On May 23 David Goldstein, the Militant’s attorney and member of the prominent civil liberties law firm Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman, filed an appeal with the Florida Department of Corrections challenging a ban on issue no. 17 by prison authorities there.
The issue was impounded at the Jackson Correctional Institution in Malone, Florida, for using a widely printed Associated Press photo to illustrate a feature article reprinting a chapter from a new book, The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class.
The caption under the picture explains, “Hamas parades Jewish man murdered by death squad Oct. 7 past cheering supporters in Gaza City. Massacre in southern Israel was deadliest single attack on Jews since Hitler’s ‘Final Solution.’” The same AP picture appeared widely in news media in the U.S. and worldwide, including the Boston Herald, U.S. News and World Report and Proceso in Mexico.
Prison authorities claim the photo depicting “hatred toward a specific race” is “dangerously inflammatory” and violates prison rules, including the encouragement of “riot, insurrection, rebellion” and “organized prison protest.”
Goldstein writes the censorship is “fundamentally incomprehensible. It cannot possibly be that it is the position of FDOC that condemnation of Hamas’ barbarity, including photographic depictions condemning that barbarity, is prohibited.”
“For decades the Militant has published articles about national and international matters of public concern and interest, including political events in the Middle East, with numerous articles over the years covering the Israeli-Palestinian struggles,” he says.
He asks whether the prison authorities have “singled out the Militant for some reason? Its support for Israel as a refuge for Jews and its unconditional condemnation of Hamas and the regime in Iran?”
Copies of protest letters urging reversal by the Florida Department of Corrections’ Literature Review Committee have begun to arrive at the Militant from readers and civil liberties groups.
Michael Zimmerman, a retired and disabled combat veteran from Westfield, Indiana, wrote, “Censorship of the views and interests of the working majority in this country will not stand. I demand that the inmates in Florida be given full and unrestricted access to their newspaper, the Militant.”
Shai Davidai, a professor at the Columbia Business School who is well known for his defense of Israel, spoke out against the Militant’s censorship on “X” social media, including circulating screenshots of the paper’s article with the photo and the prison’s notice of the ban.
“A magazine [the Militant] published an article about Hamas and Jew-hatred,” he said. “As always, they sent copies to prisons all across the U.S. for the benefit of incarcerated men and women.”
Davidai said it appears Florida prison authorities “have a problem with articles opposing antisemitism.”
John Cotman, an associate professor emeritus at Howard University, wrote, “This is an absurd assault on the first amendment. The article in question condemns this barbaric atrocity and Hamas’ goal to physically exterminate all Jews in Israel.
“Please reverse this antidemocratic decision immediately.”
Starting in 2013 Florida prison officials have tried to suppress issues of the Militant nearly 50 times. The Militant challenges every ban and has won the vast majority.
Please join in defending the right of workers behind bars to get the news of their choice, and the right of the Militant to reach its readers. Letters protesting the Militant’s censorship can be emailed to Saritza.Legault@fdc.myflorida.com or sent to Florida Department of Corrections, Literature Review Committee, 501 South Calhoun St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500, with copies to themilitant@mac.com.