A New Anti-Israel Play, And The Ever-Broadening Definition of "Critical of Israel"

"Workshop May Present Play Critical of Israel"
C1, Wednesday 2/18/09,
By Patrick Healy

Reading these various reviews of “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza,” one would first be hard-pressed to change the title of this short New York Times article. Whatever the play, calling it simply "critical of Israel" doesn't quite capture what the play is, nor the controversy around it.

Yet again, the Times, as it did when it reported last year on Rashid Khalidi as a "critic" of Israel, is broad-stroking anti-Israel propaganda as benign "criticism" and in so doing will render opposition to the propaganda as oversensitivity and even paranoia.

Another fundamental problem with this article is that it insufficiently describes Churchill as being "critical of Israel's offensive in Gaza". That she is "patron" of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a relevant fact that should've been reported.

A similar problem with language comes towards the end when Vanessa Redgrave and Harold Pinter are described as being "known for their support of Palestinian rights." Are those rights the "right of return" or the "right to resist," both "rights" so often and publicly championed by Palestinian advocates? Or do these celebreties support the more basic "right to self-determination," whose benign, non-genocidal form educated and fair observors of the conflict would see as not being denied to Palestinians?

Until reporters can plow through complex and deceptive language such as "Palestinian rights" and know when to use and not use "criticism of Israel," there will remain a serious blindspot in reporting on this conflict.