“Dear students, Israel is not a regime,” with this headline The newspaper Repubblica of the Gedi group (Agnile Elkan) today publishes a long letter from academician Denis McQueen on a double page (with a reference in the front). Next to him appears an “intervention” by director Maurizio Molinari entitled: “The seed of hatred comes from October 7th.” Introducing McQueen's message […]

“Dear students, Israel is not a regime,” read the headline in the newspaper Repubblica, affiliated with the Gedi Group (Agnile Elkann) Published today in two pages (with reference on first page) Long message academy Dennis McQueen. The director's “intervention” appears next to it Maurizio MolinariTitle: “Seeds of Hate Come from October 7th.” Introducing MacEoin's letter are these lines: “We publish a response from Denis MacEoin to the proposal submitted by the University of Edinburgh Students' Association To boycott everything Israeli Which states that Israel is governed by an apartheid regime. Denis McQueen is an expert on Middle East affairs. This is his message to the students.”

Everything is good, except that McQueen died in 2022 The letter even dates back to 2011. but, Republic Not specified This is “detail”. however A lot of things have happened during these 13 years. Even before October 7th and the start of the International Court of Justice procedures to assess whether Israel is committing genocide. There have been other UN resolutions, including this one For the year 2018 In which he criticized himself Israeli response to the protests (largely peaceful) held in Gaza. The Israeli army killed 223 people, including 43 children. The Israeli government has veered further to the right, and illegal land seizures in the West Bank have continued.

Who knows? If MacEoin had written the same things. Given the content of the message, which denies any responsibility for Israel for anything, perhaps yes. However, McQueen was not an intellectual particularly open to criticism. For 10 years, he ran a blog dedicated to defending Israel from accusations that it is an illiberal state with traits of apartheid. Because of his positions, he has been identified as a neoconservative and some of his publications have been accused of being oppressive Many forgeries.

“Censorship”. Republic However, the lack of dating has not gone unnoticed. Many reports on social media. At this stage the editorial team of Republic He responds apologetically While the date of the message has been added in the electronic version.

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The article by Denis McQueen (who passed away in 2022) published today was written in 2011: We put it on the page and made the mistake of not indicating the original date. An error for which we apologize to the readers. The contents remain clearly topical and are…

— Repubblica (@repubblica) June 4, 2024

Perhaps it was actually an innocent mistake. But precedents justify some skepticism. director Maurizio Molinari, who is not trusted by the editorial team, has been accused in recent months on several occasions of excessive pro-Israel partisanship. As in the case of the interview with singer Ghali, which was hidden because there was no reference to the events of October 7.

The position taken by the newspaper’s editorial board is clear, and it is written in a memorandum “Leader to Republic Distance himself From today's publication, e desired by management, Entitled “Dear Students, Israel is Not a Regime” Signed by Denis McQueen: Writing dating from 2011 by a scholar who died in 2022, both details not mentioned on the page. We are convinced that by doing so, – Taking facts and opinions out of context, Republica's journalism and credibility are not well served. This is unfortunately Another worrying situation “This is something we are forced to condemn, with the sole aim of collectively preserving our work, our professionalism and our reputation.”