British Zionist says Israeli lives more valuable than Arab lives

Spotlight

“What has proportion got to do with it though … it’s not about proportion is it. I mean human life is not cheap to the Israelis and human life on the other side is quite cheap actually because they strap bombs to people and send them to blow themselves up.” — Maureen Lippman, 23/7/06, BBC TV ‘The Week in Politics’

15 July 2006

www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/caabu2.htm

British Zionist columnist Maureen Lipman has stated that Israeli lives are more valuable than Arab lives. Her comments, which were broadcast on BBC television on 13 July 2006, went unchalleneged by the programme’s presenter, Andrew Neil.

Press release: CAABU condemns Maureen Lipman’s comments on the BBC

The director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), Chris Doyle, has written to the BBC to condemn the comments on the BBC television programme “This Week” by leading British columnist Maureen Lipman.

Unchallenged by the presenter, Andrew Neil, Lipman commented on the situation in the Middle East and denied that the Israeli actions were disproportionate.

“What’s proportion got to do with it. It’s not about proportion, is it? Human life is not cheap to the Israelis. And human life on the other side is quite cheap actually because they strap bombs to people and send them to blow themselves up.”

The idea that somehow Arabs, whether Palestinians or Lebanese, do not value human life as much as anyone else is disgraceful.

In the letter, Doyle wrote:

“Is it acceptable that what most people would consider a racist comment is merely allowed to pass like this? It is simply outrageous. The comments were made in the context of discussing proportionality; therefore, implicitly she is saying that you could not measure proportion because there was no equivalence between an Israeli and an Arab life. All Arabs, like all other people, value human life.

“I ask, if an Arab had stated on this programme that Jews did not value life as much as Arabs and, therefore, disproportionate killings were acceptable, what would have been the reaction?”

[Redress Information & Analysis editor adds: “Maureen Lipman and Andrew Neil, the presenter of the programme ‘This Week’, are but two of a species which lies at the very heart of the British establishment, including much of the BBC, an establishment which bears an overwhelming responsibility for the dispossession of the Palestinians but whose bigotry and affection for Zionism also blinds it to the pain and suffering caused by Britain’s policies in the Middle East.”]

Hear Maureen Lipman’s racist comments

To hear Maureen Lipman’s racist comments, click here. Her comments come 30 minutes into the programme.