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==Reception==
==Reception==
Cook is described by Neil Berry in the ''[[New Statesman]]'' as a writer of forensic rigour and a "maverick" journalist who chose to immerse himself in the culture that he writes about. According to Berry, he "exemplifies to an extreme degree the belief that when it comes to the Middle East, westerners of conscience are bound to be engaged with the Palestine/Israel conflict above all else. He regards Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as a monstrous injustice that must be resolved if stability is ever to be brought to the Middle East."<ref name=Berry>{{cite web|last1=Berry|first1=Neil|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/06/middle-east-israel-egypt-arab|title=Poles Apart|publisher=''New Statesman''|date=June 12, 2008}}</ref>
Cook is described by Neil Berry in the ''[[New Statesman]]'' as a writer of forensic rigour and a "maverick" journalist who chose to immerse himself in the culture that he writes about. According to Berry, he "exemplifies to an extreme degree the belief that when it comes to the Middle East, westerners of conscience are bound to be engaged with the Palestine/Israel conflict above all else. He regards Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as a monstrous injustice that must be resolved if stability is ever to be brought to the Middle East."<ref name=Berry>{{cite web|last1=Berry|first1=Neil|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/06/middle-east-israel-egypt-arab|title=Poles Apart|publisher=''New Statesman''|date=June 12, 2008}}</ref>

Jonathon Cook has been heavily criticized by the pro-Israel media watchdog [[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America]], who refer to him as "a free-lance writer whose tendentious articles charging Israel with gross wrongdoing frequently appear in Egypt’s Al-Ahram, in addition to other publications in the Muslim world". <ref name=CAMERA>{{cite journal|url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=6&x_article=511|title=Cooked Up Charges Against Israel|author=CAMERA|date=July 22, 2003}}</ref> CAMERA accuse Cook of grossly misrepresenting demographic statistics, alleges that he ignores the existence of Jews in Palestine before the founding of Israel, "seeks to exonerate Palestinians for their own actions which led to territorial losses" and "egregiously misstates the contents of the Oslo accords". CAMERA later criticized Cook for bias in ignoring "20-Plus Years of Terror" in characterizing [[Palestinian Arab]] terrorism, and "other inaccuracies".<ref name=CAMERA>{{cite journal|url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=6&x_article=751|title=International Herald Tribune Op-Ed Erases 20-Plus Years of Terror|author=CAMERA|date=September 1, 2004}}</ref>


==Selected works==
==Selected works==

Revision as of 12:43, 16 October 2010

Jonathan Cook
File:JCook.jpg
Born1965
Buckinghamshire, England, UK
NationalityBritish
EducationB.A. (Hons), M.A.
Alma materSouthampton University, Cardiff University, SOAS
Occupation(s)Writer, freelance journalist
WebsiteJkcook.net

Jonathan Cook (born 1965) is a British writer and a freelance journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, who writes about the Middle East, and more specifically, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[1]

Background

Cook was born and brought up in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He received a B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy and Politics from Southampton University in 1987, a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Cardiff University in 1989, and an M.A. in Middle Eastern studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2000.[2]

Career

Journalism

Cook's career in journalism began in 1988 as a reporter and editor for regional newspapers the Southampton Advertiser and the Southampton Evening Echo.[3] He was a freelance sub-editor with several national newspapers from 1994 until 1996. He was a staff journalist at The Guardian and staff at The Observer between 1996 and 2001.[2]

Since September 2001, Cook has been a freelance writer based in Nazareth, Israel.[4] He continued to write columns for The Guardian until 2007,[5][6] and his articles have also been published in the The Observer, The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde Diplomatique, Al-Ahram Weekly, Al Jazeera,The National in Abu Dhabi, antiwar.com, CounterPunch.org, Dissident Voice, The Electronic Intifada, Modoweiss, AlterNet, among others.

Books

Cook authored three books between 2006 and 2008. In Blood and Religion (2006), published by Pluto Press, the central thesis is that, "Israel is beginning a long, slow process of ethnic cleansing both of Palestinian non-citizens from parts of the occupied territories that it has long coveted for its expanded Jewish state, and of Palestinian citizens from inside its internationally recognized borders." Cook links this strategy to the Israeli perception of two threats: the physical threat of terrorism and the demographic threat of a Palestinian majority potentialized by high Palestinian birth rates and the continued demand for a Palestinian right of return.[7] The Israeli leadership is also said by Cook to view the idea of a "state for all its citizens" as a threat.[8] Rami George Khouri describes the short book as, "important but disturbing."[7]

In 2008, Cook authored Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the plan to remake the Middle East, published by Pluto Press.[9] Of the book, Antony Loewenstein notes that, "Cook bravely skewers the mainstream narrative of a Jewish state constantly striving for peace with the Palestinians." According to Lowenstein, Cook argues that Israel "pursues policies that lead to civil war and partition," and that this idea of dissolving many of the nations of the Middle East, shared by the neocons and the Bush administration, was developed by Israel's security establishment in the 1980s.[10] Cook discusses an essay authored by Oded Yinon and published by the World Zionist Organisation in 1982 which advocated for Israel's transformation into a regional imperial power via the fragmentation of the Arab world, "into a mosaic of ethnic and confessional groupings that could be more easily manipulated" (p. 107). A review of the book in The Jordan Times calls it, "well-researched and very readable."[11]

Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair was published in 2008 by Zed Books.[12] The book is in two parts, with the second half consisting of reprints of articles written by Cook as a journalist.[13] The first half of the book, according to a review in Electronic Intifada, explores the thesis that, "the goal of Israeli policy is to make Palestine and the Palestinians disappear for good."[13] Helena Cobban in the Boston Review says Cook argues that to encourage voluntary emigration, Israel has made life unbearable for Palestinians, primarily via "the ever more sophisticated systems of curfews, checkpoints, walls, permits and land grabs."[14]

Reception

Cook is described by Neil Berry in the New Statesman as a writer of forensic rigour and a "maverick" journalist who chose to immerse himself in the culture that he writes about. According to Berry, he "exemplifies to an extreme degree the belief that when it comes to the Middle East, westerners of conscience are bound to be engaged with the Palestine/Israel conflict above all else. He regards Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as a monstrous injustice that must be resolved if stability is ever to be brought to the Middle East."[1]

Jonathon Cook has been heavily criticized by the pro-Israel media watchdog Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, who refer to him as "a free-lance writer whose tendentious articles charging Israel with gross wrongdoing frequently appear in Egypt’s Al-Ahram, in addition to other publications in the Muslim world". [15] CAMERA accuse Cook of grossly misrepresenting demographic statistics, alleges that he ignores the existence of Jews in Palestine before the founding of Israel, "seeks to exonerate Palestinians for their own actions which led to territorial losses" and "egregiously misstates the contents of the Oslo accords". CAMERA later criticized Cook for bias in ignoring "20-Plus Years of Terror" in characterizing Palestinian Arab terrorism, and "other inaccuracies".[15]

Selected works

Books

  • (2006) Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State. Pluto Press. ISBN 0-7453-2555-6
  • (2008) Israel and the Clash of Civilizations: Iraq, Iran and the plan to remake the Middle East. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0745327549
  • (2008) Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair. Zed Books. ISBN 978-1848130319

Chapters in books

  • (2005) "Unrecognized Villages: Indigenous 'Ayn Hawd versus Artists' Colony 'Ein Hod," in Nur Masalha, Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel, and the Internal Refugees, Zed Books, ISBN 1842776231[16]
  • (2006) "Israel's Glass Wall: The Or Commission," in Joel Beinin and Rebecca L. Stein. The struggle for sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804753652
  • (2008). Foreword in Hatim Kanaaneh, A Doctor in Galilee: The Life and Struggle of a Palestinian in Israel. Pluto Press. ISBN 0745327869

Articles

Notes

  1. ^ a b Berry, Neil (June 12, 2008). "Poles Apart". New Statesman. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b Cook, Jonathan. Short biography, Jhcook.net, accessed November 30, 2009.
  3. ^ http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2860
  4. ^ Catastrophe remembered: Palestine, Israel and the internal refugees, p. viii.
  5. ^ Jonathan Cook, The Guardian, accessed November 30, 2009.
  6. ^ "How occupation has corrupted Israel's soul". Antony Loewenstein, also published in Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper on the same day. March 30, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Rami G. Khouri (March 15, 2008). "Ethnic Cleansing Cannot be Ignored". Retrieved 2009.12.05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. ^ Wim de Neuter (March 2007). "Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  9. ^ Raymond Deane (11 February 2008). "Book review: "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations"". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  10. ^ Antony Loewenstein (summer 2008). "THE RESOURCE WARS". overland literary journal. ISBN 978-0-9805346-0-3. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Sally Bland (March 31, 2008). "Spreading 'organised chaos'". The Jordan Times. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
  12. ^ Pam Hardyment (May 18, 2009). "Disappearing Palestine, Israel's Experiments in Human Despair by Jonathan Cook". Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  13. ^ a b Gabriel Ash (February 12, 2009). "Book review: Un-erasing the erasure of Palestine". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  14. ^ Helena Cobban (July/August 2009). "Peace Out: The decline of Israel's progressive movement". Boston Review. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ a b CAMERA (July 22, 2003). "Cooked Up Charges Against Israel". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Cite error: The named reference "CAMERA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. ^ "(Review of) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel, and the Internal Refugees". Journal of Refugee Studies. 19 (2). 2006. {{cite journal}}: Text "pp. 267-268" ignored (help)

Audio/Video

Template:Persondata

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