashing- palestinian moms dressing their kids up in suicide bomber outfits, grown men cowardly parading with their faces behind masks marching and preaching hate Israel. How many Jews did Ireland take in after WWII? We need Israel, a land that languished until refugees from Europe, Asia and Africa came to its land to create a beautiful land, tiny but successful. Ireland should do so well. Everyone’s is jealous of the Jews.
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Mike lampard
7:00 pm
Dec 12, 2012
I find this utterly disgusting of the Times. They need simply to ‘butt out’ iof iddues that they have no real knowledge of. Like most other British newspapers and media they are total rubbish and have no integrity.
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