In a 10,000 word diatribe in The Guardian, freelance writer Nathan Thrall derides Israel as a violent, apartheid state while promoting the BDS (Boycott Divestment, Sanctions) movement as a legitimate “last resort” to achieve basic Palestinian rights.
There’s just one problem: in order to make his point Thrall has to hide, bend or even break the truth: over and over again.
Three recurring themes particularly stand out: BDS wants to destroy Israel. Palestinian “non-violence” is actually violent. And all Israeli citizens have equal rights.
1. BDS aims to destroy Israel
Over and over, Thrall justifies BDS as a movement for Palestinian equality. Three of the founders and heavyweight leaders of BDS disagree.
Omar Barghouti, founder, BDS:
Definitely most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.
(Separately he clarifies that “Palestine” means all of Israel.)
As’ad AbuKhalil, California State University Professor of Political Science, BDS leader and activist:
The real aim of BDS is to bring down the State of Israel…this should be stated as an unambiguous goal.
John Spritzler, author, BDS leader and activist:
I think the BDS movement will gain strength from forthrightly explaining why Israel has no right to exist…
The BDS Cookbook does an excellent job of researching and precisely sourcing dozens of similar statements from BDS founders, activists and leaders.
None of this should be surprising, given the stated position of the Palestinian government: that all of Israel is actually occupied Palestine. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas clarified this point when he stood in front of a map of Israel in a public address last January and said:
This is our country.
Thrall mentions none of this.
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2. Palestinian ‘non-violence’ is often violent
Thrall makes numerous references to Palestinian protests, often describing them as “non-violent” and criticizing (as well as mischaracterizing) Israeli responses.
Yet Palestinian protests and “non-violence,” are often quite violent indeed.
For example, “protests” on the Gaza border this summer included molotov cocktails and gunfire, while “protests” last year in Jerusalem included rocks, explosives and calls for the complete genocide of Jewish men and mass rape of Jewish women,
The inevitable consequence of Palestinian violence is the very Israeli security measures to which Thrall objects. For example, the security fence erected in response to the horrific “Second Intifada” decreased Israeli deaths from terrorism by over 90%, while checkpoints, investigations and arrests continue to stop intended terror attacks on an ongoing basis.
3. All Israeli citizens have equal rights
Thrall states time and time again that Israel does not provide equal rights to all its citizens.
This is simply untrue.
The Basic Laws (Israel’s effective equivalent of a constitution) guarantee equality to all citizens, regardless of race or religion.
Like every multi-ethnic democracy, Israel struggles with informal racial tensions. Nonetheless, Israel’s courts apply the Basic Law called Human Dignity and Liberty (1992), as well other laws, on an ongoing basis: to protect equal rights in practice as well as in legislation.
Predictably, Thrall also objects to Israel’s identity as a Jewish country, saying that it “enshrines” inequality in law.
It does not.
The Guardian’s own country (the United Kingdom) has an official religion (Christianity) and numerous other countries have an official religion, ethnicity, or people-hood without rejecting minorities or minority rights: such as Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan and many more.
Thrall, as usual, mentions none of this.
Facts are sacred
The Guardian’s own editorial code states, “Comment is free, but facts are sacred,” and “the unclouded face of truth [must not] suffer wrong.”
There are many distortions of objective fact and much clouded truth in Thrall’s virtually encyclopedia sized article, more than I could possibly list in this critique. Yet Thrall’s diatribe all comes down essentially to three simple deceptions: that Palestinians citizens of Israel do not have equal rights, Israel is a violent oppressor, and BDS is a legitimate, non-violent, and appropriate response.
If any of those things were true then Thrall might have actually lived up to the standards of his own publisher.
He did not, and the Guardian must respond by enforcing its own editorial code.
Share your considered comments with Paul Chadwick – Guardian global readers’ editor at [email protected]
Featured image: via YouTube/Neturei Karta; Thrall via YouTube/GCWritersInstitute;
