It seemed an odd thing to begin with.  Australia’s National Press Club is a rather ordinary, stuffy institution, where enlightened, let alone contentious thought, rarely intrudes.  For those guests of unorthodox disposition, questions of establishment swinishness await to douse any fiery rebelliousness.  That they had invited war correspondent Chris Hedges, former Middle East Bureau Chief of The New York Times, was itself a surprise.  Did they not get the catalogue of his recent writings and addresses, notably on how the Western media have covered the war in Gaza?  

With three weeks to go, Hedges received the news that he would not, after all, be allowed to give his address.  In its October 4 statement, the slippery NPC obfuscated and deflected, first suggesting that the initial date had been “tentatively agreed to”.  The club was in the business of constantly reviewing its schedule (that’s how reliable they are), and a decision was made “when more details of the address were made available”.  (The proposed title of the talk, “The Betrayal of Palestinian Journalists” might have been a clue.)  That schedule, it was suggested, had bulked up with individuals conversant with the Gaza conflict and Palestinian recognition: Chris Sidoti and Ben Saul (on Palestinian recognition), and UNICEF Global Spokesperson James Elder and Judge Navi Pillay on the war, slated for future addresses.

Sidoti and Pillay are members of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.  In September, the Commission published their lacerating report, concluding that Israel had committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.  Of the five elements outlined in the 1948........

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