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In July [[2008]] Harry's Place posted on an [[Al Jazeera]] report in which the director of the British Muslim Initiative, Mohamed Sawalha, appeared to speak of the "evil Jew"<ref>Harry's Place (2008) [http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/07/02/british-muslim-initiative-we-resent-the-evil-jew-in-britain "British Muslim Initiative: "We Resent the Evil Jew in Britain""]. [[2008-07-02]]. Retrieved on [[2008-07-15]].</ref>. Al Jazeera subsequently changed the phrase to "Jewish Lobby". The British Muslim Initiative claimed that the translation of the original phrase was "malevolent" and implied that their President, Mohammed Sawalha was "anti-semitic and hateful". Mohamed Sawalha had been identified by the [[BBC]]<ref>[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (2006) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5234586.stm Transcript of Panorama programme "Faith, Hate and Charity"], BBC1, [[2006-07-30]].Retrieved on [[2008-07-15]].</ref> in 2006 as a senior Hamas activist. Mohamed Sawalha did not deny these claims.
In July [[2008]] Harry's Place posted on an [[Al Jazeera]] report in which the director of the British Muslim Initiative, Mohamed Sawalha, appeared to speak of the "evil Jew"<ref>Harry's Place (2008) [http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/07/02/british-muslim-initiative-we-resent-the-evil-jew-in-britain "British Muslim Initiative: "We Resent the Evil Jew in Britain""]. [[2008-07-02]]. Retrieved on [[2008-07-15]].</ref>. Al Jazeera subsequently changed the phrase to "Jewish Lobby". The British Muslim Initiative claimed that the translation of the original phrase was "malevolent" and implied that their President, Mohammed Sawalha was "anti-semitic and hateful". Mohamed Sawalha had been identified by the [[BBC]]<ref>[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (2006) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5234586.stm Transcript of Panorama programme "Faith, Hate and Charity"], BBC1, [[2006-07-30]].Retrieved on [[2008-07-15]].</ref> in 2006 as a senior Hamas activist. Mohamed Sawalha did not deny these claims.


On August 26, 2008, Harry's Place was taken down following a complaint to its [[ISP]].<ref>[http://jennadelich.blogspot.com/2008/08/dont-panic-if-harrys-place-disappears.html Don't panic if Harry's Place disappears briefly] Explanations on back-up blog.</ref> The site had reported that a member of the University and College Union's discussion list had posted links to white supremacist David Duke's website to support the call for a boycott on Israel. <ref>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572143539&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull </ref>
On August 26, 2008, Harry's Place was briefly offline following a complaint to its [[Domain Name System|DNS]] provider.<ref>[http://jennadelich.blogspot.com/2008/08/dont-panic-if-harrys-place-disappears.html Don't panic if Harry's Place disappears briefly] Explanations on back-up blog.</ref> The site had reported that a member of the University and College Union's discussion list had posted links to white supremacist David Duke's website to support the call for a boycott on Israel. <ref>http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572143539&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull </ref><ref>[http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/08/27/going-nowhere Going Nowhere]</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 13:13, 28 August 2008

Harry's Place is a British political weblog. It is a prominent voice of what it calls "the pro-liberation left" (a group more disparagingly referred to as "liberal hawks"). It was first set up in November 2002 and named for the Sham 69 song "Hurry up Harry" and the first name of the founder of the blog, Harry Hatchet. The logo on the front page of the blog is a quote from George Orwell: "Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear".

It has been nominated for a number of awards, including a Guardian award for political blogs [1], the 2005 Weblog awards for UK blogs, [2] as well as the UK section of the Islamic Human Rights Commission's 'Annual Islamophobia Awards' 2006 [1]; posts on the site had ridiculed these awards and openly invited nomination. [2]

File:Harrysplace logo.gif

Politics

Harry's Place defines itself as centre-left and was supportive of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the concept of humanitarian intervention, and liberal dissident movements in the Islamic world. It is a supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is a defender of Israel's self-evident right to exist within safe and secure boundaries. It is highly critical of Islamism [3] and of totalitarian, pro-Islamist and antisemitic tendencies on the left.[4] [5] Nick Cohen noted that the blog was one of few places where it was being pointed out that "a section of the left has allied with religious fundamentalism". [6]

The site is particularly critical of Ken Livingstone, [7] [8] George Galloway, [9] RESPECT, [10] [11] and the Socialist Workers Party.[12] It is a staunch opponent of religious and political censorship of all kinds, [13] and was supportive of the 2006 London March for Free Expression.[14] The site is also one of the main backers of the Euston Manifesto.[15]

Harry's Place has a love-hate relationship with The Guardian newspaper. Harry has noted that he is still a Guardian reader [16] and he has had several guest columns in The Guardian's technology and online commentary sections.[17] [18] On the other hand, Harry's Place contributors disagree with The Guardian's editorial writers more often than not, and their vehement disagreements with various Guardian columns are a frequent subject of topic on their site.[19] Harry's Place was a frequent subject of satire in The Guardian's satirical "Norman Johnson" column.[20] In April 2006, Harry's Place mirrored its site under the domain name Grauniad.org, an old nickname for The Guardian due to its reputation for frequent typos and misspellings.

Contributors

Harry's Place was originally started by a writer using the nom de plume Harry Hatchet (aka "Harry" - none of Harry's Place writers use their full name), who was originally the sole writer. Harry was active in British anti-fascist and Marxist politics in the mid-to-late 1980s, and in this period was also a member of the Straight Left faction of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It is claimed that he took the pseudonym "Harry Steele" as a tribute to Harry Pollitt, former General Secretary of the CPGB, and the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (though Harry claims it was a "piss-take" and "not a homage to anyone").[21] Under this name he contributed to a number of far-left message boards and mailing lists, including "UK Left Network" and "The Politburo", a discussion board for British Communists, the latter of which he set up.[22] In this period he became well-known among fellow contributors for his support for "orthodox" Soviet Communism and his attacks on Trotskyists, in particular the Socialist Workers Party.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center served as a "wake up call" according to Harry, prompting him to try and better understand what political forces led up to it[16]. In 2002, he began blogging as a way to clarify his own thoughts on political issues such as the impending war in Iraq, moving away from his Communism to embrace a more moderate social-democratic worldview. He made a public break with his former views in a Workers' Liberty message board discussion in October 2002, where he said Stalinism was a viewpoint "I now reject totally".[23]

The rapid growth in the site's audience led him to include other like-minded writers so that the blog could be updated more regularly. Harry ceased to contribute regularly at the end of September 2005.[24] [20]

Other contributors include Marcus, Gene Zitver (aka "Gene"), David T, and more recently, Adam LeBor, Brett Lock, Brian Meredith and others. Marcus is an old friend and political comrade of Harry's. Marcus attended the February 15 2003 anti-war protest in London, and came away with the opinion that "I don't know if I can consider myself left-wing anymore if this is the left". Marcus wrote about his views on the politics behind the February 15 demonstration, and soon became a regular contributor.[16] Gene is a resident of the United States and from a socialist and trade union background, and had spent several years living in Israel. Harry came across Gene's posts on a George Orwell discussion list, and invited him to start posting on his blog.[16] Gene is a strong supporter of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, whom he accuses of being authoritarian[citation needed].

David T is a lawyer and former lecturer. David T also came to blogging after the September 11 attacks. One of his close childhood friends was among those killed in the World Trade Center, while another close childhood friend became a militant Islamist, and appeared in the media applauding the attacks. He took up reading and writing blogs as a way of trying to making sense of these events.[25] Journalist Johann Hari also contributed articles to the weblog until Autumn 2004, when he left to start his own blog.

Controversy

The comments pages on Harry's Place are an open forum, and there are many who visit the site simply to post and make their disagreement known. The level of debate can become quite heated.

Harry's Place is often accused of Islamophobia. [26] The site's contributors reply that they are criticizing what they see as a reactionary interpretation of Islam, not Muslims in general, and that they are expressing solidarity with Muslims who are oppressed by Islamists.[27] [28]

In July 2008 Harry's Place posted on an Al Jazeera report in which the director of the British Muslim Initiative, Mohamed Sawalha, appeared to speak of the "evil Jew"[29]. Al Jazeera subsequently changed the phrase to "Jewish Lobby". The British Muslim Initiative claimed that the translation of the original phrase was "malevolent" and implied that their President, Mohammed Sawalha was "anti-semitic and hateful". Mohamed Sawalha had been identified by the BBC[30] in 2006 as a senior Hamas activist. Mohamed Sawalha did not deny these claims.

On August 26, 2008, Harry's Place was briefly offline following a complaint to its DNS provider.[31] The site had reported that a member of the University and College Union's discussion list had posted links to white supremacist David Duke's website to support the call for a boycott on Israel. [32][33]

References

  1. ^ The Guardian political blog awards
  2. ^ Weblog awards
  3. ^ Islamism and Democracy (August 31 2005)
  4. ^ The alliance (July 27 2005)
  5. ^ Left antisemitism (October 23 2005)
  6. ^ Nick Cohen, "Saddam's very own party", New Statesman, June 7 2004, p. 26
  7. ^ Playing softball with Ken Livingstone (July 20 2005)
  8. ^ Ken Livingstone hosts Muslim Brotherhood propaganda exercise (February 8 2006)
  9. ^ My sendoff for George (September 25 2005)
  10. ^ RESPECT and the missing 500,000 (December 1 2005)
  11. ^ Pensioner attacked by RESPECT supporter (April 28 2005)
  12. ^ More Atzmon weasel words from the SWP (June 22 2005)
  13. ^ Kill the Bill (October 27 2005)
  14. ^ Freedom of Expression (March 27 2006)
  15. ^ The Manifesto - a personal view (April 13 2006)
  16. ^ a b c d Little Atoms interview with Harry September 16 2005. (Links to MP3.) Cite error: The named reference "littleatoms" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  17. ^ Harry Hatchet, "A Blogger Writes", The Guardian, July 15 2003
  18. ^ Comment is Free
  19. ^ Bunting cant (March 29 2006)
  20. ^ a b Norman Johnson, "Free Radical: Don't pretend Harry's exit is just coincidence", The Guardian, October 8 2005, p. 9 Cite error: The named reference "normanj" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  21. ^ discussion of "Alternatives to Labour", Harry's Place, March 28 2005.
  22. ^ "Former Communists" discussion, October 11 2005
  23. ^ "Workers' Liberty discussion
  24. ^ Media Matters, The Observer, October 2 2005, p. 9
  25. ^ Oliver Burkeman, "The new commentariat", The Guardian, November 17 2005, p. 8
  26. ^ Bob Pitt, Harry's Place and Islamophobia Watch, Islamophobia Watch, March 24 2005
  27. ^ On Islamophobia (January 19 2005)
  28. ^ Islamophobia Watch (March 23 2005)
  29. ^ Harry's Place (2008) "British Muslim Initiative: "We Resent the Evil Jew in Britain"". 2008-07-02. Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  30. ^ British Broadcasting Corporation (2006) Transcript of Panorama programme "Faith, Hate and Charity", BBC1, 2006-07-30.Retrieved on 2008-07-15.
  31. ^ Don't panic if Harry's Place disappears briefly Explanations on back-up blog.
  32. ^ http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219572143539&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
  33. ^ Going Nowhere
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