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Thursday 9 February 2012

This sceptred isle

Tuesday, 17th November 2009

Reflecting on that Dispatches programme, Tom Gross writes:

I wonder whether the directors of Britain’s well-regarded Channel 4 television, or the program-makers, have read — or even care about — the European Union’s working definition of antisemitism, part of which reads:

'Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.'

The program — which may leave many viewers with the impression that Britain’s 290,000 Jews somehow control the rest of the British population of 62,000,000 — has been widely plugged by neo-Nazi and left-wing antisemitic groups.

Do the program-makers care? Apparently not.

Presumably they won’t care either about the hatred they have already stirred up, as exemplified by this letter to Theresa Villiers MP:

Dear Theresa

I received, this morning, an email from a former friend. The email was an unsolicited comment as a result of the C4 Dispatches last night. To be honest, I have not yet seen the program as I was at a family bereavement service last night but whatever the content, this was the response that it drew from one whom I thought was a friend.

I have today sent this comment to C4 via its comments page on the website. Perhaps you might intercede with C4 and ask them why they chose to create a program which incites such responses in people. I am sure this was not an isolated feeling from one person and, without watching, I would put money on the fact that there was much disinformation and twisted truth within it.

I believe this country is on a slippery slope of ever increasing anti-Jewish feeling and I grow more fearful, by the day.
I do hope you can help.

My personal representation to C4 is appended below.

Kind Regards
Adrian
-----------------
Sirs,

Following your (Dispatches) program last night, I received the following, unsolicited, email from a former friend and colleague. I hope that you can see the negative and dangerous effects that a program of the nature of dispatches is capable of generating. I shall be grateful for your comments and interested to know your reasons for inciting anti-whatever feelings in this way. The email is as follows:-

Well I have every confidence you were watching C 4 Dispatches. Poor Peter Obourne I predict he will will have a a mysterious traffic accident with in next twelve months. I also imagine my name has been passed to your ‘friends’.

It confirmed my every suspicion. Israel is a cruel primitive,l vindictive state and ranks along with N Korea and Somalia as one the most dangerous states on the planet.

I am amazed Rabbi David Goldberg and the academic Avi Shliam are still alive - possibly too high a profile even for assasination..I How can this Northern European Christian country deal with the middle east with both major parties stuffed with obvious pro Israelis.

I can only hope the BNP send the Hodge packing in Barking. Be under no doubt I am your enemy.
AR

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Watt Tyler

November 17th, 2009 11:53pm

We are watching the film "Beaufort" at the moment. My wife turned to me and wondered what she could do to help Israel. I said that because she was someone who believed in its righteousness, she was already doing enough.

Nordheim

November 18th, 2009 4:31am

Melanie, allow me to hazard a guess. The program sounds like an echo of the recent American book by Mearsheimer and Walt, intended specifically to damage Israel. If in the process the show manages to demonize British Jewry and make them less safe, those involved undoubtedly would consider that icing on the Jew hating cake.

Wilhelm

November 18th, 2009 7:22am

What do you expect from Channel 4 ramming down multiculturism, multi ethnic, multirace down our throats at every turn.

Liberal twit Jon Snow doesnt wear a poppy, he's a rebel without a clue . Every night this twitfest of twitery slags of Israel and sucks up to Hamas, the bias is breathtaking. Achmed Dinnerjacket made last years Christmas message. I wonder who'll do it this year probably Osama Bin laden.

Yehuda

November 18th, 2009 8:53am

The program-makers don't care about the repercussions of their product because they can disseminate this sort of merchandise with impunity.

Mrs Pedant

November 18th, 2009 10:08am

In UK spelling, it is TV 'programme', not computer 'program', OK? Either way, Dispatches was stupid and vile. I would not have believed that anyone could take it seriously.

Gareth

November 18th, 2009 12:39pm

I can assure you all - that long ago Britain had the choice of following Hitler OR Churchill - not both - and the choice was made.
The cruel minorities in the media and public domain give their shout outs against Israel but......... they don't stack. They don't resonate. If they weren't being pumped up every day they would deflate. The unnatural and false, must follow it's own nature to it's own made end.
Do they think their fate will be glorious?!!! of course not, it can never be. Has God's plan for England suddenly been overhauled and scrapped? to change sides??
No.
We young lads who listen to Led Zep and the Who - we won't get fooled again. Did you all doubt that for a second? poor you.

Henry Sidgwick

November 18th, 2009 2:33pm

Since Dispatches did none of the things itemized in the definition of anti-Semitism, the definition is neither here nor there in the debate about the merits of the programme.

Since nothing in Dispatches could possibly be construed as arguing that 290000 Jews control the rest of the citizens of the UK, the misapprehensions of some viewers cannot be used against it, unless you favour a particularly sweeping argument for censorship.

Augustus

November 18th, 2009 5:51pm

Wilhelm - You're a scream! 'A rebel without a clue', magnifique!

Ben-Tsiyon (ha rishon)

November 18th, 2009 8:11pm

Don't tell me that any of you out there are truly surprised and shocked by the perfect specimen of raging British anti-Semitism provided by the unsolicited e-mail received by Adrian from a "former friend"! That one, of course, was NEVER a "friend". Like so many in the UK, he (I assume it's a male)was born with the disease, which is endemic. Clearly he is intelligent and articulate, but he accepts Obourne's slanderous inferences without question because he wants to believe them, and to cap it all, throws in a blood libel of his own by predicting that Obourne will meet with a "mysterious traffic accident"!

As for Adrian's request for "intercession" with C4, what a laugh! That lot knows exactly what it's doing; the objective, as part of the ongoing propaganda campaign against the Jewish state and those who express their support for it, is to incite those who are predisposed to that most ancient of prejudices.

Celina

November 18th, 2009 9:07pm

Thank you Melanie for that.
I have sent a letter to my MEP, about this programs and the repercussions of it in my life and those around me.
I believe this may possibly be a way forwards as there are EU laws mentioned that are being broken.

Adam B.

November 18th, 2009 10:58pm

Oborne and his bunch of Channel 4 lefties don't get the irony of it - this all powerful lobby was apparently unable to stop them making this programme! Seriously, have any laws been broken? Any lawyers out there?

Adam B.

November 18th, 2009 11:01pm

Watt Tyler, the best way to help is to visit Israel for a holiday! That, and buying Israeli produce at your supermarket to combat the hateful boycotters. Plus opposing the new anti-Semitism (obsessive anti-Zionism) whenever it rears its ugly head - especially in the media.

John Hall

November 19th, 2009 10:41am

It wasn't a computer program it was a television programme!

Guy

November 19th, 2009 4:47pm

Tom Gross's article which Melanie quotes from was on NationalReviewOnline, a prominent American website, so of course it was spelled "program". Why don't you guys click on the link before posting silly criticism.

JOHN ROOSEVELT

November 20th, 2009 12:05am

@Henry Sidgwick: quite right, too. Well said!

Despatches was merely dross masquerading as an excerpt from the Holy Book itself.

Such is the style of so much bad TV journalism these days.

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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.

For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here