Jews are news — so runs a basic axiom of the media business. But what kind of news is it, really, when nine protesters turn up to harass a young Jewish woman in the country to play tennis at the ASB Classic in Auckland?
Yes, yes, we know, Shahar Peer isn’t just Jewish but an Israeli national. But as we’ve pointed out before, the rather sad outfit that calls itself the Global Peace and Justice network has a genuinely unpleasant fixation with Jewish subjects, which possibly explains why the vast majority of New Zealanders seem to find these would-be revolters simply revolting. (For what it's worth, here's our point-by-point rebuttal of some of the loopier claims made recently by one of the outfit's henchmen.)
The Palestinian question isn’t so much at issue this time as the group’s ongoing insistence on demonising democratic Israel at all costs and behaving badly toward those international visitors whom bandleader John Minto personally disapproves of.
Sure, it's a free country. But that doesn’t justify the local media’s ongoing news judgment in according “Global Peace and Justice” a prominence far out of proportion to its microscopic support, which has actually dwindled since its last anti-Peer protest a year ago when a relatively vast 13 demonstrators turned up to scream abuse at the same 21-year old Israeli.
After all, as a friend remarked to us, on many weekends a comparable number of Falun Gong supporters gather outside the Chinese embassy to protest, but don’t get any coverage. What's wrong? Clearly these people need to come up with a decent anti-Jewish angle and rope in Minto and his dirty old megaphone to appear outside the next sporting event a Chinese national happens to be involved with.
Oh well. As fellow NBR parishioner David Farrar says, this year’s protest only seems to have energised Peer’s game on the court — so more power to her impressive elbow.
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Peer pressure at the ASB Classic
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