Apr 06 2007
Group Launches Online KPFK Boycott
GUESTS: Yael Korin, a Jewish Israeli, and co-founder of the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid and co-founder of Women in Black LA, Sherna Gluck, member of the KPFK Local Station Board and member of the SWANA Collective which produces Radio Intifada
For few weeks now, several corporate donors who made small food donations to KPFK’s February 2007 fund drive contacted us saying that they wanted to be removed from our thank you list on our website, kpfk.org. They included Gelson’s supermarket, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods. We discovered that KPFK was being targeted by a group of people running a geocities.com website and calling themselves “a grassroots movement and a cyber-connected community of Friends of Israel in the US who have come together in the belief that a boycott is the just, necessary, and effective response to the media’s bias against Israel.” The person running the website, only known to us by an email address, “teachntrain@yahoo.com,” is apparently spearheading a boycott campaign against KPFK for being “anti-Semitic,” and “anti-Israel,” and has orchestrated a campaign to call upon our food donors to withdraw support from KPFK.
Whole Foods has since responded to the boycotters that they have the “freedom to choose organizations that are important to our communities.” However, Gelson’s went as far as posting a notice on their website, linked from the front page, asserting, “KPFK’s apparently well-known anti-Israel positions,” and that they made an “innocent mistake” in supporting us. That letter has since been taken down. Trader Joes has remained silent and seems to be sticking by its earlier request to be taken off KPFK’s website. As per normal KPFK policy, all donors are now taken off the website one month after the drive is over.
The accusations of anti-semitism and an anti-Israel bias apparently come from the use of certain thank you gifts during the February 2007 fund drive used by Radio Intifada, a program produced by the SWANA collective. The thank you gifts included a book entitled, “Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State” by Jonathan Cook. The boycotters are also targeting the LA Times, NPR, Time Magazine, and the Body Shop.
KPFK General Manager Eva Georgia has issued an editorial response to the boycott asserting, “We will not be intimidated by the patently false charges leveled against us and will continue to bring our listeners and supporters the rich and diverse voices of the community to the airwaves.” Read the entire editorial here:
http://www.kpfk.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=
view&id=2766&Itemid=87&lang=en
11 Responses to “Group Launches Online KPFK Boycott”
The ‘boycott’ conflates criticism of Israel state policy with anti-semitism, a tactic.
Looking at the range of criticism from pieces written in the LA Times to Jimmy Carter’s latest book, the oft bandied label of anti-semitism is an excuse for avoiding a reasoned debate of the various manifestations of israeli state power.
The tactic is an insidious attempt at stiffling any debate within the USA concerning Israels bahaviour, which itself is an intrusion between the citizens of this country and their right to shape or modify the US policy and pecuniary support towards Israel.
I suggest a letter writing campaign to Trader Joes and others to let them know they have supporters of kpfk who understand the difference between hate speech and honest criticism.
kpfk has a history of anti semitism and anti israel broadcasting that goes back many years. Also broadcasters like Jerry Quigley run regular shows about the neo con conspiracy being behind 9 11 and Quigley and other broadcasters, especially Aussie transplant Ian Masters, regularly use code words that are meant to refer to Jews, ie cabal, neo cons, plotting to rule the world, Ian Masters does just about everything except say that the Jews are murdering Christian children to use their blood to make matzoh. He just sponsored Mearsheimer and Walt, two leading anti Semites and hate Israel propagandists,for a talk at the
Armand Hammer museum. The talk was in the Billy Wilder theater. Wilder was a refugee from Nazism and he no doubt would have turned in his grave if he knew that an anti semitic scumball like Ian Masters was having propaganda meetings with Jew haters like Mearsheimer and Walt in the Billy Wilder Theater. I am sure the irony would have been lost on Mr. Wilder. KPFK is the most rabid and racist anti semitic station of all the Pacifica stations and Jim Lafferty the interrum manager is a real Jew hater from the word go, despite his denials. KPFK is a cesspool of leftwing hatred , especially anti Jewish hatred. And they support every Arab and Muslim murderer and terrorist in the middle east and everywhere else. They never criticize the most depraved actions of Muslim terrorists in Iraq or for that matter on 9 11, not a word, but they love to blast Israel, Jews, US soldiers, and anything that has to do with America except for cop killers on death row. It is disgusting that some LA merchants are so short sighted that they provide food for the KPFA fund drives. If this was 1939 it would be the same as providing food for the German Bund and Charles Lindbergh speeches. I hope every merchant in LA reads this email and understands that KPFK is nothing but an agglomeration of
twisted souls who hate America, who hate the Jews, and for that matter hate most things about Christianity. They love dictators in left wing garb, either Hugo Chavez, or Fidel Castro, and never a word of criticism about either regime is spoken or hinted at on KPFK or anywhere on the Pacifica network. They also love Moslem terrorists of all stripes, even when they blow up poor Hindus in Bombay.
Re: A.M. Pons. What a tirade! Talk about spewing hate, now we know who the hater is. I must be part of the “agglomeration” because I’ve always liked the way KPFK puts forth real information about the world–in-depth interviews and accounts of happenings by people who live in various parts of the Middle East, including Israelis, who give us the viewpoint of someone who does not condone what her country is doing to the people of Palestine, and is trying to bring awareness & change to Israel’s policy. Which is the whole point of the existence of a radio station like KPFK–to try to bring awareness to people of things that need to be discussed openly, without hindrance from the government & without collusive contributions from large corporations. This is why we love America, because we can have open dialogue and, in hearing alternative viewpoints, can draw our own conclusions. I’m turning in my contribution now. And I DON’T love “Moslem terrorists”.
I’m glad other supporters of KPFK have noticed its loss of objectivity in reporting middle-eastern issues. Frankly, it sickens me that the same people that celebrated the barbarism of 9/11 by dancing with joy are constantly compared to repressed minority groups in the US on this radio station.
Whatever complaints the Palestinian’s have were made illegitimate by their massacre of Israeli athletes at the ‘72 Olympic games. Let’s take back KPFK and make it progressive again, instead of the mouthpiece for violence it has become.
No radio station can compare to the propaganga KPFK spews, especially againt Israel, For example a program called ‘Middle East in Focus’ is nothing but an anti Israel propagana program, (What a phony program name, eh Don)
Come on KPFK. There is a lot more going on in the world that your constant anti Israel hate.
Remember, if the Palesttinians put down their arms, there will be peace. If the Israelies put down their arms, there would be a massacure.
If you want to hear the voice of Islamic hate on the airwaves just tune in to Sonali KOLHATKAR and her show “Uprising.” Sonali really needs to be deported to an Islamic country so they can do the Muslim thing with her, like for example, let’s see how far she would get in Iran if she spoke out against mass executions at Evian Prison, or how long she would last in Syria if she talked about unarmed anti government demonstrators being machine gunned by tanks. Let’s see Sonali, the low count accepted one month in to the “Syrian Spring” is 1000 bodies, but the real count of disappeared, tortured, murdered, has been said by various NGOS to be closer to 10,000. Yet Sonali is amazingly silent on this barbarism, exactly as she is silent about the mass murder visited on Pakistani civilians by Salafi gradates of the various madrassas….
but Sonali never hesitates to promote Muslim terrorists arrested for murdering Jews or Christians. After all, what business have they being Christian or Jewish anyplace where the Muslims run the show, or wish they run the show? Too bad Sonali has no sympathy for the murdered Copts, the murdered Christians of Pakistan, the murdered Hindus of Bombay. Well if Sonali has ever taken a US citizenship test and pledged allegiance to the USA we can tell the examiners that every word she said was a lie, that she is a promoter of violent anti US ideologies, and that she and her anchor baby need to be deported to a Muslim country forthwith and never readmitted to any Western country.
These comments are so weird. “Anchor baby”? Freaks. I’ve listened to alot of Sonali Kolhatkar and she is always truthful and transparent. If you don’t agree with her that’s fine, but why deport someone “forthwith and never readmitted to any Western country” for their journalism? Anyone who supports that idea is a fascist. I don’t know, this is an old comment so maybe you are dead by now.
There is Apartheid in Israel. That’s what it’s called when there is a ruling class and other races of people with no human rights. Sorry, that’s what it is, regardless of your views on the legitimacy of Israel. I am eligible for Israeli citizenship through my ancestry, and for what? I have more of a right to be in Israel than a Palestinian with a 5-generation orange farm? That’s nonsense. You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to be an Israeli citizen. To love America is to keep this conversation alive! Sonali Kolhatkar is more American than any of the ridiculous white power commentors on this page.
It’s amazing that Ed Farnsworth would have you think that each and every Palestinian was responsible for the Bombing of the Olympics. Ed, I assume Farnsworth is a name of British-affiliated heritage, so I choose to make you live in a ghetto at gunpoint for all the atrocities committed by Great Britain in the 20th Century. Make sense? You are ignorant!!!!!! A Palestinian is a human, not a collective droid. One race pays for atrocities of the few? RACIST!!!!!!!!! Sonali Kolhatkar is as wise and well-informed as she is beautiful! Thank you Sonali for your amazing journalism.
If you want to hear the voice of Islamic hate on the airwaves just tune in to Sonali KOLHATKAR and her show “Uprising.” Sonali really needs to be deported to an Islamic country so they can do the Muslim thing with her, like for example, let’s see how far she would get in Iran if she spoke out against mass executions at Evian Prison, or how long she would last in Syria if she talked about unarmed anti government demonstrators being machine gunned by tanks. Let’s see Sonali, the low count accepted one month in to the “Syrian Spring” is 1000 bodies, but the real count of disappeared, tortured, murdered, has been said by various NGOS to be closer to 10,000. Yet Sonali is amazingly silent on this barbarism, exactly as she is silent about the mass murder visited on Pakistani civilians by Salafi gradates of the various madrassas…. but Sonali never hesitates to promote Muslim terrorists arrested for murdering Jews or Christians. After all, what business have they being Christian or Jewish anyplace where the Muslims run the show, or wish they run the show? Too bad Sonali has no sympathy for the murdered Copts, the murdered Christians of Pakistan, the murdered Hindus of Bombay. Well if Sonali has ever taken a US citizenship test and pledged allegiance to the USA we can tell the examiners that every word she said was a lie, that she is a promoter of violent anti US ideologies, and that she and her anchor baby need to be deported to a Muslim country forthwith and never readmitted to any Western country. – See more at: http://uprisingradio.org/home/2007/04/06/group-launches-online-kpfk-boycott/#sthash.OPX5Khds.dpuf
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