Search Results for: chris gunness

THREE SCHOOLS…

The BBC has lovingly lingered on UNRWA condemnation of Israel for hitting a THIRD UNRWA school. It’s all part of the “damn-Israel” meme that the BBC has spewed out during the latest conflict. However, for some reason, none of the world class BBC journalists felt inclined to ask UNWRA why it has allowed at least THREE of its schools to be used to store Hamas missiles. Further, why has the BBC not questioned UNWRA as to why it handed BACK the missiles to Hamas having discovered them? I fully understand that Chris Gunness is a poster boy for the BBC as he damns Israel from morning to dusk but surely the BBC has an obligation to make viewers aware that UNRWA has many serious questions to ask – none of which it is asking!!!!!

The Blame Game

 

 

UNRWA also acknowledged on Thursday that Hamas fired into the Beit Hanoun area, where the agency’s school was hit, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News.’

 

But not according to the BBC who didn’t report UNRWA saying that….nor did they report this….

 ‘The Israel Defense Forces has counted at least 100 rockets fired by Hamas as striking within Gaza.’

But of course we all know, thanks to the BBC, that Hamas’ ‘homemade contraptions’ are harmless….so this couldn’t possibly be down to them……..

 

Some sort of explosive weapon has hit a school in Gaza, the BBC says it was a ‘shell’….only the Israelis use ‘shells’…..

Gaza UN school shelter hit, ‘killing 15’

At least 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a UN-run school used as a shelter in Gaza came under fire, Gazan health officials say.

Palestinian families were in the school in Beit Hanoun, fleeing Israel’s offensive against Hamas militants.

Correspondents say pools of blood lay on the ground in the courtyard of the school in Beit Hanoun, and there was a large scorch mark where it appeared a shell had hit.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa), also said the Israeli army had been formally given the co-ordinates of the shelter in Beit Hanoun.

 

There is a clear implication that the Israeli army did this despite the BBC reporting this:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that …….”In the course of the afternoon, several rockets launched by Hamas from within the Gaza Strip landed in the Beit Hanoun area. The IDF is reviewing the incident,” it said.

 

 

Not only does the BBC not report that UNRWA confirms Hamas rockets fell short but it doesn’t report that UNRWA also confirmed that it had been warned to evacuate the area…the BBC instead preferring to say UNRWA ‘also said the Israeli army had been formally given the co-ordinates of the shelter in Beit Hanoun.‘   That is clearly meant to imply the Israelis hit the school despite knowing its exact location.

The BBC doesn’t bother with this:

Both the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Chris Guinness, the UNRWA spokesman, confirm that the IDF had asked UNRWA to evacuate the Beit Hanoun school (Hamas’ official position on the strike is not yet clear). The IDF was planning to target what it claimed were nearby Hamas rocket launchers.

 

Others choose to highlight it could have been a Hamas rocket…note once again Hamas prevents evacuation:

IDF Says Bombing, Deaths at Gaza UNRWA School May be From Hamas Rocket Falling Short

“During the afternoon a battle took place between Hamas terrorists and IDF forces in the Beit Hanoun area. Besides that, we indeed have indications that rockets fell in the vicinity, fired by Hamas from within Gaza in the Beit Hanoun vicinity,” the spokesman said.

Later in the evening, the IDF tweeted that “Last night, we told Red Cross to evacuate civilians from UNRWA’s shelter in Beit Hanoun btw 10 am & 2 pm. UNRWA & Red Cross got the message.”

“Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating the area during the window that we gave them,” they army said in a second tweet, adding that “Today Hamas continued firing from Beit Hanoun. The IDF responded by targeting the source of the fire.”

UNRWA also acknowledged on Thursday that Hamas fired into the Beit Hanoun area, where the agency’s school was hit, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News.

 

An absolutely genuine photo of Hamass leader Khaled Meshaal in exile according to my good mate in Israeli Psyops.

 

Good though that the BBC gives the leader of Hamas in exile, Khaled Meshaal, plenty of airtime:

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told the BBC he wants a ceasefire and end to Israel’s blockade as soon as possible.

“We don’t want to be controlled by a border crossing that makes Gaza the biggest prison in the world,” Mr Meshaal, who lives in exile in Qatar, told BBC Hardtalk.

“People cannot go for medical treatment or to work. Why are the people of Gaza being punished by a slow death in the world biggest prison. This is a crime.”

Cheerleading For Hamas

 

We get bombarded with casualty figures from Gaza by the BBC in every other sentence it seems…initially their preferred source was ‘Palestinian medics’, then the ‘Health department’ in Gaza’, and now the one they opt for is figures given by the UN.

 

But you might ask, where does the UN get its figures?….from Palestinians, as BBC Watch details:

Documenting the BBC contribution to political warfare against Israel

Readers no doubt recognize the names of the two highlighted NGOs above – Al Mezan and PCHR. They are two of the “primary sources” upon which UN OCHA recently told BBC Watch it relies for casualty figures in the Gaza Strip.  Describing them as “United Nations” figures, the BBC in turn quotes and promotes those UN OCHA statistics without any independent verification of its own and fails to inform audiences that they are sourced from political NGOs.

The fact that the BBC is providing publicity, promotion and amplification for political NGOs engaged in anti-Israel campaigning through ‘lawfare’ to influence public opinion is one which is completely incompatible with its commitment – and obligation – to impartial reporting.

 

 

The same UN which yesterday had to admit Hamas had used its facilities to hide missiles:

Agency Demands Full Respect for the Sanctity of Its Premises in Gaza

 

Something the BBC barely mentioned in its reports…even after the discovery they were using this less than informative description:

“Israel accuses Hamas of hiding its military infrastructure within the civilian population.”

 

 

UNRWA is in essence a UN provided political advocate for Palestinians demanding the ‘right of return’ for them…and hence the destruction of Israel…as admitted by a UN official on the BBC:

Who We Are

Arab-Israeli War

1st April 1948

April – August 1948: More than 700,000 Palestine refugees are displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli War.

Resolution 194

11th December 1948

The United Nations General Assembly adopts resolution 194 (III), resolving that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest

UNRWA deals specifically with Palestine refugees in its five areas of operation in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its role encompasses assistance, protection and global advocacy for Palestine refugees.

 

 

Despite that being on their website apparently any such ‘right’ was removed in 1965:

The right of return, Prosor reiterated, would “flood Israel with millions of refugees, and drown the Jewish state by sheer numbers.”

Right of return, he said, is actually a euphemism for the destruction of Israel.

UNRWA is responsible for helping fuel this “fiction” of the right of return to Palestinian children through their textbooks and schools.

“It’s worth noting that their mandate to resettle refugees was removed in 1965,” Prosor said. “They have perpetuated the problem instead of solving it.”

 

The Palestinians themselves have stated:

For most Palestinians the right of return for the up to six million
      refugees who are ancestors of those who made the exodus from Palestine
      that followed the creation of Israel in 1948 is an absolute.

“Israel wants the Palestinians to admit Palestine is the home of the Jews.
      It wants us to give up on the right of return,” says Fadel Taha.
      “Palestine is for us and for our grandchildren and can only be liberated
      by resistance. Oslo and Madrid [peace conferences] brought only shame. We
      don’t believe in negotiations.” says Abu Ahmad Fadel Taha, the
      leader of Hamas in Ain al-Hilweh.

 

 

 

Tom Gross reminds us of the close relationship between UNRWA spokesman, Chris Gunness, and the BBC, especially the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen:

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness is a British citizen, who previously worked for 23 years as a foreign correspondent and in senior editorial positions at the BBC and has a decades-long record of bias against Israel. Gunness is close friends with the BBC’s notoriously anti-Israel “chief Middle East correspondent” Jeremy Bowen.

 

I revealed Gunness’ close friendship with Bowen in a dispatch in 2009, here.

 

Nor is the BBC finding space in its attacks on Israel this hour, to mention that Israel thwarted a major terror attack this morning involving 13 Hamas gunmen who infiltrated into Israel by underground tunnel from Gaza.

 

 

From 2009:

REVEALED: UNRWA SPOKESMAN WHO LIED ABOUT ISRAEL PREVIOUSLY WORKED AT THE BBC WITH JEREMY BOWEN

I have previously outlined on this website the concoctions of the well-funded UN body UNRWA which have resulted in defamations of Israel and physical attacks on Jews in many different countries around the world.

For example, UNRWA has now admitted that their claim that Israel shelled a school in Gaza in January and killed 32 Palestinian civilians is completely false. The shell in question, it turns out, was in response to Palestinian mortar fire at civilians in Israel and killed nine Palestinian adults, none of whom were in the school. Seven of those killed were armed operatives and two were civilians.

The sensational and false claims of UNRWA led to headlines around the world such as “UN accuses Israel of herding 110 Palestinians into a house then shelling it, leaving 30 dead” (London Daily Mail Online UK, Jan 9 2009 11:59AM GMT).

The false reports led to anti-Israel riots and attacks on Jews in all six continents of the world.

 

A JOINT WAR CRIMES ALLEGATION BY UNRWA AND THE BBC

 

Now, it turns out that Chris Gunness, the UNWRA spokesman who went on several different international TV networks in January to accuse Israel of “war crimes” on account of the supposed school incident, is in fact a former BBC journalist and a close colleague of the BBC’s notoriously anti-Israel Chief Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Bowen.

 

In a diary article which Jeremy Bowen posted on BBC online, he states:

 

“I just broke off writing for a couple of minutes to take a call from Chris Gunness, who is the spokesman for Unrwa, the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees.

 

“He was ringing to say that Unrwa wanted an investigation into whether Israel has committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Civilians are protected by the laws of war.

 

“I have known Chris for years, as he used to be a BBC foreign correspondent. He wanted to make sure that we knew he was using the phrase for the first time. He said that the attack this morning on a UN school in Gaza looked as if it was a war crime.”

 

Tom Gross continues:

 

In three occasions in the past when I have criticized the BBC, the BBC online editors have then subtly changed their website so as to delete the part I criticized without letting readers know it had ever been there in the first place.

 

For the record, at the end of this dispatch, I attach Jeremy Bowen’s full diary entry (in which he makes the remarks above), together with two biographies of Chris Gunness. Gunness worked for the BBC for 23 years in senior editorial positions in both television and radio.

 

So it turns out that the UNWRA spokesman condemning Israel for “war crimes” that in fact never happened, is a former BBC World Service correspondent and producer who is a close friend of the current BBC Chief Middle East Correspondent who helped spread these allegations. Can it be that the false claims about Israel coming from two august institutions, the BBC and UNWRA, are in the hands of two friends who might just have a world view not sympathetic to Israel?

The BBC World Service and UNRWA are both funded by the British government. UNRWA receives huge amounts of money from many other countries too. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the considerable funds it has already supplied UNRWA, an organization accused of allowing the promotion of suicide bombing and martyrdom to be taught at the schools it pays for and administers.

On Oath?

One of the biggest obstacles to impartial reporting is the language barrier. At the mercy of Palestinian stringers and translators, how can the audience be sure that what they are being told is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Tom Gross has something interesting to say about Jeremy Bowen and his former colleague Chris Gunness. Do read it all.

You’ve Been Framed

Aren’t videos brilliant!
They get all sorts of people into hot water, proving that they’ve told a porky pie.
There’s film of the BNP saying things they wish they hadn’t, and politicians too numerous to mention being incontinent with their agendas. Everyone in the public eye is continually being filmed or caught on camera.
There’ s a big downside too. Take Hezbollywood, or the Pallywood industry, fakers of atrocities by trade, whose purpose is to make Israel look even worse than they made it look previously.
But on the other hand, the videos that showed beatings being carried out with great gusto on the Mavi Marmara might turn out to be quite handy if they’re admissible as evidence.
Awkward too is the video that shows the Arab Israeli Knesset member Hanin Zuabi doing what she swore she didn’t, namely witnessing certain preparations she pretended she hadn’t, and almost willing another martyrdom; someone else’s, not her own.
But the BBC’s favourite spokesperson for righteousness, charitable good works, helping the Palestinians, and making Israel look even worse than he made it look previously has also been caught out being economical with the actuality.

Christopher Gunness always says UNWRA schools and childrens’ camps are non political. But he’s a liar. Hoist by his own self promotion.

BBC v Israel. Judge Paxman Presiding.

BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, flagship presenter amongst a flotilla of BBC presenters, sets off on a mission to aid Hamas and uphold the embargo on reason, logic and truth.

(Note: The BBC seems to have issued a special edict. A permanent sneer must be attached to matters concerning Israel. The qualifying prefix “Israel says” must be added to anything speculative, factual, or plain as a pikestaff, if it alludes to Israel in any favourable or mitigating kinda way, to remind the gullible viewer that “Israel” may be lying.)

Newsnight. The Trial.
“Now; Israel has started deporting some of the survivors of the convoy which set out to bring aid to Gaza and ended up being attacked by the Israeli military-who-killed-9-people. They’re being deported from a country they hadn’t want to go to anyway. The UN Human Rights panel, a body usually roundly ignored by Israel, meanwhile has condemned the attack. It’s striking that the US hasn’t questioned Israel’s right to blockade Gaza which they say is an attempt to protect their citizens.
But what’s it like inside Gaaarhza? Tim Whewell has spent a day there.”

Oh what the hell. I might as well add emphasis to the whole lot.

NB. Tim W’s report was almost reasonable yesterday. Will he be psychologically spooked into colluding with Paxman the bully?

Not really, till he consults the repulsive, ex-BBC, Christopher Gunness of the UN relief and Works Agency, whose primary role is spewing propaganda against Israel. “Poverty rates have gone up by threefold in the last year” he says with a triumphant smirk.

“There’s not many people here with not enough to eat,” says Tim, casually. Wait a minute, we thought people were starving but no time for splitting hairs. We’ve a mission to complete.

Back to Pax.
“We’re joined now from from Washington by US Assistant Secretary of State P J Crowley. Mr Crowley why hasn’t the United States condemned this Israeli attack on the flotilla?”

“Well, the US supported the UN Security Council President’s statement which does use the word condemn, we obviously deeply regret the loss of life, we’ll continue to work with the international community to see how we can expand the amount of assistance to the people of Gaza.”

“So the United States does condemn this attack by the Israelis?”

“Well, the US regrets that this confrontation led to a civilian loss of li……..”

“ That’s a different word. Its a different word of course. Regretting and condemning are different things.”

“But we absolutely understand that Israel has legitimate security needs, its people have suffered through rocket attacks over months and years from Gaza, the Israelis had indicated in advance to this flotilla that there was a mechanism by which this material could be inspected and then brought into Gaza, [……….]”

“You don’t use the word condemn let me put to you the remark of the secretary of state…”

No punctuation needed because the beginning was uttered under Paxman’s breath with the comically exasperated yet sarky tone typical of Rowan Atkinson’s Blackadder and straight into the next line of attack.
Now Paxman is emoting about the settlements, “Are we entitled to wonder” [….settlements. Joe Biden. deliberate. blah blah….. ] “and now launching this attack on the flotilla. Is there anything Mr. Netanyahu could do which would incur condemnation from the US?”

“You use a very loaded term there by saying this was the launch of an attack…. this was a military operation by Israel, which Israel believes is perfectly legal to be able to make sure that it can prevent the flow of dangerous materials including weapons….”

“Could you give me another word apart from that”

“This is a very legitimate concern that Israel has…”

Enough.

Paxman’s unimaginative, worn out tactic is to attempt to trap the accused into saying a particular word, which Paxman hopes will reveal what he has deemed to be the truth, so he can conclude with a dramatic, “gotcha!” flourish. He wants to expose Mr. Crowley’s refusal to use the word ‘condemn,’ which is what professor Paxman deems righteous. He imagines he’s Rumplole of the Bailey. Or, who was that barrister who won cases for the defence against all the odds, for defendants guilty or not? Oh yes, it was George Carman. Paxman is suffering from delusions of grandeur. Some loonies think they’re Napoleon, or Jesus. Paxman thinks he’s George Carman. He’s descended into a fantasy in which he is judge, jury and probably executioner.

Excuse lack of brevity.