The Voice's racist Israeli jail claim is 'blood libel'

22:25 by Editor · 0 Post a comment on AAWR

Israel’s ambassador to the UK has accused Britain’s leading black newspaper of printing a story “in the spirit of a blood libel”, while the paper’s own source for the article has slammed its coverage as “sensationalised and inaccurate”.

The Voice newspaper’s front page headline in its July 20 edition read: “Hundreds of black people being held in Israeli jails”, a claim based on the “astonishing” story of film-maker Ishmahil Blagrove, detained by the Israeli navy while on board a ship taking aid to the people of Gaza.

He was, like others on the aid ship, held in what The Voice describes as “Ramla High Security Prison”, although it was actually Givon Prison, a low security jail in Ramle, Israel.

The report calls the Israeli government racist and makes strong allegations about mistreatment of prisoners — particularly black prisoners — in Israel’s jails. "There is much to unite black Britons and the Jewish people. This article, however, is less in the spirit of being blood brothers and more in the spirit of a blood libel.”Ambassador Ron Prosor said: “The Voice should be a responsible, articulate voice for black Britons. “Instead, on this occasion it has chosen to be the voice of slander, disinformation and lies. There is much to unite black Britons and the Jewish people. This article, however, is less in the spirit of being blood brothers and more in the spirit of a blood libel.”

The full-page interview by reporter Janelle Oswald quoted Mr Blagrove, from Notting Hill, as saying: “The first day I was there I witnessed 500 Africans scooped from the streets of Tel Aviv thrown into prison… the prison population there was 90 per cent black.

“Without insulting the memory of those that survived the Nazi concentration camps, the prison we were kept in can only be described in that manor.” (Our italics.)

The Voice’s report accused the prison authorities of cramming 14 people into a 7sq ft cell.
The interview quoted Mr Blagrove as saying: “We were constantly being barked at and threatened with physical abuse. If they disobey, prisoners are stripped naked and put inside a hole with no lights or heating. We were seen as sub-human.”

He also apparently claimed immigrant prisoners had told him they were being refused leave to transfer back to their own countries. He condemned the Israeli government as “racist”.

The report was, however, undermined by an angry letter from Mr Blagrove himself, printed on page 22 of the following week’s issue under the headline: “I want to clarify some points.” He corrected ten facts in the report, including the dimensions of the cell which was actually 7m by 4m.

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