Electronic Intifada: Censorship? Haaretz deletes Amira Hass article on surging settler violence

by Ali Abunimah, 07/20/2012 electronicintifada,net

Update:

As of July 21, 2012, the deleted article has been restored to the Haaretz website, at a new url: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-anti-semitism-that-goes-unreported-1.452594

Israel’s Haaretz  mysteriously deleted a powerful article by Amira Hass headlined “The anti-Semitism that goes unreported,” about an unchecked upsurge in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers.

This is at least the second notable act of apparent censorship by Haaretz in recent months. In December, as we reported, the newspaper expunged from its website an article by David Sheen on a horrifying anti-African rally in Tel Aviv.

Hass’ article, originally published on 18 July, likened the alarming increase in settler attacks to the period leading up to the 1994 settler massacre of Palestinians in Hebron:

“For the human rights organization Al-Haq, the escalation is reminiscent of what happened in 1993-1994, when they warned that the increasing violence, combined with the authorities’ failure to take action, would lead to mass casualties. And then Dr. Baruch Goldstein of Kiryat Arba came along and gunned down 29 Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahim Mosque.”

Hass is one of Haaretz’s best known writers, renowned internationally for documenting Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians. Article disappears

The Hebrew version of Hass’ article still appears on the newspaper’s Hebrew language website <http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1778747>. It is the English version that is gone.

An image of the now deleted English version can still be seen via Google Cache (above <http://electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/haaretz_deleted_amira_hass_article_0.jpg> ).

However, the original url for the article now redirects to an unrelated page: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-anti-semitism-that-goes-unreported-1.394279 .

A search of Haaretz archive for articles by Amira Hass <http://www.haaretz.com/misc/search-results?startDate=&author=1.278&sort_method=date&page=0&q=&submitBtn=Search&endDate=&view=results&search_type=site> indicates that as of today, her most recent article was from 16 July. The 18 July article is nowhere to be found.

Ironically the url originally leading to Hass’ article now links to one by a man subtitled “Women, don’t be suckers; The protest’s female voice is not being heard.” Hass is one of Haaretz’s few prominent female writers, and apparently her voice cannot be heard.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/censorship-haaretz-deletes-amira-hass-article-surging-settler-violence

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