Notices have appeared in London's Temple Fortune and Golders Green, areas well-known for their large Jewish community, calling on people to boycott Jewish News because of the Jewish paper's coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli government and describing the riots in the West Bank town of Huwara as a 'pogrom.'
The poster's identity remains unknown.
Coverage by Jewish News
The notices, which were hung in various areas of the two neighborhoods, take particular offense at the paper's description of the riots in Huwara, stating that the paper uses “sinister front page headlines attacking the democratically elected government of Israel, giving credence to Israel’s enemies. Last week’s front page headline ‘Pogrom”, where ONE Palestinian was killed in a revenge attack for murdering 2 Jews, was an absolute DISGRACE and an affront to REAL POGROMS that Jews suffered such as the FARHUD in Iraq, where over 100 Jews were killed and thousands injured."
A4 sheets of paper have been spotted on walls in Golders Green and Temple Fortune, headlined: “THE ANTI ISRAEL JEWISH NEWS”… @JewishNewsUK reports https://t.co/03OiZ7CMJ3
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) March 10, 2023
In reports on the Huwara riots, Jewish News published "Hundreds of Jewish settlers went on a revenge rampage in the West Bank on Sunday night, setting over 25 cars and 15 houses on fire, leaving one Palestinian killed and over 100 injured."
Jewish News also featured an article about a survey which found that 52% of British Jews felt "the inclusion of far-right Israeli ministers in power in Jerusalem ‘impacts’ their feelings towards Israel."
The British Jewish publication is not alone in criticizing the Israeli government, however. Protestors in Israel have been protesting for more than two months against the judicial reform that they say will turn Israel into a dictatorship. The same concern has been echoed by economic and academic experts as well as Jewish communities around the world.
The notices end by asking London's Jewish communities to say "enough is enough. Take it – Bin it. Do not support, do not advertise. Please consider only reading the Jewish Weekly & The Jewish Chronicle.”
Richard Ferrer, an editor of Jewish News said in a statement that "Jewish News reports Jewish news. Did we like reporting on what happened at Huwara? Of course not. Do we want to run endless reports and columns about crackpots being prime movers in the Knesset? Of course not. We would rather focus entirely on all the good things Israel does. But is this kind of thing news? Of course. It always has been and always will be. An IDF commander calling the attack on Huwara a 'pogrom' should be front page news in every Jewish newspaper.
"There is no sugar coating or rose tinting. There is just news. Book burners stick silly posters on newspaper distribution bins. We report news.”
The paper claims to have experienced similar treatment after exposing lockdown breaches by members of the Stanford Jewish community.