Engage relaxes its censorship

Engage seems to have relaxed its censorship today. I don't know when they started moderating comments but they clearly use "moderation" to prevent debate. I posted their stated rules here but their policy clearly doesn't tally with their rules. Sadly I have to use it too because I get more than my fair share of time wasting trolls. But I don't use it to prevent debate. I already mentioned that I only tried to comment on Engage twice: once to ask what George Galloway had said that was actually antisemitic and once to say that it didn't really matter if there are one or two states in Israel/Palestine but that it is the state structure that counts. Clearly Engage is trying to protect its lack of integrity here.

Anyway one of their disingenuous posts about the LRB Israel Lobby article has a comment from Debbie Fink. I can't link directly to the comment but here it is:

To those who are in denial about the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the US, maybe they can explain why the play 'My Name is Rachel Corrie' has been indefinitely postponed in New York and why the cantata for Rachel Corrie was cancelled there? (Funny how the JC has not reported the former...another example of censorship?).

As for Lord Rogers.........From what I know about him, I do not believe that he supports that wall, and the rest.....

And what of the pro-Israel lobby over here? Don't you find it strange that the West London synagogue cancelled EJJP's booking for the meeting ' The unheard voices of Israel'? How's this for censorship? It seems that we are only allowed to hear from Israelis (and Jews) acceptable to the Israeli government. People who claim to be pro-Israel in this way, are only selectively pro-Israel. It would be more accurate to say, pro-Israeli government.

The more I see their coverage of that particular article the more I feel they are not simply a bunch of liars for Israel but that they are becoming increasingly loopy and hate-filled. They're looking like a cross between Harry's Place and Little Green Footballs. Go look at the front page of their Forum. It contains the kind of imagery that gets MPACUK accused of antisemitism.

Their policy seems to have been relaxed since Deborah Fink complained about it to the Just Peace list whilst debating with Linda Grant.