While we’re, of course, not privy to the Guardian’s decision-making process, within 24 hours of our post about their promotion of Gilad Atzmon’s book (The wandering who?) on their online shop, as well as complaints by other concerned parties, the Guardian has removed the title from their online store.
The Guardian bookshop page which, as of yesterday, promoted the Atzmon book, now shows this when you try to open the link:
As we noted yesterday, they not only sold the book by the virulently antisemitic writer but added a synopsis which read:
“An explosive unique crucial book tackling the issues of Jewish identity Politics and ideology and their global influence.“
Indeed, this chilling quote could have been written by Atzmon himself who, as we posted previously, has, on his website, literally accused Jews of controlling the world and characterized antisemitism as an understandable reaction to Jewish villainy.
Atzmon’s antisemitism is as explicit as what’s found on white supremacist websites, and I think even those who don’t always agree with CiF Watch’s take on the Guardian should be disturbed that Atzmon’s explicit antisemitism didn’t render him toxic to a media group which fancies itself a “liberal” institution.
Our thanks to everyone who Tweeted our post, contacted the Guardian’s readers editor, or otherwise assisted in promoting the story.
Hawkeye
Omar2
WellofSense
Medusa
The Alchemist
Louise
Tosca
Maimon
Telling the Truth
Israelinurse
Adam Levick
Margie in Tel Aviv
Guest/Cross Post
Hadar Sela
52 comments
Comments feed for this article
October 17, 2011 at 2:02 pm
geos
I doubt that’s a blurb that the Guardian added themselves – it appears on The Times book club website as well:
http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/17/why-is-the-times-selling-an-antisemitic-book/
I presume it also featured on the Telegraph site also, but they have deleted it along with the Guardian. It remains on The Times, but David Aaronovitch is dealing with it apparently.
October 17, 2011 at 2:48 pm
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
Why do you want it removed ? Works both ways i suppose as the “Round up” is being protested !
October 17, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Gerald
An appropriate song;
October 18, 2011 at 9:39 am
ItsikDeWembley
Chris, You are comfortable than that an antisemitic work is being promoted in such a way on a Liberal paper?
Or do you agree with Atzmon and see nothing wrong with that?
Don’t bother answering, I read enough of your earlier posts.
October 17, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Snigger
It’s a case of “Well, if you have to ask….” old fruit.
October 17, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Hoi Polloi
“Why do you want it removed ?”
For the same reason you at some point will be jailed.
“Works both ways i suppose as the “Round up” is being protested !”
The round up of Jews from Budapest
http://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/roundup_budapest1.jpg
Do you see that evil thug on the left? Chris J Walters is made from exactly the same kind of stuff. Who can doubt that given half a chance he would performing the same kind of deeds?
October 18, 2011 at 11:56 am
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
No the round up of Jews in France .. Someone decided it was a good idea to make a Movie blaming the French .. More reparation claims are in the pipeline ! All this collective punishment BS is turning people against ye all can’t you see that ?
October 17, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Andy Gill
@chris j walters
Why do you want it removed ? Works both ways i suppose as the “Round up” is being protested !
Let me guess. You are a member of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee aren’t you?
October 17, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Robby Martin
What ever happened to freedom of speech ?
October 17, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Gerald
Robby history shows that freedom of speech is one of the casualties of not dealing with anti-semitism and neo-Nazis early enough. It starts with an end to freedom of speech and we all know the horror it ends up in.
By the way, are you the Robby Martin who is a self-employed Painter and Decorator in Ireland?
Perhaps you’ve met our resident retarded neo-Nazi, he claims to be a Painter in Ireland as well.
October 17, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Robby Martin
can you define anti-semitism ?
October 18, 2011 at 1:23 am
Irit
You first.
October 18, 2011 at 9:41 am
ItsikDeWembley
There is a very clear diffinition according to the EU.
October 18, 2011 at 1:22 am
Irit
Apparently, Robby, you do not understand what the right to free speech entails. It has nothing to do with the actions of private people or corporations. It has to do with government.
The government has no right to restrict speech except in several very small, well-delineated ways. If the government had tried to restrict the sicko from writing his screed, that would have been a violation of his rights. However, if no one agreed to publish it, that would not because other people have rights as well.
It is not a matter of the denial of free speech for anyone to criticize anyone else. Just because you don’t like someone, or agree with someone does not deprive that person of his or her rights. The sicko wrote a “book” and the rest of us have the right to say anything we like about it, or protest against it, or try to have it removed from sale. The sicko does not have rights that the rest of us do not have.
We do not like to see anti-Semitism or other wickedness published, and we have the right to try to rid the world of it. If the sicko doesn’t like it that is just too bad for him.
Either you understand that we are all equal or you don’t. This is no longer a world where we will stand by and allow others to deny us our human rights, so you will just have to get used to it.
October 18, 2011 at 4:28 am
Hoi Polloi
This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Atzmon can spout his poison wherever he wants. However, the Guardian is not obligated to provide him, or indeed anyone, with a platform. In exactly the same way, you don’t have to put up with me calling you a racist toe rag in the front room of your council flat. In my case, I would be speaking the truth, but that doesn’t alter the principle of the thing.
October 18, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Yohoho
The Grauniad bent it out of shape and sold it back to idiots.
October 17, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Dan
Antisemites had 2000 years of free speech.
October 17, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Robby Martin
So what is an anti-Semite ?
October 17, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Dan
A person who hates Jews.
For more information ask Wilhelm Marr
October 17, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Robby Martin
How come people who hate other Semitic peoples, like Arabs, are not defined as anti-Semitic ?
October 17, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Drew Lewis
That’s a cheap 4th Form debating society device, Robby. The term ‘anti-semite’ is used solely and universally to denote a person who hates Jews.
October 19, 2011 at 12:15 am
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
Isn’t equating Anti Zionism with Anti semitism a cheap 4th Form debating society device ?
“The term ‘anti-semite’ is used solely and universally to denote a person who hates Jews.??”
What exactly qualifies for hating Jews ? Not all Jews are Bolsheviks/Zionists/Anti Arab and not all Jews are calling for the destruction of Palestinians and Iran .. Those you call “Self hating Jews” are righteous Jews .. Like i said before ,I admire Rabbi Nochem rosenberg who is risking his life protecting Jewish Children from Pedophiles…He survived an attempt on his life ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLUArHNbU4
October 18, 2011 at 12:23 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
Robby Martin, Are you gay?
Have you ever been gay?
Do you know gay people?
Do you enjoy being with gay people?
Do you prefer being gay or somber?
October 18, 2011 at 9:48 am
ItsikDeWembley
TGIAI, I’m extremly gay today!
Shalit is safe home…
But than again I am also Somber if you follow Robby’s suggestion.
A lot of “Anti Semitic Semites” have been released…
October 18, 2011 at 1:35 am
Dan
Robby, your reply was lame as it was predictable.
I knew you wouild try to play with sementics, that is why i refered you to Wilhelm Marr who coined the phrase.
It wasnt us who “misused” the word, it was him and his league of German Antisemites. All your complaints you can direct them to him.
To say Antisemites hate Arabs is like saying gay people are happy.
October 18, 2011 at 4:33 am
pretzelberg
To say Antisemites hate Arabs is like saying gay people are happy.
Indeed. It’s at about that (low) level of argumentation.
October 18, 2011 at 4:26 am
pretzelberg
Because the term “anti-Semitic” specifically means hatred of/prejudice against Jews. Go ahead and petition Merriam-Websters, the Oxford English Dictionary etc. and the MSM to change that definition. But until they do that, shut the fuck up and stop wasting space.
October 18, 2011 at 9:50 am
ItsikDeWembley
Well said Pretz.
People arguing like robby here obviously want us to answer in such a fashion while they rub their hands with glee wasting another 30 seconds of their ever so lonely life.
October 18, 2011 at 4:30 am
Hoi Polloi
“So what is an anti-Semite?”
Let me put it another way: six millon fewer Robby Martins and six million more Jews and the world would have been a much better place.
October 17, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Keith Kahn-Harris
I’m a little shocked that in this post you said that the Guardian ‘added a synopsis which read etc’. You know from the comment thread on your previous post that this was not added by the Guardian but appears on most online bookstores.
October 17, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Adam Levick
Hi Keith,
Actually, Amazon’s synopsis doesn’t include the same language:
Amazon.com: The Wandering Who (9781846948756): Gilad Atzmon: Books
Moreover, shouldn’t a media group which fancies itself a crusading liberal anti-racist institution be mindful of such overly antisemitic language?
October 18, 2011 at 4:36 am
Hoi Polloi
“Moreover, shouldn’t a media group which fancies itself a crusading liberal anti-racist institution be mindful of such overly antisemitic language?”
Do me a favour. This is an organisation that has been promoting a virulently anti-Semitic play for years.
The thing is that socialism is an evil ideology. The Guardian is merely one manifestation of that evil.
October 18, 2011 at 5:38 am
pretzelberg
Share-the-wealth is an “evil ideology”??
Good to know where you stand – although it was always clear anyway.
October 18, 2011 at 11:33 am
ItsikDeWembley
HP,
Socialism is what?
Sorry buddy, nothing evil about even distribution of wealth and caring for the weak in one’s society.
Saying what you say means that Judaism is based on evil, as my upbringing was related to Tsedaka and not only for Jews but for the needy..
October 18, 2011 at 7:17 am
Keith Kahn-Harris
No Amazon’s synopsis doesn’t, which is interesting, but most other online outlets do use the same language – added automatically.
I agree that the Guardian does need to be mindful of this language and they appear to agree, which is why the listing was removed. It was only ever listed automatically.
October 18, 2011 at 11:35 am
ItsikDeWembley
Keith, I agreed with you uptil this point.
They didn’t remove it for the above mentioned reason but because people complained.
This should have never reached that point.
end of story.
October 19, 2011 at 1:05 am
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
@Adam Have you read the book ?
October 17, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Harvey
How would you define it Robby ?
October 17, 2011 at 5:42 pm
epidermoid
“so what is an anti-Semite?”
Someone who recognises in himself a distaste or hatred for Jews and Judaism unreceptive to all reasonable attempts at its amelioration because the necessary guilt that would accompany it in any sufficiently moral person is absent and because it is in many ways enjoyable to be able to behave badly once the social restrictions on anything other than the pusrsuit of selfish pleasure are removed. The anti-Semite excels in the art of pretending he is not evil. He is easily convinced.
October 18, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Serendipity
Disagree with one aspect of your otherwise very good definition, epidermoid. Sorry to nitpick, but to recognise something in oneself is an indication of self-awareness and most antisemites act from gut feelings rather than reason.
October 17, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Ariadne
As two cheers for the removal of that foul muck – the technicalities of the Canary Wharf sukkah.
October 18, 2011 at 11:53 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
That Sukkah is VERY KOOL!
October 18, 2011 at 1:26 am
Irit
Ariadne,
That is wonderful to see, thanks for sharing it.
October 18, 2011 at 1:36 am
Truthtriumphs
Someone on Harry’s Place pointed out that Tesco also sells the book on line, as does Amazon.
Perhaps we can all protest?
October 18, 2011 at 4:29 am
pretzelberg
Given that the Guardian is not Amazon and has only a select range of titles (several thousand is small in relative terms), the Atzmon book should have no place in that selection. Good riddance.
October 18, 2011 at 5:01 am
Hoi Polloi
Books at Amazon UK: 37,842,921
October 18, 2011 at 5:35 am
pretzelberg
Yes, HP. I imagined it to be in the millions.
October 19, 2011 at 1:03 am
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
http://www.o-books.com/obooksblog/2011/09/27/will-zero-books-cancel-publication-of-the-wandering-who-by-gilad-atzmon/
I don’t know why i bothered to post this as i guess your all too ignorant to read it ..
October 19, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Ariadne
You bothered to poast it because Mearsheimer and Walt are as bad as you and Atzmon.
October 22, 2011 at 4:25 am
chris j walters (@glyndwr1416)
Now you’ve given me a reason to convert to Judaism
February 5, 2012 at 12:19 pm
CifWatch Wordles The Guardian’s commenters « Tony Blair
[...] Within 24 hours of CiF Watch post, Guardian removes Gilad Atzmon’s book from their online shop. [...]
February 6, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Gilad Atzmon takes aim at CiF Watch, accusing us of running “a Jewish supremacist site”! | My Blog
[...] embarrassed, and incompetent to urge their preference to lift and foster such hate, the book was removed form their site within 24 hours of a [...]