Mondoweiss Restrict Free Comment
by deLiberation
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
What to make of a site that has successfully presented itself as an activist website specialising in covering the middle east and the related politics and offering a forum for comments and a free debate of these issues if that site suddenly announces that
“we’re going to sharply circumscribe commenters’ freedom to address these issues as a special or unique Jewish problem, or to post arguments that any form of collective Jewish community-building is negative.”?
That site is MondoWeiss. Having built a following for itself as a site that published opinions critical of “the State for Jews” and its supporters, Mondoweiss is either telling its readers it had just been pretending all along, or that it has decided that the State for Jews is not “a special or unique Jewish problem,” just as the relentless witch hunt to identify “anti-semites” among pro-Palestinian activists is not.
Our editorial policy at deLiberation has always been and will continue to be one that encourages free debate. This is not an empty slogan, as our readers know. “Negative opinions” about any state, not “even” Israel, but especially Israel, the Jewish lobby and the hijacking of the pro-Palestinian movement by so-called anti-zionist Jews are not censored here.
A free debate on these issues is deemed essential, and it is incompatible with taboo topics and Nomina Odiosa lists.
We have only rarely had to remove comments, not because they were “negative” with respect to a particular political power group or “ethnic sensitivities” but because they were ad hominem attacks directed at other debaters that stifled debate.
We are left to wonder if Mondoweiss OVERTLY joining the censorship club is MSM’s gain and alternative media’s loss or perhaps only Mondoweiss’ coming out announcement.
Here is the complete text of the Mondoweiss announcement of the new censorship policy.
Posted by deLiberation
on October 25, 2012. Filed under Activism.
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15 Responses to Mondoweiss Restrict Free Comment
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Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 25, 2012 at 10:15 am
“Obviously this decision is a result of the recent flap over anti-Semitic comments posted from the Free Gaza Movement Twitter account. That incident has prompted a lot of soul searching inside the movement for Palestinian human rights, because it showed that a significant part of the community wants to talk about Israeli policy in the context of Jewish history and Jewish identity, and do so in a highly critical manner. Clearly a lot of people, including many in our community, want to have these conversations and regard them as necessary to resolving the Middle East conflict. We don’t. ”
Further down:
“We’re going to have a tight screen on comments.”
Alex
October 25, 2012 at 7:17 pm
We are left to wonder if Mondoweiss OVERTLY joining the censorship club is MSM’s gain and alternative media’s loss or perhaps only Mondoweiss’ coming out announcement.
Concerning
Mondoweiss, Racism and Freedom of Speech
Roy Bard
October 25, 2012 at 7:40 pm
I was confused by your changing the link to black – it was only when I looked at the comment in edit that I realised the link was there. Some good points by Nahida. Thanks
PS: I’ve now edited the comment to show the link as normal. as something in the html caused a problem with the rest of the page
Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 25, 2012 at 8:18 pm
The material published by Mondoweiss–links by Nahida– is definitory. I was wrtong to say Mondoweiss “came out” with this censorship announcement. They were never in the closet. Now they are only announcing “Straights need not apply.” Rarely can one find such in your face supremacism and jewish racism so candidly declared.
David Holden
October 26, 2012 at 4:55 pm
note to Roy/Jonathon re layout
at least when viewed from my computer, something strange in the appearance of this page. the first two comments appear beneath the article as usual. after Alex’s comment there appears what looks like two lines of text:
Concerning
Mondoweiss, Racism and Freedom of Speech
in fact this is the link Roy refers to as having ‘been changed to black.
but whereas the deLib page takes up only the centre part of my screen, the next comments (by Roy and Ariadna) are in full-screen mode. something odd happened. maybe its just me?
oddly enough i only came back here to do an experiment – to see if i could put an image into a comment. i shall still try inserting that html:
‘.
fool me once...
October 26, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Yeah it’s not just on your ‘putor David. It’s gone like this before a few months ago. Like Roy said it makes it hard to see Alex’s link to Nahida’s piece on MW.
Ha ha maybe it’s a funny by deLib, not to conform with AT’s MW quote, by giving us a wide screen;
“We’re going to have a tight screen on comments.”
Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 26, 2012 at 5:37 pm
“it’s not just on your ‘putor David.”
He doesn’t need more defenders and support. Unless you want to be in my personal “No Quarter” list, an idea I got from BB Ali.
fool me once...
October 26, 2012 at 6:53 pm
“Unless you want to be in my personal “No Quarter” list,”
No no anything but that! Forgive my clumsiness, David is merely the Prince regent techy, where as your good self, as witnessed here by all, are the undisputed Queen of the tetchys. And let it be known across the land and sea, a quarter though ’tis nice, a Henry or Louis will surely suffice.
David Holden
October 26, 2012 at 7:08 pm
good point!
David Holden
October 26, 2012 at 4:57 pm
whoopee! it worked!
the page layout is still wierd, though. i reckon some odd html thing has happened with the ‘black link’.
sorry for all this techy stuff.
Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 26, 2012 at 5:19 pm
I simply can’t wait to see Jon praising you for this
Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 26, 2012 at 5:28 pm
And don’t hope that I have any intention of putting a bag over it until this petocracy is dismantled
and we are all treated the same way, irrespective of our breed and the kennel we come from.
Blake
October 26, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Yep MW gags comments. One of the reasons I visit it rarely these days. They dont seem to mind the most retarded comments from the hasbara shills either though I must say they do gag nakba denial.
Ariadna Theokopoulos
October 26, 2012 at 6:20 pm
“they do gag nakba denial.”
In other words they are Benny Morris’ boys
David Holden
October 26, 2012 at 7:47 pm
…this Benny Morris?
if so, we may see the new narrow-focus Mondoweiss pushing for pre-emptive nuclear first strikes on major world cities. perhaps Herzliya have tipped them off that Jim’ll fix it for Romney, so they need a few weeks to get the site up to speed.
in our End Times age, nothing less than rapturous applause can be counted an appropriate appreciation for Mondoweiss’ courageous coming out.
btw i loved the partial phrase:
is it a Thai dish?