Round one to Harry’s Place

For those coming in late, this is about the senior activist in a hateful, anti-semitic, terrorist organisation who is suing an anti-fascist website, Harry’s Place, for publishing a translation of words attributed to him by the news organisation Al Jazeera.

Mohammed Sawalha, whose relationship with Hamas has been reported by BBC’s Panorama, claims these disputed words imply that he is “anti-semetic and hateful”. As David T of Harry’s Place points out, a member of Hamas has no reputation to defend in this regard.

If this sounds silly, that may not be enough to protect Harry’s Place under Britain’s notoriously plaintiff-friendly  libel laws.

So far however, the only damage this particular plaintiff seems to be doing is to his own cause. Watch with glee as one self-inflicted shot to the foot is followed by another, and another. Oops, one more toe gone.

Of course some people still don’t get it. This is about anti-fascism, not bigoted sectarianism.

Related though not directly relevant, on the issue of British libel law see Deborah Lipstadt and George Monbiot on libel tourism.