In a twist that can only be described as darkly ironic, the American subsidiary of British newspaper The Guardian decided to nix a column on the “McCarthyite” suppression that supporters of Palestine have faced amid the bloody Israel-Hamas war, the op-ed’s writer said.
The Guardian US, meanwhile, insisted that the column in question was merely axed because it “did not meet” the outlet’s “high standards,” suggesting the move had nothing to do with the piece’s advocacy for Palestine.
Dylan Saba, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal and a contributing editor at Jewish Currents, says he was commissioned by the left-leaning newspaper to “write about the wave of retaliation and censorship of political expression in solidarity with Palestinians” that has taken place since Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7.
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According to Saba, it was only after his column was fully edited and about to run on Thursday that he was told by Guardian US head of opinion Amana Fontanella-Khan that it wouldn’t run.
“This week I had an editor from a major left-leaning news publication reach out to me to write about the wave of McCarthyite anti-Palestinian backlash and censorship in the US right now only to have a higher up kill the piece minutes before it was set to publish,” Saba tweeted on Thursday afternoon.
Later that day, Saba’s story would run in the literary magazine n+1, along with a note explaining that it had been pulled by The Guardian US.
“This piece was originally commissioned by an editor at The Guardian, who asked me to write about the wave of retaliation and censorship of political expression in solidarity with Palestinians that we’ve seen in the past two weeks,” Saba wrote. “Amid my work as an attorney on some of the resulting cases, I carved out some time to write the following.”
He continued: “Minutes before it was supposed to be published, the head of the opinion desk wrote me an email that they were unable to run the piece. When I called her for an explanation she had none, and blamed an unnamed higher-up. That a piece on censorship would get killed in this way—without explanation, but plainly in the interest of political suppression—is, beyond the irony of the matter, a grave indictment of the media response to this critical moment in history.”
Reached for comment, Saba—who has previously written for The Daily Beast—referenced his column’s note while adding that he has not been given any further explanation from The Guardian US after his call with Fontanella-Khan.
“The Guardian has published a wide range of opinions on the Israel-Hamas war, including a substantial number of pro-Palestinian voices and opinions,” a Guardian US spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “We have a rigorous process and high standards for approving and publishing opinion columns, which this did not meet.”
The Guardian’s opinion page has indeed featured a large number of columns on the Israel-Hamas war that would be considered pro-Palestinian, including pieces describing the Gaza siege as a “genocide” and featuring Jewish academics calling for a ceasefire.
In his column, Saba wrote that “people speaking out on behalf of Palestinian human rights and against Israeli war crimes, apartheid policies, and settler-colonial expansion that have been unfolding over nearly eight decades are facing a wave of McCarthyite backlash directly targeting their future careers and livelihoods.”
At the same time, he touched on statements from the NYU Law School and Harvard University student groups that drew intense backlash for saying “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” According to Saba, those statements were in line with what the editorial board of Ha’aretz, Israel’s paper of record, wrote the day after Hamas’ attack.
“The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu,” the board wrote on Oct. 8, adding that the Israeli prime minister “completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession.”
Listing off a number of organizations, student groups and journalists who have faced repudiation, intimidation, and job loss over their pro-Palestinian stances, Saba noted that Palestine Legal—which offers legal support to Palestine human rights advocates—has received an “exponential surge” in its caseload in recent weeks. Additionally, he shared a statement from members of the legal community urging lawmakers to “protect dissent” and “prevent the racist targeting of communities.”
“A failure to stop this new McCarthyism would be to surrender to the forces of reaction that tragically are carrying the day,” he concluded his op-ed.
This isn’t the first instance of The Guardian distancing itself from a journalist over criticism of Israel amid the escalating conflict in Gaza. Last week, the paper sacked longtime cartoonist Steve Bell over criticism that his recent drawing of Netanyahu peddled antisemitic tropes.
The cartoon in question featured Netanyahu wearing boxing gloves and operating on his own stomach, showing a cut in the outline of the Gaza Strip. Bell tweeted earlier this month that was told by Guardian management that the cartoon was spiked because it could be a reference to the “pound of flesh” line from Shylock, a Jewish Shakespearean character.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand, I said and received this even more mysterious reply: ‘Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; antisemitic trope’. Clearly it was self-evident, anybody could see it…” Bell added in another post.
According to Bell, the drawing was actually inspired by a famous 1960s cartoon by David Levine of Lyndon B. Johnson showing off a Vietnam-shaped scar. Regardless, The Guardian decided to cut ties with Bell, who had been with the paper for four decades.
“The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years - we thank him and wish him all the best,” a Guardian News and Media spokesperson told the BBC.
Amid the increasing violence and humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel prepares for a full-scale ground invasion, newsrooms around the world have also dealt with rising tensions over their outlets’ coverage of the war. The BBC, for instance, has faced accusations from employees and critics alike of being too critical of both Israel and Palestine.
