The Guardian’s Israel Bias

There is probably not a single newspaper with as much influence over such a large portion of the British electorate as the Guardian. In a print media environment which is heavily dominated by a wide array of right-wing Murdoch-owned papers, the Guardian is the only left leaning British broadsheet in existence, giving it a near total monopoly over the affluent metropolitan liberal voting bloc. Speak to anyone in this demographic, and you will find that their political opinions are virtually identical to the editorial line of the Guardian.

As a result, the Guardian has enormous power to influence progressive opinion in this country, providing the intellectual framework for much of the criticism of the Conservative government when they were in power. In other words, the Guardian has a great degree of control in shaping the opposition to the status quo. In light of this, you would hope that when one of the great injustices of our time is taking place before our eyes, the Guardian would be able to provide a robust criticism of it, and to provide a moral condemnation of such an atrocity.

Of course, the opposite has happened. A recent investigation by Declassified UK has confirmed what many of us instinctively felt was true, with journalists from the BBC, Sky News, The Times and The Guardian coming forward about the inherent pro-israel bias in their publications. According to the investigation, The Guardian’s management is heavily involved in restricting and moderating coverage of Israel’s actions, ensuring that criticism does not go too far. 

This includes uncritically amplifying Israeli propaganda, which the Israeli government uses to justify its genocide, further enabling this horrific onslaught to take place. This was on full display when the paper routinely used the phrase “Hamas-run health ministry” when mentioning the death toll in Gaza, implicitly downplaying the reported death toll despite credible sources suggesting it may be even higher than reported. 

As well as this, the report found that the Guardian had been guilty of deceit by omission in regard to the coverage of Israel’s actions, neglecting to report on some of the most harrowing statements from the Israeli government. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th the Israeli leadership made their genocidal intentions explicitly clear in public statements which are freely available to see in South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice. Howeverthese statements were never reported on, with the Guardian portraying Israel’s ambitions as simply “destroying Hamas”.

While The Guardian may have once had a great reputation for fearlessly challenging the powers that be, notably being crucial in the publication of the WikiLeaks documents in the wake of the Iraq war, it is clear that today the Guardian is a shadow of its former self and is unable to effectively challenge powerful institutions. The quicker we realise this - the better.