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The Sun's Richard Littlejohn incites racial hatred

FFwd Arab Media Watch | 23.07.2005 12:32 | Anti-racism

according to Littlejohn: “The Palestinians are the pikeys of the Middle East. If they must have a homeland, give them part of Saudi Arabia, because the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Jordanians and the Lebanese don’t want them either”. Immediately after the above paragraph, he writes: “No more hand-wringing. It’s time for neck-wringing”.



On July 22 the Sun's regular columnist Richard Littlejohn came perilously close to inciting hatred against Muslims and Arabs. He justified ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians and made fun of the suffering of millions of Iraqis.

On Israel and Palestine, Littlejohn’s comments are so extreme one would not expect to hear them from Israel’s far-right. Even Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister and war criminal, recognises that the Palestinians have a right to some form of statehood (he certainly does not advocate transferring Palestinians to Saudi Arabia), but according to Littlejohn:



“The Palestinians are the pikeys of the Middle East. If they must have a homeland, give them part of Saudi Arabia, because the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Jordanians and the Lebanese don’t want them either”.



Immediately after the above paragraph, he writes:



“No more hand-wringing. It’s time for neck-wringing”.



Littlejohn’s comments are totally insensitive to the hopes and aspirations of millions of Palestinians in the Middle East who, according to the International Court of Justice, have a right to self-determination (in Palestine and not in Saudi Arabia). Most of these people are refugees who have no civil and political rights, and whose human rights are frequently denied them. And yet here we have Littlejohn abusing those freedoms to peddle falsehoods about the Palestinians.



Arabs don’t need any “neck-wringing” from people like Littlejohn, whose views go against British policy for peace in the Middle East based on the “two-state-solution” and UN Security Council resolutions 242, 338, 1397 and 1515.



Littlejohn’s comments on Iraq are also totally insensitive. Here is a little taster:



“If Iraq has anything to do with the bombs in London, it is at best peripheral – just another codicil (addition) to a catalogue of imagined grievances used to justify serial murder [emphasis added]”.



He continued:



“If these maniacs really cared about Muslims in Iraq they’d have been blowing themselves up in Baghdad when Saddam was still feeding thousands of his co-religionists into the tree shredder and dropping mustard gas on Iran and Kurdistan”.



On Islam and the London terrorist atrocity:



“The other good news is that yesterday’s terrorists didn’t have 72 virgins on their dance card. They chucked their backpacks and legged it. So maybe there aren’t as many recruits willing to End It for Allah as we have been led to believe [emphasis added]”.



On the Arab world and torture:



“We are currently being treated to the thoroughly demeaning spectacle of a British minister swanning around the Middle East trying to elicit assurances from sovereign governments that in the unlikely event of our actually agreeing to their requests for the extradition of wanted terrorists, currently living in London council accommodation, they won’t be subject to the death penalty or electrodes on their goolies.”



“Frankly, who gives a damn?”



He continued:



“Put these lunatics on the night boat to Cairo and let the Egyptians, Syrians or whoever do what the hell they like with them”.



Arab Media Watch totally condemns the 7/7 atrocities and the attempted attacks on July 21, and all forms of violence against civilians, anywhere, irrespective of race, culture or creed. We also condemn all those who incite violence against their fellow British citizens.



But it is simply unacceptable for the Sun to give someone like Littlejohn a national platform. Palestinians are not the “pikeys” of the Middle East, and Littlejohn is factually incorrect when he writes that the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Jordanians and the Lebanese don’t want the Palestinians. In fact, most Jordanians are of Palestinian origin. In Syria, Palestinians are treated in almost all respects like Syrian nationals, and in Lebanon the new government is talking about integrating Palestinians into Lebanese society. The reality is that in an ideal world, most Palestinian refugees would like to return to their homes from where they were expelled in 1948 and 1967, a right that is enshrined in international law and embodied in UN resolution 194 (III).



When Littlejohn’s politics are to the right of Sharon, something is amiss. For those who need reminding, Sharon was implicated in the mass-murder of 3,500 Palestinians in Beirut in September 1982.



We urge you all to complain to the Press Complaints Commission, to the Sun and to Littlejohn. Write to  letters@the-sun.co.uk and/or  richard.littlejohn@the-sun.co.uk. If you want your letters to be considered for publication, say so and provide your full name, address and contact details (the latter 2 will not be published).

Please remain polite and concise, and refrain from copying this Action Alert word-for-word as long, offensive, identical or very similar letters will be disregarded by media outlets and journalists. Bcc letters (which will remain confidential) to  info@arabmediawatch.com. Letter-writing tips are at:

 http://www.arabmediawatch.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=9

To complain to the Press Complaints Commission, go to:



 http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaint/how_complaint.htm.

FFwd Arab Media Watch
- Homepage: http://www.arabmediawatch.com

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

No surprise

23.07.2005 15:24

I am not surprised really, The Sun has always supported the British Monarchy, it was clear they had to be fascists.

Trent


Nothing changes

23.07.2005 16:21

RJ is the man who, during the Rwanda genocide, said that if the "people of mumbo-jumbo land want to kill each other, let them".

Alec


Contact Littlejohn

23.07.2005 17:45


Contact Littlejohn to let him know what you think of his views:

 littlejohn@sky.com

-


makes a change...

23.07.2005 19:46


And what about all the anti jewish hate on this website????

Ant censored free speech for that matter????

ken


anti0jewish you what?

24.07.2005 18:09

Y'what Ken where is the anti-jewish stuff you're on about? Anti-Zionist maybe and aginst the policies of the STATE of Isra-hell of course. But anti-semitic? I don't think so.

Andy


(metaphorical) eye for an eye?

24.07.2005 18:59

QUOTE: "And what about all the anti jewish hate on this website????"

Wait, wait. So your argument is that because some people on indymedia may be anti-Jewish - this means its a-ok for others to be racist against Arabs - and specifically publish what may be hate-speech, but certainly inflammatory speech, in a daily newspaper?

What fantastic logic. So, if an article appears in, lets say, The Guardian, tomorrow that says "The Jews are the gyppos of the Middle East and they should be exterminated" presumably you'll be defending that person's right to 'free (hate) speech' because afterall, what about the anti-arab comments in the Sun?

Shouldn't you be defending /all/ people from racist stereotyping and attack? Or hey, maybe you actually believe that 'Jews are better' - which makes you no better than white, black or arab supremacists.

Congratulations.

PS: It should be noted, and we see this line of attack on Indymedia Ireland a lot too, that Indymedia is not a single homogenous block of single minded people. Indymedia is made up of contributers - each of who's views will vary. So the appearance of anti-semitic* comments on Indymedia is not a reflection of Indymedia, but the reflection of a single person's (racist) attitude. And I know on IMC.ie such comments are deleted as soon as they are found - but maybe you'd see this as an attack on 'free speech' too? Who knows.

* Btw, Anti-semtism does not equate to criticism of the Israeli State if thats what you are trying to insinuate.

indie-soc
- Homepage: http://www.indymedia.ie


incitement 4 religious hatred!

25.07.2005 10:35

Although Im not one for complaints usually I read this yesterday and vowed this time I was gonna complain. This bastard is so out of order. Of course the worst thing is that it's printed now and that can never be changed. As much as I dont agree with the legal system, this guy should be nicked for incitment for racial and religious hatred and sacked. But of course he works for the sun so that aint gonna happen. Even so I think we should complain to the sun and also complain about what kind of racist editor would let this be printed.
This piece was inflammatory and morally abhorrant.

Oh and while im in complaining mood can people who saw it complain to channel 4 to their obcenely biased programme last night called "the upper classes" which was all about hunting and how great and precious toffs are.

A pissed off Raven

raven


Thank You

23.08.2005 19:28

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Richard Littlejohn for again putting forward a realistic analyisis of current affairs as seen by 80% of the British, Hetrosexual, working class population.
He is possibly the only columnist in Britain today who isn't afraid to say it how it is.

Thank you again

Raven Hunter


Interesting ...

26.08.2005 20:38

80% eh? Do you have a source for that figure?

Timbird


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