I very rarely watch BBC Breakfast TV but I have just been told about a gem that was on it this morning just after 8am. It appears we were treated to a short potted history of Gaza and the conclusion was that Hamas, after all, is democratically elected and all that Hamas really want to do is get on with building up the Gazan economy and making life better for the people of that area. The faux analogy with Northern Ireland was then employed with the suggestion that Israel should talk to the more “moderate” wing of Hamas, just like the British Government had engaged with the “moderate” Sinn Fein wing of the IRA. It’s all so risible, so totally detached from reality, that it is almost beyond comment but the reality is that many millions of people will have tuned in and been exposed to this pro-Hamas propaganda. And THAT is the danger of the BBC; it is a willing propagandist tool for terrorism, in this instance shilling for Hamas, the IRA — and for that, it deserves to be damned.
Moving on to other matters Gazan, I see the BBC is relentlessly quoting “500 deaths” without any effort to tell us how many of those killed are Hamas terrorists and how many other were killed because of Hamas. Just one big bite-sized media friendly number, natch. I also noted that on the Today programme this morning, the BBC explained that because of Israel’s refusal to let journalists into the conflict area, it had to rely on images provided by those residing in Gaza. (And they didn’t mean the IDF) It stopped short, however, of making it clear that all images and data provided to the BBC are Hamas approved – so no possibility of any bias there then!
Can I just say I don’t have a problem with homosexuals, I just have a problem with the gay media/politicians who arse lick (no pun honest) a religion (Islam for those that can’t work it out) that has nothing but utter hatred for their way of life.
I’m still waiting for a beeboid to explain how they give support to a religion that would happily execute a very high number of BBC employees if Sharia law ever got hold in the UK.
Something else worth bearing in mind re BBC coverage. UNWRA (full title United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) which provides a seemingly endless parade of anti-Israeli spokespeople is the only UN agency dedicated to helping one group of people. It exists to promote Palestinian causes and to oppose Israel. The last UNWRA Commissioner General Peter Hanson once said: “Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime.” The current Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd is a former lecturer in political science and Islamic studies.
Yes, Martin, but there is nothing all that special about gays in this context. There may be a difference in degree, but not in substance. The Sharia gangsters would hang me for one thing, you for something else, most beeboids for something else again, and so on (and I am not gay, btw – they’ll find something to pin on me for sure).
Nearly Oxfordian,
I, and about 95% of the UK population, would be buried up to our nects and stoned. That is why I will fight the Sharia scum until my dying breath.
Sure, Grimer, that’s exactly what I am saying.
I see no reason to focus on gays, and I find Martin’s obsession with them very strange, to say the least.
EGYPT GASSES HAMAS TUNNELS
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLB704833
I’ve made a complaint the Beeb for all the good it will do:
Sir,
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms in relation to the BBC’s current ‘news’ output. The level of bias being exhibited by the BBC in the current ‘Middle Eastern Crisis’ would be laughable, if it wasn’t so insultingly anti-Semitic. This has been going on for at least a week and the output is becoming more and more shrilly supportive of Hamas. The BBC has stopped being a ‘news provider’ and has instead become the Hamas Broadcasting Company.
To give an example, the tone of the article ‘Israeli strike ‘kills 30′ at Gaza school’ lays the blame squarely with Israel and clearly attempts to dupe the reader into the conclusion that the Israelis are deliberately targetting civilians. There is absolutely no mention of Hamas’ previous use of UN schools to launch motor attacks (actually covered by the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7087002.stm ). Nor does it mention that the headmaster of a UN school was actually a Hamas’ rocket manufacturer (Covered by Reuters here: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115). Instead, you deliberately portray the ‘evil israelis’ as people that target children while at school.
There is a propaganda war in full swing. The BBC has clearly chosen its preferred faction in this war and is producing output accordingly. You are a disgrace to this nation and I will be contacting both OFCOM and my MP.
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Regarding the UNWRA school incident, on the BBC Radio 4 7 pm bulletin (I know I said that I wasn’t listening anymore but it was just before The Archers) the BBC quoted Plaestinian claims of 40 deaths & a UN person stating that there were about 30 deaths when an Israeli missile hit the school, then just said that the Israeli military were “investigating” .
Not so. I heard Mark Regev say on Fox News at around 4.40 pm that they were looking into it but initial reports indicate that hostile fire came FROM the school and/or vicinity & the IDF were responding. Also there were secondary explosions indicating possible munitions caches.
Since then I have received this fuller account:
From information received from a number of sources, I want to put the facts of the incident at the school in Jabalya. The Iranian-backed Hamas, as a matter of strategy, refuses to uphold one of most fundamental requirements of international humanitarian law – that of distinguishing between combatants/military instillations and civilians/civilian properties.
From the IDF, an initial inquiry by forces on operating in the area of the incident indicates that a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabalya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source.
This is not the first time that Hamas has fired mortars and rockets from schools, in such a way deliberately using civilians as human shields in their acts of terror against Israel. This was already proven several months ago by footage from an unmanned plane depicting rockets and mortars being fired from the yard of an UNRWA school.
Further clarification reveals that
a) The IDF is clear that it was fired at from the school
b) They have identified Hamas fighters killed at the site and named them
c) The school has been used in August 08 for similar purposes and a formal complaint was sent to the UN
d) One local report stated that Hamas members are walking in the streets holding on to kids.
Israel’s initial inquiry into the incident showed that the missile didn’t hit the “school” by mistake. The target was true; the aim was accurate.
In August, last year, Israel filed a formal complaint with the United Nations, complaining about the school being used to fire against Israel.
Israel has already identified Hamas gunmen who were killed at the scene of the attack – even publicized their names.
The proof that the building was a legitimate target was found, once again, in the secondary explosions that occurred. The missile hit the building, causing explosives inside the building to detonate. You can watch these and other videos on the web. You’ll see the initial explosion, and then, mere seconds later, multiple explosions and objects shooting high into the air.
As another blogger explains it, if you hit a building that has no explosives, the building collapses and the only thing that rises into the air is dust and rubble. Nothing explodes – again, see all the videos of houses hit in Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheva. As horrible as it sounds, as tragic as the results are, the missile was accurate. It hit its target and did what it was supposed to do. Secondary explosions prove that the building was used to store rockets.
What it comes down to is a building from which mortars were shot, in which explosives were stored, and in which, Palestinians chose to teach their young. There is something incredibly sick about that.
As is pointed out officially by the Israeli government, Israel faces a particular challenge with regards to determining the legitimacy of intended targets. The presence of civilians in an area of conflict does not stop a military objective from being a legitimate target. This is both the letter of international law and a reflection of state practice. The deliberate positioning of Hamas military targets among Palestinian civilians presents a problem with which Israel must consistently contend.
The Iranian-backed Hamas, as a matter of strategy, refuses to uphold one of most fundamental requirements of international humanitarian law – that of distinguishing between combatants/military instillations and civilians/civilian properties. It follows therefore that while Israel does all it can to avoid harming non-combatants, under international law, any collateral injury to them is the responsibility of the Hamas, which deliberately chooses to operate from civilian structures and fire behind human shields.
And what Hamas are doing there, La Cumparsita, is a war crime according to the letter and spirit of the term ‘war crime’.
Nearly Oxfordian: Yes you’re right. There are lots of stupid liberal women who stick up for Islam as well and they’d be one of the biggest groups to suffer under Sharia law.
I just don’t understand why a major organisation like the BBC promotes a religion like Islam which is clearly so backwards it it makes the caveman look like Islington man.
The British media and the BBC are trying to smoke Obama out. They know where his sympathies lie and they are trying to make him state his position.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7812498.stm
There is only one position for the BBC. Hamas is right whatever it does, Israel is wrong. They sense Obama will come to the rescue soon and are trying to hurry that up.
Once again the media is not doing its job which is to accurately tell the story. They put Obama in the White House now they want their pound of flesh.
Of course we know that Muslims use women, children, hospitals and Mosques to laugh their attacks from.
I’ve seen reporters with our troops in Afghanistan tell soldiers NOT to return fire at Mosques because the buildings are religious. Why shouldn’t they fire back? If Muslims respect their places of worship why do they use them to launch attacks?
“…Farther south, U.S. commanders said Iraqi soldiers were shooting from inside a revered mosque in Najaf. American soldiers withheld return fire…”
http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2003/04/03/RegionalNews/7.Soldiers.Killed.Near.Karbala-1276428.shtml
Of course Muslims will use UN buildings to launch attacks from. Presumably the BBC thinks the RAF shouldn’t have bombed ANY German city in WW2 on the off chance they might hit a hospital or school?
Letter to MP:
Dear Mr Cohen,
I wish to draw your attention to an issue that concerns me greatly. The BBC appears to be in total breach of its Royal Charter obligations. As I’m sure you’re aware, it is the duty of the BBC to provide unbiased news coverage. However, it is clear that the BBC no longer feels the need to even ‘go through the motions’. The recent coverage of the ‘Middle Eastern Crisis’ is a national embarrassment. It is entirely one-sided and the BBC has become little more than a mouthpiece for Hamas terrorists.
I have complained to the BBC (yet again), but do not doubt that I will be fobbed off with a standardised response (again). However, I have decided that enough is enough and I would like you to raise this issue in the House of Commons. If the BBC cannot be brought to heel, then the Royal Charter should be revoked and the British population freed from the outdated and oppressive TV Tax.
This is a copy of my letter to the BBC:
Sir,
I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms in relation to the BBC’s current ‘news’ output. The level of bias being exhibited by the BBC in the current ‘Middle Eastern Crisis’ would be laughable, if it wasn’t so insultingly anti-Semitic. This has been going on for at least a week and the output is becoming more and more shrilly supportive of Hamas. The BBC has stopped being a ‘news provider’ and has instead become the Hamas Broadcasting Company.
To give an example, the tone of the article ‘Israeli strike ‘kills 30′ at Gaza school’ lays the blame squarely with Israel and clearly attempts to dupe the reader into the conclusion that the Israelis are deliberately targeting civilians. There is absolutely no mention of Hamas’ previous use of UN schools to launch mortar attacks (actually covered by the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7087002.stm). Nor does it mention that the headmaster of a UN school was actually a Hamas rocket manufacturer (Covered by Reuters here: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115). Instead, you deliberately portray the ‘evil Israelis’ as people that target children while at school.
There is a propaganda war in full swing. The BBC has clearly chosen its preferred faction in this war and is producing output accordingly. You are a disgrace to this nation and I will be contacting both OFCOM and my MP.
Yours etc
Things have become so bad with the BBC that there are actually whole websites dedicated to its bias: http://www.biased-bbc.blogspot.com
I await your response.
XXXXXX XXXXXXX
Edited By Siteowner
Keep all the great comments coming guys and gals, the site is on fire!
“About that Israeli attack on the UN ‘school’: Updated” (Michelle Malkin)
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/01/06/about-that-israeli-strike-on-the-un-school/
Hi David,
I sent an email request to the B-BBC gmail account. Can you please action my request?
Thanks,
Grimer
Given the BBC’s apparent enthusiasm for images of bloodied Muslim children I wonder if we’ll see graphic coverage of tomorrow’s Ashura “celebrations” when young kids will have their heads sliced open with big fucking knives to commemorate the death of Muhammad’s grandson.
Sorry if someone has already mentioned the Norwegian doctor that was in Gaza recently but I thought I’d give you a little background info on the guy:
None of the non-Norwegian news agencies have disclosed that he’s a member and councillor for the Norwegian Revolutionary Socialist political party named “Rødt” which was formerly the Communist Workers Party.
In 2001 he stated in the Norwegian national press that he supported those who carried out 9/11:
———————————
Mads Gilbert: “The attacks on New York came as no surprise taken the Western politics of the last decades into consideration. I’m upset over the terrorist attacks, but I’m as much upset over the suffering that USA have created. It’s in this context 5000 dead people must be understood. If the United States government have a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, then the oppressed have an equal moral right to attack the USA with the weapons they may produce. Dead civilians, either american, iraqis or palestinians is the same.”
Reporter: “Do you support the 9/11 terrorist attacks?”
Mads Gilbert: “Terror is a bad weapon, but my answer is yes within the context mentioned.”
Reporter: “You do realize that your statements will cause reactions?”
Mads Gilbert: “Yes, I’m not expecting otherwise. The white world doesn’t understand that it’s possible to look at such an act from another perspective.”
——————————-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mads_Gilbert
Here is a link to the first interview he did with Al Jazeera on New Years Eve, shortly after entering Gaza from Rafah:
http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=11455
It seems that he has an uncanny grasp of the situation despite the fact that he could only have crossed the border a few hours earlier (especially his remarks about DIME ordnance).
As I posted in response to one particularly idiotic Norwegian…
“As I said elsewhere, I have no problem with Mads Gilbert as a doctor, nor do I have a problem with his membership of Rødt. As for freedom of speech, no problem there either.
He has the right to say these things but the people listening to him also have the right to sufficient contextual information to understand if he’s telling the truth or not.
I do have a big problem with him when he becomes the official mouthpiece of the Hamas propaganda machine whilst being simply described as “a Norwegian doctor” (with all the trustworthiness that people associate with both doctors and Norwegians).
Do you think he would get the same amount of creedence if he was described as “a Norwegian Left-Wing political activist”?
He’s abusing his position as a doctor to influence people who have no real way of knowing what he’s really up to and he’s abusing the death and misery of Palestinian civilians to further his own political ends.”
Keep all the great comments coming guys and gals, the site is on fire!
David Vance | Homepage | 06.01.09 – 9:13 pm
Second that.
Young children, some as young as six, join in enthusiastically at the sacred Shia Muslim festival of Ashura. From Birmingham to Bangladesh, these well-balanced children laugh gaily as their parents painlessly nick them with harmless kitchen implements in this celebration of diversity and community cohesion.
Children are seen as precious gifts from Allah in the peaceful, scientifically-enlightened faith of Islam – so, despite the very slight scratches and minimal bloodshed, you can be assured no-one is harmed.”
Grimer.
I don’t have access to the B-BBC gmail account! If you email me at d.vance1@btopenworld.com I can collect it.
When the Beeboids talk about: ‘the “UN” in Gaza says’, -suggest such Beeboids refer instead to the following contrary analyses by Hugh Fitzgerald:
1.)..”John Ging of UNRWA spreads his poison”
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/18838
2.)”What’s wrong with this title?”
[Extract]:
“Here’s a headline you can find right now if you click on Google News:
‘Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza’
“What would be your first thought? You would think: dozens of schoolchildren have been killed. And at a neutral ‘UN’ school, no less.
“Of course you would be wrong on both counts.
“First, it is not a UN school’ but rather, an UNRWA school.’ And what is UNRWA? It is now, and has been for decades, an organization run entirely by local Arabs and a handful of others such as John Ging, fervent in their support for the local Arabs and characreized by their complete want of sympathy for the ‘plight’ — not of the ‘Palestinians’ for they’ve got plenty of sympathy there, but of Israel, an Infidel nation-state in the midst of an Arab and Muslim sea, as an intended victim of violent Jihad that can only be permanently staved off, and not ended.
“Second, however, and more important, school was not in session. It was not a building full of schoolchildren.”
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/18843
For UK viewers, BBC ‘Newsnight’ promises a ‘UN’ spokesperson on tonight’s programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/
Here’s Al Bowen’s latest drivel. Be astounded by the logical gymnastics the Great One displays, as he uses the setting of an Israeli soldier’s funeral to shill furiously for the Hamas-owned news agency stringers who bravely risk death and destruction to bring us the Pallywood classics we all know and love.
Beggars belief.
Why is it that when the BBC quotes the IDF it uses the term “claims” but when quoting Hamas it makes not statement?
So the BBC takes Hamas as the truth?
Billyquiz: Cheers. What a shock. NOT!
Interesting, when the Israeli spokesman defends Israeli actions in Gaza on the 10pm news and is then challenged to say sorry, when the guy says ” Im sorry Hamas has…”, the spokesperson is promptly cut off by the news reader.
Listening to the tone of the Al Beeb reporters you would think the only thing that would appease these people is Israels complete and utter surrender!
Mailman
I’m still around reading, just very busy these days, but would like to thank the posters for links and comments alongside – I get more of an education here than anywhere else. Thank so much!
P.S. Thanks to Martin, I have learned a whole new vocabulary of British swear words, in tones never before imagined. Some are not even in the American/British dictionary! 😆
“Now the Israelis hit a UN school. Could this be a turning point in the war on Gaza”
Newsnight’s opening salvo from Paxman.
IDF artillery shell hits BBC TV centre. Could this be the turning point for the TV tax?
OK only a dream, but wishful thinking…..
Grimer | 06.01.09 – 8:38 pm
Looks like they’ve stealth edited the article you mentioned. Now it has some of what the IDF says, though naturally way down in the the article, in the hope that people will miss it.
I followed the World Service pretty closely for a number of hours this afternoon and evening. At no time did I hear them mention that the IDF said the UN school had been used by Hamas to fire rockets in the past and mortars had been fired at the IDF prior to the strike.
Though the BBC website article includes some of that info
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7814054.stm
it was completely missing from the World Service reports.
And I didn’t see this on the website:
Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167272256&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
That, of course, is the most damning bit of info against Hamas.
No wonder the BBC omits it.
israeli security minister to mark urban on newsnight about the school missile hit..
“so what? hamas use schools. use houses. what are we supposed to do?”
last week – the IDF released footage of hamas launching rockets from that UN school.
more here at that “UN School”
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32369_UN_Schools_Notorious_for_Shielding_Terrorists
“By day, Awad al-Qiq was a respected science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip. By night, Palestinian militants say, he built rockets for Islamic Jihad.”
On the 10 o’clock news tonight was an interview by a rather large fat bloke, allegedly a BBC producer, with a Palestinian whose cousins had been injured in a blast at a school. “They had just gone outside to the toilets” claimed the Palestinian.
My first thought was that they had probably gone there because that was where they were firing the rockets from, but this was not probed by the impartial producer. My second thought was to wonder how a piece of Palestinian propoganda against Israel would look any different to what was being broadcast by the BBC.
Yet again Paxman makes a total arse of himself. So what if the IDF knew there was a UN building there? If the Palis are shooting at you using a UN building as a shield, you should shoot back.
Paxman really is hopeless. He just asks the same standard crap for every question.
“in 2007 the IAF actually filmed some of these terrorist at a Gaza school, firing at Israel. the media don’t seem to care”
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32368_UN_School_Used_by_Terrorists_As_a_Weapons_Dump
video in that post..
Roland Deschain: I hope MY TV tax is not paying for this fat bearded wanker?
martin -> nice to see the israeli guy beat the crap out of Paxo…
Paxman just put in his place by the Israeli bloke. Brilliant!!!!
Paxo slapped comprehensively! Most enjoyable!
We could do with a few Conservative politicians taking the same approach to BBC drone interviewers, challenging them with a few facts and generally being contemptuous!
Un 10:06
Just read Bowen’s diary. It really beggars belief, especially when he asks for our sympathies for the hard time he and his fellow journalists are having. You would think they are suffering as much as the victims.
One thing he hasn’t mentioned is which hotel he and his crew are staying in in Jerusalem. But, if it is 1 1/2 hours hard drive to the border with the Gaza strip, at least it out of range of Hamas rockets.
What a really filthy wee shite Bowen is !
From Associated Press:
Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said 36 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the U.N. school in Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured by tank shells.
In a statement, the Israeli army said an initial investigation found that “mortar shells were fired from within the school at IDF soldiers. The force responded with mortars at the source of fire. The Hamas cynically uses civilians as human shields.”
The army said two Hamas militants, Imad Abu Askar and Hasan Abu Askar, were among the dead.
Two neighborhood residents confirmed the Israeli account, saying a group of militants fired mortars from a street near the school, then fled into a crowd of people in the streets. Israel then opened fire.
The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said the Abu Askar brothers were known low-level Hamas militants.
The attack occurred at mid-afternoon, when many people were out and about. Many people apparently stepped outside the shelter to get some air, thinking an area around a school was safe.
Palestinian militants frequently fire from residential areas.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95HSSOO0
Is it possible that one reason Israelis get such a grilling from the BBC is that there is no danger involved – yet if they questioned a Hamas spokesman the same way there would be a fatwa in the post the next day.
I phoned BBC complaints line around 7.20 pm about the omissions in the 7 pm bulletin (earlier post)& was told that my comments would be passed on. I listened again at 11 pm & BBC news said 30 civilians were killed when Israel fired at a UN school. Full stop. UN school implied neutrality. Nothing about Israel being fired on first. Nothing about the Hamas terrorists killed there. in short no balance just plain bias. I tried several times to phone again 03700 100222 but it is engaged.
Do the BBc Trustees know what is going on? do they care?
La Cumparsita: The BBC Trust is to the BBC management what a piece of toilet paper is to an arse.
Martin 11:24
Elegant and accurate as usual !
I am just wondering if 145 posts on one day on one thread is a record for this site ?
Given the BBC’s pro- HAMAS, and so pro-Islamic jihad politics, it is necessary to turn to other news sources, e.g.:
“IDF: Hamas used UN school to fire mortors”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129264
Grant, nowhere near!
At one time (before Andrew – don’t ask!) this site used to get hundreds of comments everyday. If something big happened then you would see threads with easily 300+ posts.
It actually became quite difficult to keep up with events, so the ‘general comments’ threads were started.
Paxo slapped comprehensively! Most enjoyable!
Missed it. Could someone provide details, please? Many thanks.
Mailman – yes, but you were watching ITV – every bit as bad as the Beeb throughout the Gaza campaign, with Manyon’s little “asides” e.g. after the interview you saw, revealing a philosophy akin to Bowen’s.
“Would I, asked the BBC researcher who called, be available to appear again on the Nicky Campbell programme — Britain’s equivalent of Larry King Live — the following morning?
“It should be very interesting,” she said, warming to her sales pitch. “We want to discuss whether Israel is a morally repugnant society.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
“You sure?” she asked, disbelief mingled with impatience.
“Absolutely positive. Absolutely,” I replied, to avoid any possible confusion.
A moment’s silence, then icily: “Okay,” and the line went dead.”
http://jewishworldreview.com/0702/davis_bbc.html
Maybe this explains why the BBC only attract the rabid islamists onto their programmes.