This glowing report of life in Ramallah in the “occupied” West Bank by BBC reporter Aleem Maqbool is well worth a read for anyone who thinks the BBC is no biased. Is Aleem a BBC employee or does he by chance work for for Fatah? I’m sure the next of kin of all those Israelis murdered by the Palestinian Jihad spawn that infest modern downtown Ramallah will greatly appreciate Aleem’s chilled out report. Maybe they’ll join him for a cool ice-cream at Rukab’s?
THE BBC IS NOT BIASED.
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Aleem Maqbool: he’s a Muslim, of course, who has reported (for Radio 5) as part of the BBC’s stealth ‘multicultural’ project, on the wonders of his Hajj trip, Bolton to Mecca. It’s what the licence-payers’ money is for.
Unbelievable ! This is basically just a Palestinian propaganda piece ! I’ve never seen an Al-BBc report like this about Israel. It’s just one long drone about how wonderful and happy-go-lucky the Palestinians are despite the evil, angry Jews that keep attacking them for no reason. And I just love the part where Maqbool raves about Muslims and Christians partying together (you see it’s just the Jews that don’t want to have fun!) . The slimey Maqbool neglects to tell us that the Christian population is dwindling, heading into exile away from the hate of the Islamists. Maybe Maqbool’s next piece could mention the happy-go-lucky lives of gays in the Gaza strip ? Oh the fun they have getting strung up by those lovely jihadists. All-in-all though this article is disgusting – the British taxpayers are subsidizing anti-semtism pure and simple. Just when you think Al-BBC can go no lower it manages to show that it can.
I was struck (!) by the bit where he describes the killing of a Palestinian “militant”- shot in the legs, then the stomach, then the head. That is NOT like any kind of action I have ever heard attributed with any authenticity to the Israeli army. Otoh, it’s EXACTLY like the tribal warfare between Hamas and Fatah.. Very suspicious indeed.
Yeah really.
Where’s the authentication of this?
Names?
Dates?
One weekday last year, at about three in the afternoon, Israeli armoured jeeps moved into the centre of Ramallah, pulling up outside the most popular hummus cafe.
In full view of passers-by, including children on their way back from school, the troops dragged a man in his early 20s out of the cafe. He was a wanted militant. They shot him – first in the legs, then stomach, then his head.
Within minutes, the “Palestinian reflex” had kicked in. Schoolboys piled into the area to throw stones at the soldiers until they left. As we arrived, the troops fired back with live bullets, injuring four people, before the jeeps sped out of the city.
How come we didn’t hear about it at the time?
Could it be a “Pallywood” invention?
Good point, Ed. If this incident happened the way Maqbool describes it why wasn’t it splattered all over Al-BBC when it happened ? Al-Beeb would LOVE to have an exclusive on the IDF killing a “militant” in public like this. And Maqbool was right there too…surely he would have had time to get out his cell phone and start clicking away with his built-in camera ?
Don’t you love the way he then describes the stone throwing youths weeping with the emotion of it all because “after all, blood is blood” . These obviously can’t be the same youths who swarm over every “militant” car that gets destroyed by the IDF, holding up blood soaked clothing and grinning at the press photgraphers. And certainly not the same Palestinians who dance in the street everytime they hear that Israeli civilians have been blown to pieces by the fun-loving scum of Fatah.
Having a piece of trash like Maqbool “reporting” from the Middle East is like having a Klansman reporting from South Africa.
Rereading the article I see that Maqbool wasn’t present at the time of this supposed Israeli raid…so why does he describe it as if he were. Why no names of the witnesses he supposedly spoke to ? I presume he did speak to people about this or was the whole thing just another example of the blood-libel that the Palestinian neo-Nazis and their Western enablers keep fabricating about Israel ?
It’s amazing that a partisan hack like Maqbool feels free to submit something like this without presenting any evidence or quoting any by-standers at all. He must know that his fellow travellers back at the Korporation will just accept any lies about Israel without fact-checking or corroboration. Why doesn’t Al-BBC just dispense with news-gathering altogether and just publish Hamas and Fatah press releases ?
The latest Beeboid nonsense about Israel – President Ahmedinajad has given a speech in Rome saying that Israel will be “disappear soon”. Front page newsflash on Sky, not even a mention on the Beeb’s Middle East page
and we pay for this bullshit as well.
absolutely disgusting
Rereading the article I see that Maqbool wasn’t present at the time of this supposed Israeli raid…so why does he describe it as if he were.
Terry Johnson | 03.06.08 – 5:00 pm
Read it again. He does say he was there:
Once the army had gone, I have to say, I was a little surprised to see grown Palestinian men standing by the side of the road, weeping and hugging, and teenagers who’d been throwing stones, breaking down.
I’m complaining via the website, I strongly recommend others do the same.
My complaint:
This “From Our Own Correspondent” by Aleem Maqbool makes a very serious and unsubstantiated accusation:
“One weekday last year, at about three in the afternoon, Israeli armoured jeeps moved into the centre of Ramallah, pulling up outside the most popular hummus cafe.
In full view of passers-by, including children on their way back from school, the troops dragged a man in his early 20s out of the cafe. He was a wanted militant. They shot him – first in the legs, then stomach, then his head.
Within minutes, the “Palestinian reflex” had kicked in. Schoolboys piled into the area to throw stones at the soldiers until they left. As we arrived, the troops fired back with live bullets, injuring four people, before the jeeps sped out of the city.”
Why did we not see a report on this alleged incident at the time? It would be most unusual if the BBC did NOT report such behavior by Israeli troops.
What is the name of the alleged “militant” and on what date did his alleged murder take place? I have been unable to find information on this incident anywhere and have serious doubts as to whether it even happened.
Please provide details to substantiate your reporter’s claims or withdraw the accusations forthwith.
Where’s Hillhunt??
Maybe he can pick out the usual sentence that, when read properly, proves us all to be blind fools who have overlooked the brilliance of the BBC and its “nuanced” reporting.
It’s just a matter of time before they have a segment on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion on Newsround.
A couple of points, one of which has already been touched upon:
1) If, as the reporter claims, a wanted palestinian was executed in the street, why did we not hear about it at the time? According to the reporters own ‘testimony’ in his article, he arrived a few minutes later, as the army were leaving. Presumably leaving the reporter free to photograph the dead body, and, frankly, get one of the biggest scoops the BBC could hope for.
Where are the photo’s? Where is the story? Why has this gone un-reported everywhere else?
Could it be because it is simply a lie?
2) I love this: “On a single day last month, in an angry Israeli reaction to the killing of three of its soldiers in earlier fighting, nearly 20 Palestinians were killed in military operations in Gaza, most of them civilians.”
Please define “nearly 20″… Is it 15? 16? 80? 7? What? You either know the explicitly know the exact number or not. If you *do* know the exact number, you are deliberatly with-holding the number in order to exaggerate.
If you don’t know the exact number, then, at best you are exaggerating, at worst, you are lying. Which is it?
Following on from Mark W’s important point about the “nearly 20” phrase, how exactly does Maqbool define “most of them civilians”. In Maqbool’s twisted universe what is the definition of a “civilian” ? Considering most of the Palestinian terrorists wear civilian clothing do they count as “soldiers” or “civilians” ? Perhaps one of the pro-islamofascist hacks at Al-BBC can enlighten us.
Mark W | 03.06.08 – 5:49 pm |
Good points. Come to think of it, is it responsible journalism to describe a military action as “angry”? I didn’t realize the BBC’s vaunted impartiality allowed them to ascribe emotions to participants in the events they are supposed to be reporting on without bias.
field size,
its after 6pm, hillhunt will be on clapham common
WTF is an “armoured jeep”, BTW? A jeep is by definition not armoured. Is this creep trying to make the Jews sound a bit scarier, or is this just an extra detail his ass made up?
Also, you have to laugh at “modern, liberal, relatively prosperous and, above all, relaxed” as a description of the virtues of Ramallah. Notice the sneaky way he slips in “liberal” as a good thing to be? Do the local Islamofascists string the local gays up in a liberal and relaxed way?
Bio,
I no longer have the slightest hesitation in characterising the BBC as a Nazi propaganda machine.
If I went there, where would I get a beer, or would a wine would be more in keeping with Ramallah’s ‘liberal’ outlook?
Is there a gay community?
The BBC is scum. Pure and simple.
Blimey, I just opened that story and within 3 paragraphs of the article the BBC has managed to get in a dig about America:
“Small or large?” said the Palestinian man behind the counter, in English. Until recently, it turned out, he’d been living in the United States.
“I was in Chicago for seven years,” he told me, “but it was getting too dangerous, all the shooting, all the crime. I decided it was much safer to come back home.”
I have to agree with everyone else. The rest of the article is nothing short of full on Palestine propoganda and is shameful. The BBC should not be writing reports like this, let alone presenting them on their website. And I’ve paid for it. Utterly disgraceful.
I know Chicago quite well. Yes, that bit was aso written by utter scum.
Terry Johnson 18:09: You asked “how exactly does Maqbool define “most of them civilians”. In Maqbool’s twisted universe what is the definition of a “civilian” ?”
In BBC land – all Israelis are not civilians because they will all at some point have to serve / have served in the military, all Palestinians are civilians because there is no Palestinian army. The former is as far as I am aware the words that Hamas Hizb’allah etc. use as well.
they will all at some point have to serve / have served in the military
Factually untrue, I fear.
Not that this would ever affect anything Al Beeb says.
My I reiterate the call to protest most loudly. Including a letter to the DG, if you can – and to the Times.
We all know this is absolute anti-Semitism. By publishing it the BBC is in the same ilk. This is not BBC bias but incitement to hate Jews and it should be a crime against humanity to publish insubordinated hatred.
should be unsubstantiated
Hillhunt,
I think we are waiting for you….let’s be hearing the excuses THIS time round???????
Imagine the anguish in the newsroom. Two weeks the BBC’s been waiting for the right moment to reveal to the world the court’s decision in the Al-Durah case. And suddenly along comes a story that’s so hot, no one could have made it up. Damn. Two months more. Anyway, at least Pallywood is drawing the right conclusion from Al-Durah. Video footage tells you zilch about a shooting. But a BBC report – now you’re talking credibility and audience size too. And low production costs. Don’t know what it is after a few beers in Ramallah, but I always get a hole in my stomach. Fancy a chicken pizza, Jeremy?
I agree that this is incitement to racial hatred, and thus a criminal offence.
Ramallah has the rep. of being a more comfortable place than most of Palestine because a sizable part of Arafat’s corruption money stayed here.
The Chicago guy was interesting. He decided it was much safer in Ramallah and apparently doesn’t regret the decision – not that Aleem Maqbool would have asked.
Didn’t we have a thread on Aleem Maqbool some time ago when he was appointed? A picture of him speaking at a pro Palestine rally if I recall.
Disgraceful and desperate of Hillhunt disingenuously smearing a Christian religion by trying to draw a spurious equivalence between Catholicism and Provoism. I suppose that Anglicanism equates to UVFism then?
I didn’t think even BBC employees were that cynical or bigoted. Are there no depths to which they will not sink?
This disgusting creature has been spreading BBC propaganda thoroughly and for quite some time:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Aleem+Maqbool+BBC&btnG=Google+Search
We Fisked this article of his:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7296750.stm
But this latest effort has really crossed the line. I’m definitely complaining about this. The IDF does not shoot prisoners. And it would certainly not shoot anyone in the way described. That’s the style of the same people who throw prisoners off high buildings. And we all know who they are.
George R:
Aleem Maqbool: he’s a Muslim, of course, who has reported (for Radio 5) as part of the BBC’s stealth ‘multicultural’ project, on the wonders of his Hajj trip, Bolton to Mecca. It’s what the licence-payers’ money is for.
George R | 03.06.08 – 4:32 pm |
Maqbool did go out of his way in his Radio 5 reports from the Hajj to paint a picture of multicultural pilgrims from all over the world all gathered in peace in Mecca.
What he constantly omitted was that every one of them including himself was Muslim, because the penalty for a non-muslim entering Mecca ia death.
Can you imagine the BBC running positive stories about fascist rallies where any non-fascists were murdered if they were found in attendance?
Radio 5 included the Hajj in its half-hourly news bulletins though the Hajj isn’t even news – it happens every year and continues all year in the form of the Umrah. I have yet to hear the BBC announce in a news bulletin that “Today is Good Friday” or “Yom Kippur” or “the start of Diwali”.
But the BBC is infested with Trots and Gramscians, and they’ll cosy up to any murderous abomination as long as it is anti-western, anti-freedom, and anti-life. Like Islam.
I complained repeatedly at the time, without acknowledgement.
And who are the Gramscians in the BBC and how can they live with such a bizarre set of perspectives. This comes from elsewhere but it does it for me:
Bigglez, of course it’s not coincidence that the chaos on our streets has appeared within a relatively short period. No more ‘coincidence’ than all the like-minded politicians who have been elected all over the EU at the same time. It all came together because it was decided that it should.
The current state of our society is as a result of our politicians applying the Hegelian Dialectic.
This theory was adopted by Marx and Engels as the very basis of their ideology and its effects can be seen all over the world. No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts.
In a nutshell, it is•’create the problem, manipulate the response, come up with the solution’•the solution being exactly where you wanted to be before creating the problem – but the problem and response were necessary to get the solution accepted. ie: thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis.
You can read more about its practice and effects here:
http://tinyurl.com/2y8q97
Orwell’s ‘DoubleThink/DoubleSpeak’ are good examples of the Hegelian Dialectic in action. It is possible•nay, acceptable•to believe in two or more opposing positions and treat each opposing thought as equal to the others. A good example of this is being tolerant of Islam at the same time as supporting gay rights•both of which are fundamentally opposed to each other. I call this the Exhaust-Pipe Syndrome…up which they disappear when asked to reconcile their support for both groups. The 42 days detention is also another example. They need a law to detain undesirables. So they create a problem with undesirables, they then manipulate the response•it’s all for our own good, you see•then they establish the solution•voila, the end of habeus corpus. They can isolate anyone who doesn’t agree with their message or the EU’s policies•a position they wanted to be in before they created the problem but, again, needed the problem to instigate it. The Hegelian Dialectic deliberately keeps society in a constant but confused state of flux. NuLabour are masters of it.
Posted by Lickyalips | June 3, 2008, 4:41 pm
And so is the BBC!
Rob, and everyone else,
In my experience, a strongly-worded treeware letter, CC to your MP (unless s/he is a murderer-loving scum like GG or JC, of course), usually receives a reply. A stupid and mendacious reply, to be sure, but letters are less frequently ignored.
PS. And mine about this latest blood libel and race-hate abomination is already drafted. And CC also to Melanie Philips.
Mark:
W | 03.06.08 – 5:49 pm
If, as the reporter claims, a wanted palestinian was executed in the street, why did we not hear about it at the time?
We don’t hear about every such incident • but this one was quite widely reported at the time, but not for some reason by the BBC.
Financial Times
An Israeli undercover squad shot dead an off-duty Palestinian security man at point-blank range during a daylight raid on Ramallah …Uniformed soldiers then fired into the body of Mohamed Abdul-Halim, 24, and kicked him to make sure he was dead, according to witnesses
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7658ab24-0eca-11dc-b444-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=fc3334c0-2f7a-11da-8b51-00000e2511c8.html?nclick_check=1
International Herald Tribune
Last week in Ramallah’s central square, in broad daylight, Israeli undercover forces shot a fleeing 22-year-old, Omar Abu Daher, in the leg. After he fell, and was entirely vulnerable to arrest, an Israeli assassin shot him in the back of the head from close range, then kicked his body, apparently to confirm the kill.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/08/opinion/edbarghouti.php
Eyewitness blogger
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=22505
Palestinian Human Rights NGO
At approximately 17:00 an Israeli force of about 20 soldiers, including under cover agents disguised as civilians, got out of a truck and a car on the Main Street of Ramallah and killed 22 year-old Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. The victim was standing outside Nazareth restaurant with another man. As a member of a Palestinian security force he was carrying a walkie-talkie and a firearm when the Israeli military forces appeared. The soldiers made no attempt to arrest Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. As he attempted to escape on foot he was shot in the neck by a uniformed soldier, and fell to the ground. An undercover soldier in civilian clothes then shot approximately six bullets into his body, finally kicking him to make sure that he was dead.
http://www.alhaq.org/etemplate.php?id=316
The BBC gets worse by the day, even by the hour. I just came across this:
Nine hurt in violence around Gaza
So who are these “nine”?
Reports from the Gaza Strip say three members of the Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, have been injured in an Israeli air attack.
And the other six?
The air strike targeted an area of southern Gaza, near Khan Younis, from which militants had earlier fired rockets into Israel.
Five people were reported injured in the rocket attacks, officials said.
Five “people”? Would they be Israelis by any chance?
And the other one?
Elsewhere in southern Gaza, an Israeli soldier was injured by sniper fire during an armoured incursion.
No it wasn’t “an armoured incursion”, whatever that is, and anyway isn’t a soldier also a person? (don’t answer Alex!)
According to Haaretz he was repairing the fence, ie: he was in Israel:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989984.html
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was moderately wounded yesterday morning by a Palestinian sniper near the border of the Gaza Strip. The shooting occurred near Kissufim while the soldier was repairing the border fence that had been damaged by mortar fire.
The soldier, who was wounded in the shoulder, was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. Shortly thereafter, the combat engineering unit nearby came under fire, an explosive charge went off and the Palestinians fired an antitank rocket and three mortars.
So, in this “violence around Gaza” of the nine “hurt” it seems that three were “Palestinians” and the majority of six were Israelis, all injured in Israel, not “around Gaza” but in Israel proper.
The five people were wounded on the Israeli side when rockets exploded in agricultural areas, an army spokesman said.
One rocket struck a hen house, injuring two Bedouin Arabs and a Thai worker.
But hang on a minute! The Thai worker was injured on Saturday, not today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080531/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazarocket_080531110949
Bottom line:
Israel carries out near-daily raids and air strikes on the besieged Hamas-run territory aimed at preventing Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel.
Listen you bastards at the BBC; it’s the Palestinian rocket fire on beseiged southern Israel that is daily, not “nearly daily” but several times every single day for the last seven years.
Patrick | 04.06.08 – 12:40 am
Very interesting.
The BBC’s Aleem Maqbool states that the dead man was dragged out of the restaurant and shot in cold blood.
The reports you provide state that he was standing outside the restaurant talking to somebody when the Israelis arrived and then fled.
As you say, the BBC did not report the incident at the time. Possibly because it was unable to confirm it?
Did the dead man have a name ? Most people do.
That may help to clear up any confusion.
‘Ramallah streets witness activities seldom encountered elsewhere’
The thug-loving Maqbool is dead right there.
Biodegradable | 04.06.08 – 1:00 am
There are yet more inconsistencies.
Abdel Halim was a member of the Al Aqsa ‘Martyr’ brigades as well as being part of the presidential bodyguard.
Haaretz suggests there was shooting from both sides:
In the afternoon, a police counterterrorism unit entered the West Bank town of Ramallah to arrest a wanted man, Omar Abdel Halim. A gun battle erupted in which Abdel Halim, 22, was killed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/864713.html
Camera challenges the media coverage here:
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=147&x_article=1333
Has the BBC found an opportunity to report the findings of the French court on the al-Dura case?
Arab TV channels had spent the day broadcasting the final footage of a cameraman killed by a tank shell, and pictures the bodies of five children blown apart in the shelling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7433063.stm
They were? Can’t find the link right now but the photos I saw were of two youths apparently faking death in the road next to a bicycle, their bodies obviously intact. I recall that a pair of shoes we were meant to believe had been blown off one youth’s feet by the “shell” were close to each other with soles down in the normal position. There was little or no red colouring matter to pass as blood. Perhaps they had used it all up elsewhere. The vehicle apparently used by the dead cameraman was in the background.
The link supplied by Patrick at 12:40 am, to the IHT is a standard propaganda diatribe by the Palestinian “Information” Minister, Mustafa Barghouti.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/08/opinion/edbarghouti.php
This is the same Barghouti who has been on the BBC before. I recall him “informing” listeners about the Fatah-Hamas conflict. So why did this alleged targeted killing not feature on the BBC at the time? The BBC would have jumped at the opportunity to report it.
And I wonder whether Maqbool’s piece passed through any editorial process or whether Jeremy Bowen and company simply gave him the nod to report what, when and in what fashion he likes since they know he will do his utmost to damage Israel.
It sounds a wonderful place…do easyjet fly there?
http://www.journalisted.com/aleem-maqbool
Aleem has been a busy boy for the beeb. Naturally there is not a hint of partisanship in any of the linked articles of course.
Here you go Bryan.
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2008/04/17/opinions-please-is-this-pallywood-is-this-demopathy/
Also the best site for info on the Al-Durah case with Richard Landes.
Some thoughts on Ramallahgate
1. Why does B-BBC insist on assuming that a journalist with a Muslim name is incapable of objective reporting in the way that someone with a Sikh, Jewish or Catholic name is? You’d all be outraged if someone suggested that a reporter named Cohen was automatically biased.
2. This is a piece about contrasts: About the difference between the pleasures he finds there and the common external image of Palestinian areas as grim, oppressed and brutal places. In that sense, he’s lifting the blanket of victimhood which is often criticised here.
3. It’s also about tensions in Palestinian society. Again it knocks the liberal perception of the place as unified in guerrilla politics. He’s saying those who can afford it have the same aspirations of middle-class city-dwellers everywhere and are thought by others to be turning their backs on the conflict with Israel.
4. He points out that some Palestinians are in denial about the nicer lives people live there and try to pass it off, unfairly, as Israeli spin: Some Palestinians suggest this city is a product of an Israeli plot, to create a place for the foreign diplomats and journalists to visit, and wonder what all the occupation fuss is about.
5. The incident of the shooting is not the point of the story. It’s there to demonstrate how the urban war punctures the sense of an aspirational environment.
6. I don’t know whether the details of the shooting are true, misguided or dishonest. Neither do any of you. Your anti-BBC filter assumes malicious intent. I do not.
7. I notice that no-one has challenged that part of the story which says the Torture Rehabilitation Centre here is overwhelmed with cases of those affected by their incarceration in Israel. Why would that be?
8. Get real with the anti-semitism/blood libel bollix. Disapproval of Israeli military action is not at all the same thing as a hatred of all Jews, as the many Jewish people who oppose Israeli policies will tell you. If you don’t like the Palestinians playing the victim card, it might be a good idea to stop playing it yourselves.
.
And I wonder whether Maqbool’s piece passed through any editorial process or whether Jeremy Bowen and company simply gave him the nod to report what, when and in what fashion he likes since they know he will do his utmost to damage Israel.
Bryan | 04.06.08 – 9:31 am
I posted here about another Barghouti and the BBC ignoring his convictions for mass murder:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/8685322884240095213/#401534
hillhunt — my yawn is so big, the Met Office just mistook it for a hurricane.
Why don’t you start a pro-BBC website seeing you feel so strongly about them?