The Guardian has quietly reinstated an Israeli whisky after it mysteriously deleted it from a drinks column.

At the bottom of the article, it added: “This article was amended on 5 November 2024 to reinstate a reference to a whisky from the M&H distillery.”

The paper has not responded to questions from the JC either about why it reinstated the whisky or the reason it was removed in the first place.

Henry Jeffreys, a well-known food writer who penned the column, had included the award-winning M&H distillery from Israel in his piece this week.

“The article was about unusual whiskies from non-traditional countries and I included this particular one, aged in pomegranate wine casks in the heat of the Dead Sea, because I had never tasted anything quite like it before,” he told the JC.

The column included mentions of whiskies from India, Finland, Tasmania and Taiwan. But when the article appeared on the Guardian newspaper’s website, Mr Jeffreys was surprised to see that the M&H distillery had been edited out. 

He wrote on X: “I was surprised to see that the Guardian removed a reference to an Israeli single malt from M&H (formerly known as Milk & Honey) distillery over the weekend from my drinks column. It was there on Friday and by Saturday it had gone.

“It made me look stupid as I had emailed the distillery to let them know that it was in but by the time they opened the link it had been removed.”

The article, titled “There’s More to Whisky than Scotch and Bourbon,” highlighted the growing global appreciation for whisky and specifically praised the uniqueness of M&H, an Israeli distillery formerly known as Milk & Honey. 

“I’d highly recommend readers get hold of a bottle: it’s M&H 4-Year-Old 2019 (The Heart Cut) or try the M&H Sherry Elements which won World's Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards 2023,” said Mr Jeffreys. JC readers can order the whisky online here. 

The editing occurred against a backdrop of ongoing criticism of the Guardian's editorial stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The publication recently removed a television review by Stuart Jeffries of a Channel 4 documentary about the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.

Jeffries suggested that Hamas murderers had been “demonised”. The paper later apologised for “a collective failure of process”.

The Guardian did not respond when approached for comment.