The NUJ itself has been trying to justify its action but only digging itself further into a very deep hole. Tim Gopsill, the editor of the NUJ’s own house rag The Journalist, told a caller that the boycott was ‘to reward the Palestinian Journalist Union for cooperating with the Alan Johnston campaign.’ This head-scratching absurdity was echoed in an idiotic and self-serving statement put out by the NUJ, in which it said:
The call for the boycott in part related it to the kidnap of Alan Johnston. The Palestinian journalists union has given huge support to the campaign for his release - holding demonstrations and strikes against the Palestinian Authority to demand more action from them.
The Palestinian journalists’ union, of course, demonstrated against the Palestinian Authority because Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinians. The NUJ apparently cannot grasp quite how demented it is, therefore, to boycott Israel because of the kidnap of Alan Johnston. If something nasty happens in the Middle East, they think Israel is the only party to be blamed. If Palestinians kill Jews, blame Israel. If Palestinians kill Palestinians, blame Israel. If Palestinians kidnap a British NUJ member, blame Israel. And if Palestinian journalists protest to Palestinians about the kidnap by Palestinians of a British journalist, those Palestinian journalists are to be ‘rewarded’ by — a boycott of Israel.
How can anyone now take such people seriously in anything they write? But the NUJ are positively pillars of intellectual and moral rigour compared with Alan Hart, who opines:
There is a case for saying (repeat a case) that the party with most to gain from Alan Johnston’s permanent disappearance was Israel. It would not be the first time that Israeli agents had dressed as Arabs to make a hit.
A case? There’s as much of a case for saying this as there is a case (repeat a case) for saying that Alan Hart is a man from Mars. Does it not occur to Alan Hart, even given his fanatical belief in the unfathomable depths of Israeli evil, that it would be singularly perverse for Israel to bring about Johnston’s ‘permanent disappearance’, since he was about to permanently disappear from Gaza within few days anyway because his tour of duty there for the BBC was at an end?
Is there a case for saying (repeat a case) that whole swathes of the British media have now been driven by their pathological hatred of Israel clean round the bend?
Didn't I point out that Alan's father had called him a "friend" of the Pals.?
Seems now that Alan's "friends" are mobilizing - against Israel.
Such a topsey-turvey world. So many dumb journalists.
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