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 Mndoweiss announcement of the new censorship policy.


In case you missed it:

• Concerning Mondoweiss, Racism and Freedom of Speech

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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