Johann Hari. "Who Is This Guy?"

Johann Hari. "Who Is This Guy?"
Stalin’s nephews in our democracy fiction
By Gabriele Zamparini

“…it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect…” – George Orwell

Johann Hari, the “award-winning journalist”, the “twice-weekly columnist for The Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers” and “the youngest person to ever be nominated for the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing” wrote on 25 August 2006 “An intriguing example of blatant anti-Semitism and blindness to it by some on the left” where he accused me of anti-Semitism not for something I did, said or wrote but for a comment someone else left on my blog.

Accusations of “anti-Semitism” have become in these days like patriotism: usually used as the refuge of the scoundrel. In spite of the ludicrous writing of Johann Hari, this topic is quite important and it’s the subject of two interesting books by Norman G. Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry and Beyond Chutzpah, On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.

But behind this specific topic, it’s interesting to examine the techniques used by Johann Hari, the “award-winning journalist”. While totalitarian regimes have death squads and gangs of thugs to silent dissent, more sophisticated societies like ours have the well-respected cast of intellectuals writing on the liberal media, the Stalin’s nephews.

On March 20, 2006 I published on my blog an email exchange I had with Johann Hari about an article Mr. Hari had published on the Independent, “I was wrong, terribly wrong - and the evidence should have been clear all along” (Johann Hari, The Independent, 20 March 2006)

Five months later Johann Hari, one of the most important columnists of the “pro-Israeli” Independent [note that the oxymoron comes directly from the newspaper’s Editor, 16 July 2006 and synthesizes perfectly well our Orwellian times] takes as pretext a comment left by someone on that March 20, 2006 email exchange post on my blog and writes:

This is just a small coda to my story about the rise in anti-Semitism – and the wilful blindness of some on the left to it – the other day. A friend of mine just e-mailed with a priceless example. On the website of a writer called Gabriele Zamparini – praised by John Pilger as a “brilliant site” – a commenter called “J. Robinson” posted this, in response to a critical post about me:

“Johann Hari, an intellectual? Not in my name! Do get ALL your facts straight, Zamparini. He's a jumped-up little prat - we have many of them in England, always have. It they are jews they tend to get a column before they leave high school. Not because of precocious talent, but because Uncle Isaac is on the board.” (...)

J. Robinson’s comment could hardly be more obviously anti-Semitic, expressing plain hatred of (purported) Jews. They are “jumped up prats” who get ahead because of nepotism. If this isn’t anti-Semitism, what is? Of course, I don’t blame Gabrielle for this post – every website with open comments gets the odd nutcase. But what is fascinating is what happened next. An anonymous poster asked, “Uh, you don't feel at all uncomfortable with the blatantly anti-Semitic comments here, do you Gabrielle?”

This seems to me, at first glance, to be a bit unfair. Why should we assume she isn’t uncomfortable with blaant racism? But Gabrielle’s response is remarkable. She says: “I am responsible only for what I write and say and do. I can't be responsible for the comments by other people. You can take some time and read my blog. You will see that there are many comments on here I don't agree with.”

Fair enough. If she had left it at that, I would agree wholeheartedly with her. But then she adds:

”But I feel quite unconfortable in front of your comment. Using accusations of "anti-semitism" in an indirect way to shadow doubts of racism against someone you desagree with is quite common nowdays. In good English, it's called denigration. I am really sorry you felt you needed to resort to this method. I won't follow you on this road though.”

At this point Johann Hari, as it’s in his notorious habit, starts to manipulate, twist and misrepresent what I had written:

Note the putting of “anti-Semitism” into quote marks, as if this comment is not an example of it. Indeed, instead of condemning a blatant, open anti-Semite, she accuses the person who points out the raw racism of “denigration” and acts as if they have committed a terrible faux pas deserving of shunning.

But replying to that anonymous’ comment, I had already written:

I am responsible only for what I write and say and do. I can't be responsible for the comments by other people. You can take some time and read my blog. You will see that there are many comments on here I don't agree with.

That anonymous comment read:

Uh, you don't feel at all uncomfortable with the blatantly anti-Semitic comments here, do you Gabrielle?

The implication of that comment being ‘Gabriele Zamparini is anti-Semitic’. Therefore my reply:

Using accusations of "anti-semitism" in an indirect way to shadow doubts of racism against someone you desagree with is quite common nowdays. In good English, it's called denigration.

But Hari, twisting facts and logic, writes:

Note the putting of “anti-Semitism” into quote marks, as if this comment is not an example of it.

As one can easily understand, “the putting of ‘anti-Semitism’ into quote marks” had nothing to do with what Hari writes and all to do instead with the vulgar accusation the anonymous comment vomited against me for a comment someone else left on my blog.

Hari, his many colleagues in the “liberal media” and the many disciples of these Stalinist hooligans have made of twisting and manipulating facts and logic an art, so to better denigrate those who dissent to this mockery of democracy and its servants.

Do you remember how Johann Hari started his piece?

This is just a small coda to my story about the rise in anti-Semitism – and the wilful blindness of some on the left to it – the other day. A friend of mine just e-mailed with a priceless example. On the website of a writer called Gabriele Zamparini – praised by John Pilger as a “brilliant site” – a commenter called “J. Robinson” posted this, in response to a critical post about me…

I dared to point out Hari’s hypocrisy, lies and propaganda in his position on the war of aggression against Iraq, a position that has provoked genocide in Iraq. The Independent’s columnist in response has twisted and manipulated facts and logic and used a comment someone left on my blog to denigrate me. This was not enough for this Stalin’s nephew. Hari had to mention John Pilger too, so to denigrate the brave dissident as well.

Finally, through all his delirium, Johann Hari refers to me as “she”. It wasn’t too difficult to learn that Gabriele Zamparini is a “he” and not a “she”. The facts were just a click away since on my site there is a short bio with a photo; too difficult a task for the “award-winning journalist”? If Hari couldn’t get that simple fact straight, I guess it would be too much asking him to take a simple tour on my blog and read some of my posts and replies to comments there regarding racism and anti-Semitism. I don’t need the vulgar insinuations made by Stalin’s nephews and their friends and disciples.

Johann Hari is the archetype of the modern ‘liberal intellectuals’ and Orwell teaches us “it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect”.

Think about it the next time you read the Independent.