by the Editorial Board
Independent journalist and videographer Samuel Seligson was arrested in Manhattan Tuesday, charged with two counts of felony hate crime and criminal mischief charges. The only thing Seligson has been accused of was filming an action taken against the Brooklyn Museum Board of Directors by pro-Palestine activists.
Seligson has been jailed in total disregard for the freedom of press and the freedom of speech. Powerful Zionist forces all over the world have united with reactionary governments to erode the most basic freedoms enjoyed in bourgeois society. The Worker stands in full solidarity with journalists who serve the people’s struggles independent of the monopoly capitalists who control the large media outlets, those who in the line of duty put themselves at physical and legal risk. It is essential to human progress that struggles like protests and direct actions are covered, especially when the narrative around people’s struggles is so often distorted in the interests of imperialism or Zionism.
One of the homes targeted in the attack belonged to Ann Pasternak who leads the Brooklyn Museum; Ann is the niece of the famous reactionary anti-Communist novelist Boris Pasternak. The apples do not fall far from the trees. The Brooklyn Museum has been confronted by activists for its promotion of Zionism and its complicity in the genocide of Palestinians. In May of this year the museum unleashed violent private security and police to brutalize a protest against them, resulting in dozens of arrests.
The Museum and its lackey artists have claimed that the vandalism was an act of antisemitism, although no one was targeted for being Jewish nor did any language used focus on Judaism. Following the attempts to frame any criticism of Zionism and genocide as antisemitic, the state has lashed out with hate crimes enhancements. So far only Seligson and one other have been arrested.
In times of crisis, genocide, and war, it becomes all the more important to defend the free-press with full understanding that as long as the monopolies own the media, free-press means a struggle outside of these capitalists institutions to tell the truth to the people, and not only this, but support of the actions they take on the basis of understanding this truth. The Worker calls for solidarity with Seligson and for readers to get involved in the kind of independent journalistic efforts that seek to end the old unjust order.
Photo: Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak’s home splattered with red paint and a banner denouncing her as a “white-supremacist Zionist” for maintaining ties with Israel’s genocide. Eric Adams via X
