Category Archives: Kiera Feldman

In a previous post Sue highlighted Robert Spencer’s dealings with Kiera Feldman, the seemingly friendly “freelance” journalist who failed initially to mention that her enquiries regarding opposition to the Ground Zero mosque were in fact on behalf of the BBC.

Spencer is right to be suspicious of Feldman’s intentions. She has also reported for Beyond The Pale, a programme which airs on the left-leaning Pacifica Radio Network:

BEYOND THE PALE is the only Jewish program on radio or television devoted to bringing a left perspective to political and cultural debates. As we all emerge so happily from underneath the soul-crushing weight of these last vicious eight years, it’s important to remember how critical our voices are under a more liberal administration- an administration we can push on from the left and hold to the high ideals it claims. What a relief that these ideals are not fundamentalist, war-mongering, free-market mania.

Unsurprisingly, the programme’s website declares support for the building of the Ground Zero mosque.

In one of her Beyond the Pale broadcasts Feldman visited a Manhattan nightclub where a pro-Israeli group called Fuel For Truth was holding a terrorist awareness event. The piece drips with contempt both for the organisers and Israel:

Fuel For Truth has been hosting events like Arm Yourself for the last seven years. Yet, surveying the cultural front, the group doesn’t seem to have been successful in bringing its brand of hip militarism to the Jewish mainstream. Still, as Israeli missiles fall on Gaza and calls continue for an attack on Iran, the overall Jewish political atmosphere looks more like a Fuel For Truth rally than ever.

Feldman has also contributed to Mondoweiss, a pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist Jewish website. For Feldman Israel means “settlement construction, human rights abuses, or war crimes”, born from “the original sin of Palestinian displacement” and sustained by “Israeli apartheid”.

Some of those involved in organising opposition to the Ground Zero mosque are also outspoken supporters of Israel. In her approaches to Robert Spencer, Kiera Feldman let it be known that her original intention was to concentrate on one of those opponents, Pamela Geller, but her BBC editor told her to widen the scope of her reporting. No news organisation with serious claims to impartiality would give this (or any other) assignment to someone with Feldman’s prejudices and political beliefs. Then again, this is the BBC we’re talking about.