'London Review of Books: Ten years of anti-Israel prejudice'
The findings show a starkly one-sided and fringe approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, funded by the British taxpayer for a decade. This in spite of the high profile awarded to Jewish and Jewish Israeli contributors, who authored more than half of the 92 articles published on the subject. Only one article, however, presented a mainstream Jewish or Israeli perspective.
Click here for the full report.
An advance copy of the report was submitted to London Review of Books Editor Mary-Kay Wilmers on Tuesday 9 November 2010 but as yet, Just Journalism has received no response.
Here are some responses to the report:
"This comprehensive report reveals a stunning one-sidedness in the London Review of Books on a hugely complex issue. There is no effort to showcase a range of views on Israel-Palestine or to take Israel's legitimate security and political concerns seriously. But more revealing is how truly fringe the LRB's conventional wisdom is on this issue. Hezbollah rockets raining down on Israeli towns are depicted as symbols of 'consciousness-raising' about the injustice of Israeli poverty. Overt comparisons are made between Israeli military policy and the Nazi Final Solution. Hamas is seen as a big-tent party of spiritual progressivism and not as a totalitarian, anti-Semitic terrorist organisation."
Michael Weiss, Executive Director of Just Journalism
"A good dissection of the articles on the conflict that appeared in the LRB over the past decade. Many contributions are no more than pro-Arab propaganda. On the face of things, it would appear that sending taxpayers' pounds their way is misguided if not downright hostile toward Israel - which is not British government policy."
Benny Morris, professor of history at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
"This report performs a valuable service exposing the systemic bias of the LRB in its coverage of Israel. It shows that the LRB fails to be objective or impartial in its coverage of one of the most serious international conflicts in our time. Over ten years, the LRB has been disproportionate in its coverage: almost entirely ignoring pro-Israeli perspectives and devoting nearly all of its coverage to arguing the Palestinian cause. This is a shocking expose of the LRB under its editor, Mary-Kay Wilmers, and raises serious questions about whether the LRB is entitled to receive substantial sums of public money when it refuses to be impartial in its coverage of such a serious conflict."
David Herman, contributing editor at Prospect, regular contributor to The New Statesman and TV producer.
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