Daphna Baram is a freelance journalist and writer. Originally from Israel, she now lives in the UK. Her grandfather, Moshe Baram, served as a cabinet minister in Yitzchak Rabin’s first government. Daphna Baram is author of the book “Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel” whom the Guardian commissioned to answer charges of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.   Unsurprisingly, Baram acquitted the Guardian of both charges and won the praise of none other than Jewish anti-Zionist, Avi Shlaim, (who also wrote a foreword) whom she studied under while she was at Oxford.

 Commenting on a debate in Cambridge in 2006 on Zionism in which Baram participated, Emanuele Ottolenghi observed that “Baram pushed that line further by explaining that Israel’s Jewish character means Israeli society is racist – the implication being that Israel must turn itself into “a state of all its citizens” and embrace multiculturalism.” Ottolenghi went on to quip that “[g]iven the ubiquitous nature of multiculturalism in the Arab world and the promise it holds for peaceful coexistence among religions and ethnic groups, one can excuse Baram for having permanently relocated to London.”

 In her review of the book “If I am Not for Myself: The Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew” by Mike Marqusee , Baram wrote:

“A tour-de-force of political and cultural analysis of various aspects of Jewish, Zionist and anti-Zionist history and politics. Marqusee touches on many painful spots … The comparisons he draws between Zionism, Hindu nationalism, and other similar and dissimilar political phenomena are incisive and accurate. He shies away from no controversy, and his account of recent dealings with incidents in and around the anti-war movement – which attracted accusations of antisemitism – are penetrating and intellectually honest…. a manifesto for a whole generation of Jewish radical activists who refuse to be deterred by the threat of being labelled, and libelled, as self-haters.”

During Operation Cast Lead, the BBC World Radio Service broadcast a short essay by Baram which is much in the vein of Caryl Churchill’s antisemitic play, Seven Jewish Children. An excerpt from Baram’s shameful essay follows:

“Silly children why do you die? Why do you die on TV? We took out our settlers, put a wall around you, locked you in, and still you are ungrateful. Can’t you understand our need to bomb you? Why do you die on TV? The world is all against us, it always will be, why cant you help us a little, why do you die on TV?

Your suffering masks our historical rights, your ghetto makes ours forgotten, you are the new martyrs, and what’s left for us, how dare you die in anonymous mass, we’ll send all our air force to punish you now, how dare you die on TV.”

Below is a selection of statements made by Daphna Baram in ‘Comment is Free’ “in her own words”:

“The intransigence, the expansionism, the racism and the warmongering are not the problem with only one of the big parties in the Israel’s politics; at the moment they seem to be the national consensus.” The Knesset: many parties, one mind March 26, 2009

“At this late hour, when the shadow of proto-fascism is hovering over the land, it is time to join forces with Palestinian citizens in the battle against ethnic purity, and for a true democracy. It is time to stop fidgeting, and to admit that mono-ethnicism cannot be a framework for liberal values. It is time to apologise to MK Azmi Bshara, who was dabbed “an Arab nationalist” by Israeli liberals because of his call for “a state of all its citizens”. It is time to rethink Zionism.” It’s time to rethink Zionism February 17, 2009

“Naturally my thoughts carried me back to Cif, a place where I’m fortunate enough to have a platform for my ideas, and often unfortunate enough to be subjected to the ugliest of slurs – although they appear alongside encouraging, kind words, and respectful opposition.” Let’s shed the cloak of anonymity October 23, 2007

“So let me say loud and clear: a state that has apartheid high court rulings, apartheid policies and apartheid laws is an apartheid state. No way around it. That’s all that really matters.” I call it an apartheid state May 16, 2006