11:53 am.
Driver in Tel Aviv Truck Rampage shouted “Death to Jews”
Israeli forces ‘fire on Palestinians’ near Gaza border *
One of these stories is not reported by your BBC.
A large red banner proclaiming ‘Breaking News’ adorns the BBC Middle East page. This advertises the latter story, whereas at the time of writing there is nothing at all about the former.
So. The BBC was interested in Israel’s reaction to a well-publicised, premeditated, deliberately orchestrated, provocative demonstration by anti-Israel activists when it first erupted near the Gaza border, whereas a terrorist mowing people down in his truck in Tel Aviv whilst shouting Allahu Akbar was not deemed newsworthy, even at the time when the original violence was limited to the border with Gaza, and before it had spread to all Israel’s borders with surrounding enemy states.
Since I began writing about this at 11:53 am, the website has been updated several times, the violence has multiplied, the BBC has become even more excited, and the presentation has become even more one-sided. For more details please see five invaluable comments by the esteemed Pounce, on the Open Thread.
The BBC speculates that the recent uprisings in Arab countries have emboldened the Palestinians, thus equating the Palestinians with the BBC’s pet freedom fighting seekers of democracy in the Arab World, and Israel with the totalitarian oppressive regimes who clamp down ruthlessly upon them.
The exact opposite of the truth.
Meanwhile on Sky News the trouble in Israel is reported in a far more balanced manner, the reporter, can’t remember his name, suggests that the hand of Iran and Syria is responsible for the trouble on Israel’s Northern border, trying to take the spotlight off Syria’s own internal problems. This makes sense.
The tally of Muslim Killing Muslim is still far greater than Israel America and NATO killing Muslims but we wont know this if we listen to the BBC.
The Sky analysis is also shared by the BBC’s Jim Muir in his side piece to Donnison’s propaganda.
‘Israel fires on protesters’. Yeah, right Der Sturmer Donnison. People vandalising border fences and advancing on the forces of a country they are vowed to destroy are rioters. But hey, its a good propaganda line for the uninitiated.
Yet another reason not to be intimidated by Arab demands.
Nakba day commemorating 700,000 Palestinians fleeing the newly formed state of Israel at the behest of neighboring Arab countries who thought they would drive the Jews into the sea.
What about the similar number of Jews who were forcibly driven out of Arab countries at the same time.?
Esteemed ? I think not. Just your average joe won’t stand for falsehoods been promulgated at my expense. Anyway Sue back to your post.
As I mentioned before the bBC is unable to join the dots on how thousands of people have turned up on the borders of Israel in which to protest its existence. That myopia becomes even more relevant when you realise that the hotbed of Syrian resistance against Damascus is in the south of the country in exactly the area where Syrians broke through the Israeli border.
When we look at how next door in Lebanon Syria’s brother in arms (Hezb-allah) brought in thousands of people by coach to do likewise and when they were stopped from going any further by the Lebanese army, they physically attacked them and then proceeded to attack Israeli troops.
Then there’s Gaza which did likewise and while the bBC is more than happy to promote that Hamas was powerless to stop people from marching to the Israeli/Gazan border. They don’t report that actually they succeeded in doing likewise with another protest on the Egyptian border and on another stretch of that same border Hamas troops are seen side by side with the protesters.
The protest in Jerusalem to be honest had more to do with a funeral of a boy shot dead protesting yesterday than been linked to the bigger events above.
Which brings me to the last border. The Israeli/Jordanian one. Yes there was a protest but this one was a very solemn affair with people coming and going very quietly. Now I wonder if that was because Jordan doesn’t subscribe to the Iranian/Syrian/Hezb-all/Hamas pact and thus has no need to lay a smokescreen in which to excuse the killing fields of Syria.
This is very, very odd.
Going into ‘Google News’ and typing in ‘Tel Aviv’ shows that there was a BBC Online article about the former story, Israel: One killed as lorry ploughs down Tel Aviv road (published 6 hours ago, says Google), and the timemark on the article says 11.29 and shows it being in the website’s ‘Middle East’ section. The article has not been updated since and, naturally, there’s no mention of ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Clicking on the BBC website confirms that this article is not now on the ‘Middle East’ page and that there’s no link to the story from the main Nakba stories there or elsewhere on the BBC site. I myself looked on the ‘Middle East’ section sometime around one o’clock and am very sure it wasn’t on there then either (as I was looking through all the stories carefully). You (Sue) did your screenshot of the page at 11.53 (just a few minutes after the article’s publication) and would have noticed if the Tel Aviv story (first word ‘Israel’) if it was on that page. Not a Sheep has been watching the story too and could see nothing on the BBC website about it and Pounce (Open Thread) has also been monitoring the BBC website very carefully this afternoon, again noting the absence of an article about the story.
So, however much this might sound like a conspiracy theory, it seems likely that this story wasn’t up on the BBC’s ‘Middle East’ section for more than a few minutes at the most, maybe even just for a few short seconds, before being dropped completely from the page and buried away where nobody (except those who access Google and type in ‘Tel Aviv’) would ever see it. The BBC (and their apologists) can now say, if challenged, that they did publish an article about it – but there’s publishing an article where people can read and there’s publishing an article where people can’t read it – and they surely did the latter and surely did it deliberately.
If this is what really happened (and what other explanation is there?), how on earth could the BBC justify such shoddy behaviour?
Or am I missing something?
Excellent detective work Craig. Sadly/predictably this is seemingly typical of the BBC; they hide areport away so that the causal reader won’t find it but it will be discoverable if you know what to search for. The BBC are not just simply biased, they are manipulative and clever.
Not to worry, Craig. The intrepid News Online sub-editors stuck a mention in at the bottom of the piece about the nasty Israelis firing on innocent protesters at various border posts. It reads almost as if it’s part of a spoof article making fun of BBC reporting:
Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, Israeli police are investigating whether an Arab-Israeli lorry driver deliberately ploughed into pedestrians, killing one Israeli man.
See – they’ve mentioned it in plain view for everyone! Defenders of the indefesnible rest their case.
As if it was an accident !
I watched this developing but couldn’t post about it here at the time.
The original article was:
Israel: One killed as lorry ploughs down Tel Aviv road
The story was on the news ticker and also among the top stories on the front page, until the Nakba stories broke, at which point it disappeared completely – not linked from anywhere and invisible on the main Mid-East news section.
This detail caught my eye too:
Security has been tightened across Israel for the Nakba, especially in Jerusalem and areas of the country where a large percentage of the population are Arab Israelis.
Palestinians living in Israel are known as Arab Israelis.
What?!
Arab Israelis are just that – Arab citizens of Israel – they are not “Palestinians”!
The BBC faithfully following the Hamas line that all of Israel is “Palestine”.
Thanks for explaining what happened Biodegradable.
I see the BBC main Nakba article now carries the truck attack story – briefly, in its final paragraph, with as little detail as possible:
Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, Israeli police are investigating whether an Arab-Israeli lorry driver deliberately ploughed into pedestrians, killing one Israeli man.
Still no link from anywhere to the original terrorist truck incident.
I’ve complained already, not that it will do much use.
“BBC News, both on the Internet and the News 24 channel, has committed yet another act of shoddy, biased reporting. Whilst giving weight to the story of Palestinian protesters being shot at (mostly by rubber bullets, which you failed to mention) you tactfully, and unsurprisingly, ignored the story of a rampant bus driving around Tel Aviv which has killed one and injured many more, and is believed to be a terrorist incident. (http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=220589) The driver of the bus shouted “death to Jews” when he committed his crime, and yet this doesn’t warrant a mere paragraph from the BBC?
The BBC is guilty of committing a lie of omission in giving a one-sided view of today’s events. Even the content which was published reeked of bias and inaccuracy. As I’ve mentioned, the Israeli Army have been primarily using rubber bullets, which you failed to report, and only did so in response to the initiation of force by stone-throwing Palestinians.
Your reporter Jon Donnison on News 24 and the BBC website only gave the view of the Palestinian protesters and not that of anyone else regarding the Golan Heights. The reporter stated that the Palestinians “regard this as home” and no more was said on the issue. I wish to ask: do the BBC not find it important to provide legal fact in response to such claims – i.e. that Syria invaded Israel in 1967 and Israel defensively took hold of the Golan Heights? Or is it only Palestinian opinion that counts?
Furthermore, the reporter made a comparison between Palestinian protesters and other Arabs protesting against their despotic regimes across the Middle East, which amounts to a vague attempt to compare Israel with the corrupt and brutal dictatorships which are currently killing their people with no remorse. Accuracy? No. One-sided reporting? Absolutely.
In conclusion, the failure to mention the suspected terrorist incident in Tel Aviv, the omission of facts regarding who initiated the force in these protests, the omission of the fact that Israelis fire rubber bullets in the majority of cases, and the comparison of Israel to dictatorships all amount to shoddy reporting and, yet again, bias.”
Jake: Thanks for the try at complaining and I wish you good luck BUT on the BBC I think you will find that in matters Israel/Palestinian it is only Palestinian opinion that counts…
Yes; INBBC, like Al Jazeera, sees the Islamic Middle East as a key part of their political constituency to be fed all the usual anti-Israel propaganda.
But even the politically weak ‘Christian Science Monitor’ has this:
“‘Nakba’ clashes: Iran, Syria trying to turn Arab Spring fury into attacks on Israel?”
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0515/Nakba-clashes-Iran-Syria-trying-to-turn-Arab-Spring-fury-into-attacks-on-Israel?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fworld+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+World%29
‘New English Review’ has this:
Is Iran behind Border Breaches and Violence in Israel on al-Nakbah Day?
the only thing al beeb will listen to and understand is the source of funding being reduced
BOYCOTT THE TV TAX!!
don’t pay the licence
Interesting picture on yahoo news taken of the Syrian mob while they crashed into isreal.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Mideast-Conflict/ss/events/wl/080601mideast;_ylt=ArWNeb0Bb8y_O79x_Kp1qras0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNrdTV1ODRqBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNTE1L21sX2lzcmFlbF9wYWxlc3RpbmlhbnMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwMxNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDc2xpZGVzaG93#photoViewer=/110515/ids_photos_wl/r437313563.jpg
Are they burning the picture or is it a show of loyalty to the Assads? I honestly can’t tell here. It disproves the BBC’s Narrative either way, I think.
Really, you people are so paranoid. If there was a hint of BBC bias, Chris Patten would be jumping up and down and exposing it immediately………….. Er……
You have it exactly right, sue. The opening line sets the stage immediately:
Jon Donnison in Ramallah: “Palestinians are feeling emboldened and inspired by the uprisings elsewhere [in the Middle East]”
The real problem is Israel, not the oppressive leadership of Syria or Hamas or Hezbollah or any Arab or Muslim country. The only truly free state in the region is, according to the BBC, the root cause of all oppression.
The BBC truly believe that without Israel all would be peace and harmony in the Middle East. That Sunni & Shia would kiss and make up, that Arab democrats would come to power etc. The reality is almost exactly 100% the opposite but the BBC don’t like that reality.
My late father used to describe describe Arabs as always “fighting each other like ferrets in a sack ” and he knew Arabs and the Middle East much better than I do.
Personally, I think that is an insult to ferrets, which are intelligent, useful and quite affectionate animals.
“describe describe” How did that happen ?
“The BBC’s Jon Donnison, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said this year’s Nakba protests have been given impetus by the uprisings in countries across the Middle East and North Africa.”
No Mr Donnison, they’ve been given impetus by people like you and other allies of genocidal evil in the media.
You’ll search in vain in Donnison’s piece to find any quote from any Arab that bears out his assertion. It’s just Donnison trying to give his own propaganda pointer to the assorted Arab psycopaths ranged against Israel.
Fortunately Jim Muir’s side piece in the link you have is in stark contrast to Donnison’s propaganda freebie for the Middle East’s axis of evil.
Blimey – Even Harriet Sherwood of the Grauniad manages to present a more balanced picture of the riots.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/15/israeli-army-involved-bloody-confrontations
Not for the first time, the BBC manages to position its reporting TO THE LEFT of the Guardian!!
WhadIwannaknow is this: Were the Palestiians in Lebanon issued special day passes to be allowed out of their refugee camps to go to the border and throw rocks at Israeli soldiers? And were they then bused back again?
Reporting on the World Service was dire. I didn’t hear anything about the Arab truck attack in Tel Aviv, and I listened on and off from about noon GMT for several hours. At one point, I heard the Nakba described a a fact of life, not something the Palestinians specifically commemorate. Amazing.
However, they did throw a crumb or two to the Israelis by having an Israeli colonel on briefly, saying the Syrian border clash had been engineered by Syria to distract attention from its brutal oppression of its own people.
But of course they couldn’t resist talking about the occupied Golan heights. Anything to validate the the actions of the invading Syrian mob. But they would never in a million years discuss why it was occupied.
The evidence of editorial by omission and/or narrative enhancing to an extreme degree seems pretty stark, and surely warrants ‘questions being asked’, as critics are indeed saying and hence need to be made banner headline news. Oh, wrong kind of critics… my bad,
However, this aspect demands even greater attention: ‘The BBC speculates that the recent uprisings in Arab countries have emboldened the Palestinians’
As it is SOP now for every aspect of everything, from the opening of an envelope to the closing of a border, to be ‘analysed’ to death to find out ‘what this might mean’, the time seems appropriate to investigate the MSM (and especially national broadcasters such as the BBC and individuals operating under its banner who confuse opinion for reporting) and its role in no longer covering what happens, but actually shaping it by either passive ineptitude via blundering intrusion, or active inflaming by agenda-driven propaganda.
The BBC seems to have crossed that line.
Maybe an update/addendum to the Balen report… only… this time shared with the public who pay for it?
The BBCs world service last night had the IDF spokesman explaining the trouble on Israel’s Northern Border. The impression given that this was Israel’s version rather than the BBC. Why?
Syrian and Lebanese borders different powers are at play. Assad which has no problem shooting on Syrian protesters, obviously cares nothing about the Palestinian cause. However, Nakba Day is a great excuse to create a diversion – attack Israel and unite the people against Israel. Maybe Syrians will concentrate on fighting Israel and allow Assad to regain control over internal riots.
When so called Palestinians on the Syrian side of border penetrated the border into Israel today, they left the IDF no choice but to defend Israel’s borders. This was not a peaceful demonstration. These were not unarmed citizens. This was a planned attempt to attack Israel with the full consent of Assad’s regime and the Syria army.
Still trying to work out the BBCs wierd and poisonous approach to current affairs-indeed to life in general.
1. Some New Zealander at Newcastle Uni is able to tell us all the answer to a question none of us ever asked( How do tarantulas walk on glass since you ask!)…but no Israeli is asked to tell me why Jeremy Bowen is not a credible source on anything to do with the Middle East. That Patten cited him in dispatches at his BBC “inauguration” needs no further comment.
2. Tracey Emin is sucked up to, Chris Huhne smells of martyr of an angry ex…and the Euro was going so well until this seductive French bloke was cruelly taken out by some maid in NYC! How many issues are there here to take up with them? Actually none-because the BBC mean what they say only at the time that they say it-they`ve lost interest in it all and have to relearn it all again next time it crops up from the editors conference. At least goldfish can do no other-parrots can do what they do without researchers or highlighter pens!
3. In short, a schizophrenic stew of intrigue and fascination, but only until 9a.m when they hop back to their pads in the Blue Peter Garden until tomorrow.
Thank God for sites like this-one Sue or Robin worth ten thousand Beeboids when it comes to news analysis.
‘equating the Palestinians with the BBC’s pet freedom fighting seekers of democracy in the Arab World’
See if this bit of the whizzy new blog system still works:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13408059?postId=108825648#comment_108825648
Seems not.
Try: 10. powermeerkat
3 HOURS AGO
Which is pretty meaningless as they have ‘improved’ even the time stamp.
The BBC:
Palestinians hold funerals for protests’ victims
Not the BBC:
Friends, family remember man killed in suspected Tel Aviv terror attack