Yesterday, we posted about a CiF essay by Khaled Diab (“Hacking away at Arab and Israeli stereotypes“, Jan. 19), which contained a positive reference to, and quote from, extreme antisemite, Gilad Atzmon.

Here’s the original quote by Diab, which was employed in his broad critique of Israeli surprise to the alleged cyber attacks on  El Al airline and the Tel Aviv stock exchange by Arab hackers – which Diab framed as evidence that Israelis see Arabs as backwards and unable to display such tech prowess.

Some commentators went even further“The Jewish state is pretty devastated by the idea that a bunch of ‘indigenous Arabs’ are far more technologically advanced than its own chosen cyber pirates,” Israeli jazz musician Gilad Atzmon observed wryly on his blog.

In addition to yet another pejorative depiction of Jews as ‘chosen’ in the Guardian (as with Deborah Orr’s piece), the “Israeli jazz musician”, as we explained, tends to trade in the most vile antisemitic narratives, including the explicit argument that Judaism is a supremacist ideology, Jews are trying to control the world, and suggestions that history may one day vindicate Hitlers hatred of the Jews.

Following our post, and official complaint, the essay was amended, and the entire passage (cited above) was removed.  

While we would have preferred if they had acknowledged that citing Atzmon in a CiF or Guardian piece is, in any context, necessarily at odds with their community standards, we’re pleased that pejorative references to Jews as the ‘chosen’ are understood by Guardian editors as, by definition, antisemitic.   

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