It could be that the tide is turning in the BBC/Israel conflict.
But one swallow doesn’t a summer make or whatever jumbled up sentence means ‘don’t think one tiddly Panorama signifies light at the end of the tunnel’.
If the BBC was really the pro-Israel outfit that the Israel-haters say it is, they’d hardly approach the subject in the way they’ve consistently done to date.
We don’t know whether it’s ignorance or malevolence, but whatever the cause, the result is the same. If there’s a momentary let-up, as we saw with the aforementioned Panorama, the Israel-haters they’ve created are up in arms expressing outrage. The thing they find particularly upsetting is hearing the Israeli perspective.
That’s it. It’s as if there was a court in which the entire case for the defence was ruled inadmissible, and if any of it leaked, the leaksmith would be deemed almost as guilty as the accused.
The small but perfectly formed ways the BBC sticks the boot in are relentless and cumulative, comprising such things as gratuitous reminders of the body count during Cast Lead, or the new improved variation, the death toll of the nine Turkish peace activists. Either way there are too few Israeli casualties for the BBC’s complete satisfaction.
In this report about the armed Palestinian at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv who was thought to be seeking asylum in Turkey and probably got lumbered with the wrong sort of asylum, the BBC helpfully concluded with this reminder:
“Correspondents say Tuesday’s incident appears to be unrelated to a recent diplomatic dispute between Israel and Turkey.
Ties deteriorated after nine Turks were killed in late May in an Israeli commando raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip.”
Does an incident that involves one Palestinian, suffering from a delusional psychotic episode, combined with a possibly arbitrary connection to Turkey really require such a reminder? Maybe if it was an in-depth analysis, but this wasn’t that.
If the BBC feels it’s essential to attach such reminders to everything relating to Israel, they should equally attach a reminder of the Hamas charter to everything related to Gaza.
What is this headline? Israel ‘to blame’ for child death. Follow the link, and it’s this:
“Israel was responsible for the 2007 death of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, a court in Jerusalem has ruled.”
So an Israeli court accepted responsibility for the death of a 10 year old girl hit by a rubber bullet, overturning an earlier ruling where there was uncertainty over whether she was hit by a Palestinian protester’s rock. Not exactly ‘Israel to blame for child death’ more ‘Israel accepts responsibility for girl’s death.’ Subtle difference but emotive, and telling.
Last but not least, the BBC article about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The BBC is keen to tell us that since 1948 Lebanon has been tolerating their unwanted Palestinians who really belong in Israel, (booo!) and that permission has generously been granted for some of them to actually work, legally, in Lebanon. (Hoorah!)
The BBC is less keen to tell us that many have never been to “Palestine.” They were born in Lebanon, wish to work in Lebanon, and hope to jolly well stay in Lebanon.
Other news organs have quoted Ahmed al- Mehdawi, 45. Why can’t the BBC?
So; one Panorama does not a light at the end of the tunnel make.
Another great post Sue, thanks for your ever-diligent reporting.
I’ll bet the bBC were really gutted when the Turkish Embassy dude turned out not to be an Israeli Jew. Would have been the lead story for days if he had been….
My favourite is the following, with Abu Bowen being the most repetitive:
…the settlements, which are ILLEGAL under international law…
repeat 10,000 times.
Fair points, sue. I still think there has been some improvement since they started admitting that Egypt had a border with Gaza, and since the useful Jews left the Jerusalem bureau.
A homage to Paul Wood’s ‘Analysis’ of the Israeli soldier’s Facebook story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10997011
A great many BBC presenters have made hand gestures similar to Tomasz Schafemaker’s raised middle finger.
The only difference is that they do not do them on live television.
That explains why he didn’t apologise immediately and tried to cover up by pretending to scratch his chin. BBC viewers say “he is a bad apple, but all the box are bad apples”.
The BBC likes to think of itself as the most professional broadcasters in the world and so was quick to apologise. (They are also no fools when it comes to public relations).
For most BBC presenters and people dumbed down senseless by the likes of Jonathon Ross, I suspect the reaction will not be outrage but a simple shrug of the shoulders.
Anger at BBC obscene gesture
Honest Reporting re Facebook incident
There’s a little more to this than meets the eye, but the BBC may have been too clever to deliver the desired effect.
Much of the focus of the flotilla reporting here centres on Turkey, which has just been declared by the PM to be in a primary position for entry into the EU. (Now we all know that this will never happen, and that it is being used as a lever over Germany and France, but put that to one side for a moment).
Turkey is now in the firing line because it is an important military ally, it borders the north westen Iraqi border and it is a NATO member. This makes Cameron’s support for it inevitable, (France is not a NATO member and Germany is largely irrelevent in NATO on a military basis as it has little combat involvment).
The next consideration is the treatment of the Kurds by the Turkish Army. It has been rumoured that they have used chemical weapons across the border into Kurdish Iraq. ‘Cameron’s allies are as bad as Saddam’.
The narrative will likely be one that is largely anti coalition and pro EU hierachy (ie Germany France) which shows little enthusiasm for Turkey’s entry into the EU.
The problem is that they will almost certainly misrepresent the aims of the government in their horse trading with the EU.
Demonstration against ‘Death on the Med’
Time: August 22 · 1:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: BBC Television Centre Hammersmith, W12 7 London, United Kingdom
Created By Muslim Defence League (MDL), Ken O’Keefe
Panorama aired ‘Death on the Med’ a documentary about the Israeli attacks on the Freedom Flotilla in May 2010 – Israel’s version.
The BBC once again aired and spread propaganda on Israel’s behalf.
Enough is enough, we all know the truth of the terrorist attacks committed by Israel on unarmed peace activists! The BBC needs to know that it cannot continue airing lies as the truth.
Special Guests:
Ken O’Kefee
Paveen Yaqub
Will I be attending? Decisions, Decisions *DONT_KNOW*
Awesome, they know the dangers of the BBC being impartial. The problem is the scumbags who rule the roost will probably apologise for the programe in future and Jane Corbin will be in purdah, if the past is anything to judge by.
Here comes that ‘Get Out of Bias Free’ card, right on schedule.
Funny, I never seem to notice the BBC’s pro-Israel bias. Guess I am just not paying attention.
I doubt if Jane Corbin would ever dare to visit Gaza again.
Well here’s a few stories the bBC hasn’t bothered its arse reporting I wonder why?
(Gaza) An elderly woman shot dead by unknown assailants on Tuesday evening in Gaza City had been accused by locals of witchcraft and practicing voodoo, officials said.
(Gaza) Gaza police opened fire Wednesday at a member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine party south of Khan Younis, the party said.
(Gaza) A medical relief NGO said Wednesday that Hamas-affiliated security forces shut down its clinic in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, and confiscated equipment.
(West Bank) Police in the northern West Bank district of Salfit detained and charged six men on Wednesday for smoking in public during fasting hours of the Muslim holy month.
Oh and how the bBC reported the death of one of the mini-minds behind the Munich terrorist outrage. they kind of sanitized it by removing the following snippets;
An official military funeral was held Wednesday morning for a former Palestinian Authority intelligence officer at the Presidential compound in Ramallah, attended by President Mahmoud Abbas.
PA forces fired 21 bullets in the air to commemorate the death of Intelligence Commander General Amin Al-Hindi, who passed away at the age of 70 in Amman on Tuesday.
The true face of Abbas, Fatah, and Islamic jihad, sympathetically reported by Islam Not BBC (INBBC):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11016193
and nine more (Israelis) died in a botched rescue attempt by the German police. This puts the blame on Germany as if they died in cross-fire. The nine were murdered.
Death in the Med: Panorama’s response
Panorama is learning the Alan Jonston paradox that no matter how much you shill for the Palestinians, step outside the narrative once and you are the devil.
From the response:
“We simply allowed viewers to make up their own minds in their own time based on what they saw and heard.”
Trouble is, many people don’t want to make up their own minds. They want their prejudices confirmed.
Which is what defenders of the indefensible always say about us here. There’s a difference, of course, but the defenders of the indefensible always run off when the debate gets to that point.
I think the firestorm of complaints over Jane Corbin’s report is that many supporters of the Palestinian “victims” and the “innocent flotilla” assumed that the BBC would be true to form and would spend the whole programme slagging off the Israelis and the cordon sanitaire around Gaza.
Instead, Corbin showed that the Turkish government was complicit in mounting a flotilla that included lots of angry hard-nuts looking for trouble, she showed that there was a murderous mob on the top decks of the vessel, she showed that the Israeli went in with paintguns and only used handguns in self-defence, she gloriously showed that much of the cargo was useless – or worse than useless. Above all, the unpleasantness of all the people speaking “for” the flotilla came shining through. O’Keefe gave a masterful performance as a nasty piece of work, some of the others came across as deranged. Per contra the Israeli soldiers spoke coolly, the IDF senior officer admitted that the Israelis had been unprepared for the extreme violence that the Islamists deployed.
Backing up the sense of the interviews was lots and lots of film to show that the Islamist mob caused the trouble. Film that has mostly been available for many weeks to anyone who wanted to get to the truth.
I wonder if the BBC has taken proper note of the viciousness and ignorance of many of the complaints about Jane Corbin’s truthful account ? Also – it is good there is this forthright defence of the accuracy of the Panorama programme.
Still an exception against the drip-drip-drip of Bowen’s bias, but nevertheless welcome. Are any of the top BBC management noticing the clear difference between Corbin’s balance and Bowen’s animus ?
Exactly right. Unqualified condemnation of Israel is correct, anything less – especially a suggestion that someone else might share culpability – is considered pro-Israel bias.
As this website is dedicated to exposing BBC bias, everyone has the opportunity to put their case. I see someone with the moniker Sammi has contributed 13 anti-Israel comments on the thread below concerning Jane Corbin’s Panorama programme.
If anything he or she is reinforcing our point. The anti-Israel side has already seduced the BBC, so they should be able to live with a solitary programme representing the opposite view.