Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist for the Haaretz newspaper, where he is also an editorial board member. He is a prominent left-wing commentator. [http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1948226.htm Six Day War prompts reflection in Middle East] ABC, 11 June 2007] He formerly served as spokesman for Shimon Peres from 1978 and 1982. [ [http://www.hamartzim.co.il/lec-inside.asp?id=222 Gideon Levy] The Israel Speakers Center]

Background

Levy was born in 1955 in Tel Aviv, the son of European immigrants. He describes his adolescence as one in which he was "a full member of the nationalistic religious orgy." From 1978 to 1982 he served, together with Yossi Beilin, as an aide to Shimon Peres. Since 1982 he has worked for the Israeli daily Haaretz and from 1986 has written extensively in its pages on 'the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and Palestinian life under that occupation'. [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-734511,36-809300@51-796602,0.html Gideon Lévy : une épine dans le flanc d'Israël] Le Monde, 4 September 2006 fr icon] In 1996 he was awarded the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The French newspaper Le Monde has described him as a 'thorn in Israel's flank'.

Political views

Levy himself has spoken of his 'modest mission to prevent a situation in which many Israelis will be able to say, "We didn't know".' A recurrent theme in his articles is what he describes as Israeli society's 'moral blindness' to the effects of its acts of war and occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. He has criticized Israel's government for refusing to stop the construction of settlements on private Palestinian land, describing the policy as 'the most criminal enterprise in [Israel's] history'. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/925054.html What do you mean when you say 'no'?] Haaretz, 18 November 2007] He decries an attitude which reflects, he believes, Israel's systematic dehumanization of its neighbors.

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, he shared the minority view among Israeli commentators which dismissed the idea that it was a 'just war', of the kind in which civilian casualties were both inevitable and acceptable. He is for the unilateral return of the Occupied Palestinian Territories without asking for concessions.

Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore. No one is talking about morality anymore. Justice is also an archaic concept, a taboo that has deliberately been erased from all negotiations. Two and a half million people - farmers, merchants, lawyers, drivers, daydreaming teenage girls, love-smitten men, old people, women, children and combatants using violent means for a just cause - have all been living under a brutal boot for 40 years. Meanwhile, in our cafes and living rooms the conversation is over giving or not giving. . . Just as a thief cannot present demands - neither preconditions nor any other terms - to the owner of the property he has robbed, Israel cannot present demands to the other side as long as the situation remains as it is. [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/927531.html Gideon Levy, ‘Demands of a thief,’] Ha’aretz 25/11/2007]

While working in Gaza in early 2007 with a French film crew that was making a documentary about him, Levy declared on camera that the Gazans' plight made him ashamed to be an Israeli. [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070924/glain/2 Ha'aretz, Israel's Liberal Beacon] The Nation, 6 September 2007]

Criticism

Gideon Levy's approach to Palestinian issues has aroused strong criticism. He is on record as quipping wryly that somewhere in Haaretz's newsroom there exists a thick file of notifications by regular readers cancelling their subscriptions after reading his articles. Israeli novelist Irit Linur, in announcing the cancellation of her own subscription, argued that the newspaper had become compromised by a radical anti-Zionist,^{- [a]} pro-Palestinian agenda, and she cited Levy's work and ideology as an example.^{- [b]} Haaretz's publisher Amos Schocken expressed puzzlement at the accusation, describing his newspaper as "exceedingly Zionist" and suggesting Levy's reports should be "read mainly as a description to the effect of the Israeli occupation in the territories". [http://www.nfc.co.il/archive/0019-D-1068-00.html?tag=14-23-47#PTEXT1597 Irit Linur's letter (quotation)] News First Class he icon
^[a] Translation: "it is a person's right to be a radical leftist, and publish a newspaper in accordance to his world view... However "Haaretz" reached a stage where its anti-Zionism turns too frequently to silly and mean journalism." Original:
"rtl-para|he|זכותו של אדם להיות שמאלני-רדיקלי, ולהוציא עיתון בהתאם להשקפת עולמו... אבל "הארץ" הגיע לשלב בו האנטי-ציונות שלו הופכת לעתים קרובות מדי לעיתונות מטופשת ומרושעת." ^[b] Translation: "When Gideon Levy accuses Israel of turning Marwan Barghouti from a peace seeker to an impresario of suicide bombings, it is a logical interpretation, just as the claim that the wave of attacks on the September 11 were a plot by the Mossad. In a private conversation with him, he told me one time that he would not travel a hundred meters to save the life of a settler, and it seems to me that his loves and hates have been long tainting his touching reports from the occupied Palestinian territories." Original:
"rtl-para|he|כשגדעון לוי מאשים את ישראל בהפיכתו של מרואן ברגותי משוחר שלום לאמרגן פיגועי התאבדות, זו פרשנות הגיונית, ממש כמו הטענה שגל הפיגועים ב-11 בספטמבר הוא מזימה של המוסד. בשיחה פרטית איתו, אמר לי פעם שהוא לא היה נוסע מאה מטר כדי להציל את חייו של מתנחל, ונראה לי שאהבותיו ושנאותיו מכתימות כבר מזמן את דיווחיו הנוגעים ללב מהשטחים הפלשתינים הכבושים."]

Levy has also been accused by polemicist Steven Plaut of 'celebrating the victory of Hamas'. Former deputy Minister of Internal Security, Gideon Ezra, an Israeli politician, suggested that the General Security Services monitor Levy and supervise his reports and stated that Levy is treading on the borderline of someone having anti-Israeli interests. [ [http://www.idi.org.il/hebrew/article.asp?id=182 אירועי תקשורת] Israel Democracy Institute he icon]

References

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/israel.palestine/levy.html Interview with Levy on PBS] (2003)
* [http://www.iransolidarity.endofempire.org/ArticlesText.php?page=314 Articles on Iran: 'Days of darkness' by Gideon Levy]
* [http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/index.php?or=145 Selection of articles by Levy]
* [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-734511,36-809300@51-796602,0.html Article about Levy in the French daily Le Monde] September 2006
* [http://www.hamartzim.co.il/lec-inside.asp?id=222 Gideon Levy's Official Lecturer Page]
* [http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur122712.html?lang=en Author: Gideon Levy (voltairenet.org)]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/924561.html Twilight Zone 'We saw death a thousand times']
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/990553.html Gideon Levy, ‘One swift kick’, Haaretz 6/6/2008]