Jewish journalists at The Guardian have accused the paper’s editors of “gaslighting” them amid the outrage over football writer Jonathan Liew’s column for the paper, which appeared to defend the vandalism directed at the Archway branch of Gail’s bakery by pro-Palestine activists.
Liew was heavily criticised for an article suggesting that the presence of the North London store next to a Palestinian-run café was “an act of heavy-handed high-street aggression”.
He also referred to the vandalism, which activists claim was due to the reported investments of Gail’s parent company, Bain Capital, in Israeli defence firms, as “small acts of petty symbolism”.
These have included smashing the outlet’s windows and graffitiing anti-Israel slogans on its shopfront.
The Guardian has since issued a correction to the piece, removing the “petty symbolism” remark in order, it claimed, to avoid “misunderstanding”, as well as “clarifying” that his comment about “aggression” was “meant to refer to the described fears about the chain’s impact on small traders”.
However, speaking to the JC on condition of anonymity, one Jewish staff member said: “Jonathan Liew's article is a classic case of progressive antisemitism. God knows how many editors had to read the piece and agree with it, as they have their entire worldview shaped by anti-Zionism. The subsequent explanation is gaslighting. It’s disgusting.”
Another added: “This hasn't told me anything about The Guardian that I didn't already know/suspect.
"The article would have been seen by at least five different pairs of eyes before launch, so I think it just shows how accepted these views are within the organisation.”
And a third accused the paper’s senior editors of “gaslighting” Jewish employees and readers over the issue.
"Especially since October 7 dozens of articles have appeared in The Guardian that have similarly demonised Jews and Israelis, and that have whitewashed, justified and even celebrated the openly racist targeting of Jews by antisemites under the guise of anti-Zionism,” they told the JC.
"All internal and public pleadings of Jews with the editor have fallen on deaf ears: These kinds of pieces keep dropping, and various writers of such articles have since been promoted by Kath Viner.
"One can therefore only conclude that these aren’t unfortunate editorial errors of judgment that have slipped through the net and which the editor regrets, but rather that these pieces are part of a deliberate, full-throated campaign aimed at further isolating and demonising Jews and Israelis.”
"Many editorial staff are aghast this keeps happening but the internal culture is one of fear: few staff flag their concerns over such content for fear of repercussions,” they went on.
“Jewish staff at The Guardian feel gaslit by the absurd and nonsensical correction of the piece. The only consolation is that a large number of people have publicly aired their outrage over this appalling attack on British Jews who stand accused of having founded a bakery.”
Meanwhile, one Jewish Guardian writer, and Liew’s fellow football reporter, Jacob Steinberg, appeared to publicly admonish his colleague on Monday, posting photos of a challah loaf bought from Gail’s to his X account in the wake of the row.
And, in an interview with the JC, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch
called Liew’s piece “disgusting”.
“I mean, to be honest, The Guardian has previous on this, that article, which was pretending to be about Israel… was just yet another cover for antisemitism,” she said.
“The people in this country tend not to care who owns which shop. They just care whether the food is good or not. And I think it's absolutely disgusting that people are starting to bring in the heritage and the ownership of businesses. I think that it is what is leading to the kind of violence and intimidation tactics that we're seeing in many places, including at Gail’s bakeries.
"I think that is also disgusting, and I don't think any newspaper should be doing things that increase the intimidation of any community in our country.”
The JC has contacted The Guardian and Kath Viner for comment.
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