Jews seek to blacklist Florida journalist for criticizing Israel

Al-Khalil,
October 20 2001, IRNA

American sources in Florida have accused "influential Jewish circles" of intimidating and bullying journalists daring to criticize Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine.

The accusations came after influential Jews in Florida reportedly bullied the Tallahassee Democrat, a local newspaper, to refuse to publish articles by a Florida journalist who reportedly recently wrote a article criticizing the "Israeli-American marriage."

The journalist, Jim Moore, said in an email message that he was recently told by the newspaper's officials not to submit any more articles.

In his article, Moore quoted a report that appeared in several Middle-East related web-sites a few weeks ago, alleging that Ariel Sharon, the extremist Israeli prime minister, told his foreign minister Shimon Peres during a heated ministerial council meeting not to worry about American pressure on Israel because "the Jewish people control America."

Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the report, but several Israeli journalists and columnists confirmed that Sharon had bouts of anger during a recent Knesset meeting and that he said "things that shouldn't be said."

Most American and, to a lesser extent, British journalists feel intimidated by Jewish pressure groups and generally avoid criticizing Israel's rampage of murder and terror against Palestinians lest they lose their jobs.

One journalist who did no wish to be named said :

"if I write something and THEY think it is Pro Palestinian my editor gets hundreds of emails saying the paper is anti-semetic, and that i should be sacked. It obviously has a demorilizing impact on us all. The paper doesnt want its readers to be unhappy and thus loose sales.

Unfortunatly Palestinians very rarely write in at all to congratualte.

It gets so bad that the phone is often ringing all day from unhappy Jewish readers demanding to know why I have written this or that, not to mention the large number of Jewish groups that demand a meeting with the Paper to "discuss" the "error"

In the end a journalist has to think carefull about saying anything that might offend Israel.

Sometimes you just want to get on with life, instead of having a mini war on your hands"

Earlier this year, the Jewish publisher of "the Observer" chastised and threatened to fire one of the paper's editors for criticizing the use of excessive force by the Israeli army against unarmed Palestinian civilians.