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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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 Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject: Galloway's 'anti-semite' case |
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Why I Decided I Had To Take Jewish Radio Station To Court
by George Galloway MP -
Thursday 7th of August 2008
www.totallyjewish.com
You can call me wrong, you can call me mad. You can even call me bad, but don’t, I give you fair warning, call me anti-semitic. That’s what the Jcom radio station imputed to me last year, and it cost them at the High Court last week.
When I complained about their sick spoof, I got a supercilious response that claimed the broadcast was not in the least defamatory. As Mr Justice Eady, who heard the case last week, put it, such a claim is palpably “absurd”. Jcom then failed to agree with me an apology but instead published on its website, though did not broadcast, a form of words which fell short of the categorical retraction of the imputation of anti-semitism that I insisted upon.
Therefore there ended up no alternative but legal action, during which judge Eady stated, “Mr Galloway is the founding member of the Respect Party and is prominent in denouncing racism and discrimination, and has no anti-semitic or racist views.” He awarded damages of £15,000 against the station, which will be recovered, despite its saying that it will apply to be wound-up.
Some might ask, why not let the matter drop? Well, I cannot accept that the accusation of anti-semitism is part of the badinage of political debate. It’s a most serious allegation and hurling it around as the Jcom broadcast did does nothing but belittle victims of genuine anti-semitism.
I am, of course, a prominent critic of Israel and opponent of the political ideology of Zionism. But, despite all sorts of mental gymnastics by some defenders of Israel, anti-Zionism is not equivalent to anti-semitism and nor does it entail it. Indeed, anyone who has listened regularly to my own radio show on talkSPORT will testify that while my criticisms of Israel are trenchant, I have repeatedly dispatched those who have tried to insinuate some anti-semitic canard about “Jewish power” or even domination.
I come from a political tradition that contrasts the role of Jewish leaders in the European socialist movement with the baleful influence of Zionism. You might not agree with my take, but it is a legitimate political position and one shared by many Jewish socialists. To paraphrase a cliché, some of my best friends are anti-Zionist Jews. But whatever your position on Israel, it should not blind you when it comes to forging the unity needed to resist anti-semitism and racism here.
The BNP, led by a man who’s been convicted for inciting racial hatred, is spreading the poison of race hatred. It is focusing on Muslims, the whipping boys of our age, but it is motivated at its core by a white supremacism that regards Jewish people, black people, Roma, disabled people, gay people, and others as inferior, as subhuman.
Seventy years ago, in the area of London I represent in Parliament, Jewish immigrants came together with socialists, communists, Irish dockers and others to stop the BNP’s antecedents, the British Union of Fascists, at Cable Street. That tradition, which inspired the anti-fascist battles of the 1970s and 1990s, lives on today as we come together from Tower Hill to Dagenham to combat fascism.
When it comes to defending free speech, a good start would be support for that struggle, rather than libelling those who are in the trenches alongside you. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 'Galloway Not An Anti-semite'
‘You can call me bad, you can call me mad, but don’t call me anti-semitic.’ That’s the warning from George Galloway writing in the Jewish News this week after a High Court judge ruled that the Respect leader had been libelled by community radio station Jcom and awarded him £15,000 in damages.
The Bethnal Green and Bow MP brought the action after he was alerted to a spoof segment in a show last year featuring a presenter calling himself ‘Georgie Galloway’ whose catchphrase was ‘Kill the Jews, Kill the Jews’.
The controversial politician became aware of the broadcast after Richard Ford, the founder of rival Jewish radio station Shalom FM, wrote a letter of complaint about the programme to industry watchdog Ofcom.
Describing the show as being “in appalling taste”, last Wednesday, Judge Eady saidGalloway was “prominent in denouncing racism and discrimination, and has no anti-semitic or racist views”.
As readers will know, however, the MP is no friend of the Jewish state. Indeed, he openly admits in the paper this week to being “an opponent of the political ideology of Zionism”.
He also defends his decision to pursue the matter through the courts, even though the financial impact of legal action has forced the team behind Jcom - who were hoping to apply for a permanent license - to shut up shop.
The station, which launched on the radio last October, had continued to broadcast on the internet once its temporary four-week license had expired. But last Thursday, after ten months, it fell silent. Jeremy Silverstone, Chairman of Jewish Communications Limited said: “As a result of this case, the station has now had to close down.
“Whilst we accept the judge’s view that Mr Galloway is not anti-semitic, it is somewhat ironic that in his determination to prove it, Mr Galloway has effectively shut down London’s only Jewish radio station and deprived the community of an increasingly popular focal point.”
Ford - who pulled the plug on Shalom FM last October claiming ‘a rival group of ex-Shalom FM colleagues and friends have set up a rival station which has diluted the whole radio project’ – stood by his decision to complain to Ofcom. Claiming the Jcom team were “demeaning the good name of Jewish broadcasting”, he said, “I wanted to make it clear that the Jewish community did not condone this sort of behaviour on air.”
He added: “I have no idea how George Galloway’s solicitors obtained a copy of this letter and it certainly was not my intention for him to use it in any action he could bring against Jcom.”
Expressing “real sadness” that a member of the community “had been involved “in the station’s downfall”, Silverstone said: “It is despicable that someone who was once so passionate about Jewish radio could act so spitefully against it.”
However, praising “the dedicated team of volunteers” and the otherwise “unblemished record of providing the community with a balanced and respectful mix of culture, music, entertainment and debate”, he added: “What we have created is bigger that any individuals, and we very much hope that before too long our community will pull together and create the station it so richly deserves.” |
shalom fm was co-founded by that mike mendoza who used to be on after galloway, he's lost his show on talksport now though, and shalom fm shut down. i never realised he was jewish, not that it matters - but he's certainly a zionist - he'd never read out my messages correcting him on things to do with israel, although he did read out one about iran and the iaea/nie reports and irans rights under the npt, not that it made much difference - to him it was like iran had nuclear weapons!
fair play to galloway for fighting this, it can't be allowed to equate criticism of israel with antisemitism |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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| I didn't realise that was to do with Mike Mendoza either - he sounds like a right albatross at the moment! |
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cobweb
Joined: 01 Aug 2008
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| Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Wasn't that the guy who did website of the day on the steve wright show in the afternoon on Radio 2? Or was that Miles Mendoza ;>) |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:12 am Post subject: |
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Notice he emphasises that 'Only 36 people were listening online at the time of the offending show.' and then mentions that it only broadcasts to a 3 mile-radius in London... But how many people live in a 3 mile radius (28 square miles!) of any set point in London ffs?
Bollocks to you Michael Savage! |
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cobweb
Joined: 01 Aug 2008
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| Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: |
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People from The Independent couldn't find journalism in a dictionary that was sitting open at "J".
Good find though Faceless |
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