{"id":6403,"date":"2025-12-12T15:38:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T13:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2025-12-12T19:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T17:51:28","slug":"antisemitic-israel-genocide-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2025-12-12\/antisemitic-israel-genocide-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s antisemitic to call out Israel’s genocide, says the Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The band Primal Scream had the audacity to tell its audience that the British government is complicit in genocide. They have been reported to the police for doing so<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On the matter of \u201cantisemitism\u201d, we are now so far down the rabbit hole that the word no longer need have any reference to \u201chating Jews\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even the supposedly liberal Guardian uses the term unquestioningly to mean \u201cbeing nasty about Israel\u201d \u2013 a state whose genocidal behaviour towards the Palestinian people over the past two years should mean it is almost impossible to say anything too nasty about it.<\/p>\n

Take the following absurd headline<\/a> from the paper: \u201cLondon venue \u2018appalled\u2019 after antisemitic imagery allegedly screened at Primal Scream gig.\u201d<\/p>\n\"\"\n

Let\u2019s deconstruct this headline. Notice there are no quote marks around \u201cantisemitic\u201d, meaning the paper takes it as read that the imagery is indeed antisemitic.<\/p>\n

There are<\/em> quote marks around \u201cappalled\u201d, indicating that the London venue, the Roundhouse, is being directly quoted rather than paraphrased. And the word \u201callegedly\u201d is included throughout the article for legal reasons, and relates to the matter of the screening not the imagery, presumably in case the Roundhouse\u2019s claim that the band Primal Scream displayed the image turns out to be factually incorrect.<\/p>\n

So what was this unquestionably \u201cantisemitic\u201d imagery?<\/p>\n

The story explains that Primal Scream projected a video on to a screen behind the band during their concert earlier this month in which a swastika merged with a Star of David, the symbol on the Israeli flags flying from tanks in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Guardian uncritically reports: \u201cA spokesperson for the Roundhouse said they were \u2018appalled that antisemitic imagery was displayed\u2019 at the venue\u2019,\u201d and that it had apologised to \u201cthe wider Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n

The paper does nothing to distance itself, as it should have done, from this accusation. For example, it could have reported the incident as follows: \u201cA spokesperson for the Roundhouse said it was \u2018appalled\u2019 at what it claimed was a display of \u2018antisemitic imagery\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

One can debate whether entwining the swastika with the Star of David is in bad taste, given that Israel chose to turn a Jewish symbol, the Star of David, into its national emblem, on its flag and on its warplanes. Remember, though, that it was Israel that intentionally created this confusion \u2013 not Primal Scream, not Israel\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n

One can also accept that Jews who identify with Israel probably found the screened image offensive.<\/p>\n

The question is whether we should prioritise caring about offending those Jews and non-Jews who identify with Israel, even as it continues to slaughter and starve children in Gaza, more than we care about the Palestinians being murdered<\/a> by the state worshipped by Israel\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

I would suggest those priorities are utterly back to front.<\/p>\n

\n

Nearly 18,000 babies and new mothers hospitalised in Gaza for acute malnutrition in October alone. Israel is allowing in less than 25% of the aid trucks it promised in the “ceasefire” deal.<\/p>\n

Don’t believe the spin: the genocide isn’t over.<\/p>\n

Unicef: “Generations of families,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/s3CP1EoSyF<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) December 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n