‘Guardian’ columnist says he got canned as antisemitic for one tweet satirizing U.S. aid to Israel

This story is going around like wildfire today; Nathan J. Robinson, a former columnist for the American edition of the ‘Guardian,’ says he was “fired” without ceremony after he published a tweet in December mocking the amount of US aid to Israel and the top editor said it smacked of antisemitism.

Robinson writes in the magazine he edits, Current Affairs, that his story is important because it shows why Israel gets away with murdering Palestinian protesters– because the U.S. media do not tolerate any criticism of the country’s war crimes, let alone efforts to highlight how much aid we send to Israel.

The Guardian is complicit in war crimes, he writes:

[O]ne key reason why Israel continues to get away with horrific crimes [is that…] To speak honestly and frankly about the facts risks bringing swift censorship. Human rights violations continue with impunity. And when Israeli snipers target Palestinian children, the Guardian is complicit.

Breathtaking!

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Robinson, 31, living in New Orleans, has written for the left-leaning Guardian US since 2017, lately as a “full columnist.” “I write almost exclusively about U.S. politics. I have never written about Israel.” Last year Robinson made $15,000 from the publication. The Guardian US is a branch of the British publication with its own editor in chief, officed in New York.

His troubles came in late December, when you may remember that Congress authorized a package of covid relief funds and it appeared that aid to Israel was bundled into the same legislation; and it occasioned widespread vituperation on twitter.

Robinson, who is the author of many books, lately, “Why You Should Be a Socialist,” relates how his anger turned to twitter.

Personally I was appalled and depressed to see new funding for Israeli missiles being passed at the same time as pitifully small COVID relief. Israel is a nuclear-armed power… It has almost complete dominance over the Palestinians. 

Sarcastically I wrote two linked tweets. (1) “Did you know that the US Congress is not actually allowed to authorize any new spending unless a portion of it is directed toward buying weapons for Israel? It’s the law.” (2) “or if not actually the written law then so ingrained in political custom as to functionally be indistinguishable from law.”

Robinson said his second tweet was to make it clear that he was joking.

He soon got bigfooted!

Later that day, I received an email from John Mulholland, editor in chief of the Guardian US. I had never received any correspondence from him before, since most of my Guardian communication is with the editor who deals with my work

Marked “private and confidential,” the note said that Robinson’s tweet constituted “fake news,” and essentially accused Robinson of antisemitism.

Given the reckless talk over the last year – and beyond – of how mythical ‘Jewish groups/alliances’ yield [sic] power over all forms of US public life I am not clear how this is helpful to public discourse. And I am not sure why singling out financial aid to Israel in a tweet and devoid of any context – and without mention of aid to other countries either currently or historically – is a useful addition to the public discourse.

“[I]t dismays me that someone who presents themselves as a Guardian columnist would make such a clearly erroneous statement without, as I note, any context/justification.

Robinson says Mulholland’s charge is “absurd—didn’t single out Israel, U.S. policy did!” But he saw that his job was imperiled and he apologized to Mulholland and deleted the tweets.

John Mulholland, from the Guardian

Since then his work dried up at the Guardian. All he was told was that “the thing with Mulholland had made it impossible for the moment,” but when he sought to discuss it with Mulholland, it was no-go.  

“[I]t was clear that I was explicitly being censored for sending a tweet critical of Israel,” Robinson writes.  

Robinson’s story is so well-told and forthright, for someone who’s walking around with his head in his arms, that it’s become an embarrassment to the Guardian. The newspaper told Mediate that Robinson wasn’t “fired” because he wasn’t on contract. They seek “diversity” in voices and would “welcome further contributions” from Robinson. They support columnists expressing a variety of perspectives. We didn’t censor him!

“As we enter a new political era, we believe it’s important to publish diverse and original voices in our opinion pages…

The Guardian supports its columnists to express a variety of perspectives on all topics, which are published on the site every day,” the spokesperson added. “Mr Robinson recognized that the tweets in question were ill-considered and it was his decision alone to delete them.”

Robinson’s lessons from the mess are inarguable. First, the important people who ought to care don’t.

I have noticed that a lot of people who are ostensibly pro-free speech have little to say when critics of Israel are met with professional consequences.

It’s not about columnists, it’s about Palestinian protesters being murdered with U.S support.

[M]y case is a relatively trivial one, and focus should remain on the Palestinians who have been massacred and maimed by Israeli military aggression (the lives of these Palestinians mean absolutely nothing to those who voice more outrage over my tweet than over the actual uses of the weapons systems we are buying Israel). The real problem with censoring critics of Israel is that it makes it easier for that country’s government to keep murdering protesters and maintaining a blockade that the United Nations says “deni[es] basic human rights in contravention of international law and amounts to collective punishment.”

The importance of his case is that it demonstrates clearly how the pro-Israel discussion wins, and why Israel gets “away with horrific crimes.”

we can see exactly how the suppression of critics of Israel works. You say the wrong thing, you lose your position. No second chances. You will be tarred as an anti-Semite and your job will disappear overnight. To speak honestly and frankly about the facts risks bringing swift censorship. Human rights violations continue with impunity. And when Israeli snipers target Palestinian children, the Guardian is complicit.

Again, the Guardian is complicit in war crimes. This is what we’ve said continually about the New York Times, licensing the murder of Palestinian protesters. Robinson links this discourse to BDS.

The Guardian is probably the most “progressive” mainstream newspaper in the United States, so we can tell a lot about the limits of speech about Israel from its actions. Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) activists, on the other hand, operate under the threat of criminal prosecution

Go read his piece. He makes these points better than we can. Including this delightful graphic.

Graphic of US aid to Israel, published by Current Affairs in report on Nathan J. Robinson’s firing by the Guardian for mocking US aid to Israel.

What I’d add is, Mulholland is committed to crusading journalism. “The need for fact-based journalism that highlights injustice and offers solutions is as great as ever,” he wrote kicking off 2021. And his counterpart at the British Guardian, editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, is co-curator of the play, “My Name Is Rachel Corrie.” Now reread Robinson’s offending tweet.

“Did you know that the US Congress is not actually allowed to authorize any new spending unless a portion of it is directed toward buying weapons for Israel? It’s the law.”

And you lose your job for that? No wonder the coldly logical assertions of Walt and Mearsheimer, that the Israel lobby has a hammerlock on Congress, and that the lobby’s advocacy for war in Iraq helped bring that disastrous war about, are still verboten in the media. No that is “reckless talk… of how mythical ‘Jewish groups/alliances’ wield power.”

Jonathan Cook notes the procession of writers who precede Robinson.

Nathan J Robinson is surprised by his treatment, but others – myself included – were similarly forced out into the cold after criticising Israel

h/t Donald Johnson, David Samel, Matthew Taylor, Dave Reed and Adam Horowitz.

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