Category Archives: Ethical Man

Ethical Woman

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Rowlatt is an unusual name, so it didn’t surprise me to learn that Bee is Justin’s other half. Bee is a BBC World Service producer, so should she really be participating in the Palestinian Festival of Literature (affectionately known as PalFest) as Hadar Sela recounts here? Not that anyone could object to a lovely cultural festival of booky wooks written by the Guardian’s favourite authors, poets, and literary geniuses.

Or could they?

When does a literary fest become a hate-fest? When it’s full of Guardian writers, Pro-Palestinian activists and anti-Israel propagandists.

The PalFest website states:

‘“For the first time, PalFest will conduct activities in besieged Gaza, where Palestinians continue to resist Israel’s illegal blockade which has transformed the occupied Gaza Strip into the world’s largest prison camp. PalFest is a sign of the growing solidarity across borders in our struggle against racism and oppression. Intellectuals and writers played a key role in ending Apartheid in South Africa; likewise, Arab cultural figures are visiting Gaza this year to show solidarity with Palestinian academics and artists in support for their call to increase the global BDS campaign against apartheid Israel.”

“On behalf of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel(PACBI), we deeply appreciate the Arab writers’ principled and consistent support for the Palestinian civil struggle for justice and peace in Palestine.”

“British authors Rachel Holmes and Bee Rowlatt will lead extended creative writing workshops in Birzeit with the Palestine Writing Workshop.”

So, BBC World service producer Mrs Ethical Man is promoting the  ill-conceived, mendacious smear that multicultural Israel resembles South Africa under apartheid, and campaigning for BDS. Nice.

Ethical Comparison Drawn

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The BBC’s Ethical Man attends a FreedomWorks meeting:

In the US state of Virginia the talk is of revolution. In the basement of a restaurant in Richmond we met 100 or so American patriots -ordinary people who claim to be the vanguard of a great new movement, a movement for American liberty.
“Lower taxes, less government, more freedom”, is their rallying cry…

Their call to arms focuses on two issues: healthcare reform and – you guessed it – President Barack Obama’s plan for a cap and trade system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions…

Most of the people I spoke at the Richmond meeting did not believe climate change is something they need worry about…

Bastards! They’re no better than the murderous defenders of slavery:

As the meeting broke up one man took me aside to say he was not persuaded by the arguments he had heard.
“You are in a state that fought for the freedom to keep people in slavery,” Phil told me.
Indeed, Patrick Henry, who demanded liberty or death as he helped launch the revolt against British tyranny, subsequently worked to defend the slave trade as an attorney.
Phil told me the story of Gabriel, a slave who, 24 years after the Declaration of Independence, attempted to lead a rebellion against the slave owners here in Richmond Virginia…
Gabriel was hanged just a couple of blocks away from the cellar where the FreedomWorks meeting was held.
“Freedom means different things to different people,” Phil said as he left the meeting.

They even held their meeting “just a couple of blocks away” from where a slave was hanged! The comparisons are spooky, aren’t they?

Coming soon – Ethical Man visits the Holocaust Museum in Washington and writes some nonsense about “deniers”.

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