This is worth a little thought;
“Asher Palmer, and hisone year old son…you may have heard of them but not from the BBC. They were killed over a week ago by Palestinians and like the slaughtered Fogelfamily these murders went unreported by the BBC.
The BBC did however report the burning of a piece of carpet in a Mosque andused that story to denounce Jewish settlers….
“The words “Revenge”, “Price Tag” and “Palmer”were reported to have been written in Hebrew on the mosque walls. “Price Tag” attacks, carried out against any policy to reduce thepresence of Jewish settlers and settlements on occupied Palestinian land in theWest Bank and East Jerusalem, have increased in recent months.’
Only in this story did the BBC deign to mention the Palmers.
The BBC are also rather coy about the background to ‘pricetag’ attacks…..
Even the New York Times is more honest:
‘The attack followed a series of similarassaults on mosques in the West Bank by arsonists suspected of being radicalsettlers as part of a campaign known as “price tag,” which seeks to exact aprice from local Palestinians for violence against settlers or from Israelisecurity forces for taking action against illegal construction in Jewishoutposts in the West Bank.’
The BBC does not want you to think the Palestinians are violent in any way.
Note also the phrase ‘settlements on occupied Palestinian land’…..much of the’settled’ land is in fact bought and paid for by Jews from Palestinians. Theexact political status of the land is not clear at all….there is no suchplace as a state of Palestine…..and therefore ‘Palestine’ cannot beoccupied…certainly not illegally….Israel occupied the land after the 1967war and is mandated by UN law to administer it quite legally.”
The BBC cannot resist adopting the vocabulary of the Palestinians. It is so effortless, so natural for them.
Most of that article is in fact about the mosque arson attack and “illegal” Jewish settlers and their price tag policy rather than about the murder of Palmer and his child.
As I commented on the Lyse Douchet thread the BBC are silent on this:
Arabs Desecrate Tomb of Joseph – Again
Here’s the BBC report on the arrest of the Palmers’ murderers:
Israel arrests Palestinian suspects in settler deaths
How much of it is actually about the murder and the murderers and how much about Israeli settlements and attacks on mosques?
Someone correct me if I’m going down the wrong path here, but it strikes me that the BBC’s output concerning Israel is illegal. Specifically, does not it not count as inciting racial hatred, i.e. hatred of Israelis?
Given the number of people charged with this crime just for sporting a George cross flag “in the wrong way”, would it not be a no-brainer to charge the BBC with inciting racial hatred?
Sadly, being a big corporation I feel that have some kind of sway that lets them get away with the illegal. Certainly I doubt the authorities by themselves would want to tackle it.
Any one got millions of pounds to mount a court case?
— Richard
Somebody contacted me earlier this year from Scotland that they were pursuing legal advice about the possibilty of stopping to pay the licence fee on the basis that the BBC was supporting terrorist groups.
Still waiting for any definitive answer, but certainly an avenue to consider.
Yes, it does incite racial hatred at times. At the very least the combination of the demonization of Israel and the occasional hand-wringing over the Jewish Lobby does fan the flames of anti-Jewish sentiment.
Presumably any BBC journalists operating in Israel will have noticed that all traffic has ceased moving, shops and cafes closed, and the cities and towns are eerily quiet except for people walking around as Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, is observed today.
Perhaps these journalists are meditating in their hotel rooms on this is what it would feel like all the time if there were no Jews or Israelis in the region. Must have slipped their mind to mention this day on the website, though I imagine it will get one if Palestinians launch any kind of attack between now and tomorrow evening – especially against ‘evil’ settlers.
Funny how I don’t recall any incident when a Palestinian child was killed by Israelis that it didn’t figure into the headline. Seems a one year old Israeli infant is simply – a settler.
No magazine feature on how Jews celebrate the holiday around the world? No clip of a cellist playing Kol Nidre or anything? I guess the Jews need to start thinking about slaughtering goats again. That got other holidays in the news.
That still beats the other one about using a Christian child’s blood to make their matzot.
It somehow reminds me of the story where Monica Lewinsky mentioned to her college room mate, Kathleen O’Malley, that she would be going home for Rosh Hashanah.
Kathleen asked “Is that the holiday when you light the candles?”
Monica answered “No, That’s Hannukah.”
“Oh” responds Kathleen,”is it the one where you eat un-leavened bread?”
“No, that’s Passover. Rosh Hashanah is the holiday when we blow the Shofar!”
“Jeez” said Kathleen “You Jews are really nice to your servants”
Teddy,
Great joke !!!! Love it !
Teddy, PS makes a change from blowing a President !
Just noticed an interesting inclusion on the BBC Arabic version of this story, as compared to the English.
I’m sure we’re all used to the BBC statement that goes into every article related to Israel and the West Bank wherein:
The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.Their presence is a major obstacle to peace talks as the Palestinians insist Israel freeze settlement building before renewing negotiations.
In the Arabic version however – as translated by Google, the BBC goes on to elaborate a bit further:
…committed by militants believed to be the Jews against the Palestinians in an attempt to dissuade the Israeli government for closure of West Bank settlements.
And those settlements are illegal in the eyes of international law, but Israel disputes this claiming it expands naturally in the housing projects to meet the increase in the number of its citizens.
The presence of settlements a thorny obstacle to the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who insist on the cessation of settlement activity before the resumption of negotiation
Now they might have gone to also say that Israel, in the absence of any compromises for peace by the Palestinians to achieve a final border status, doesn’t see why it has to recognise one following the capture of territory in a defensive war.
But then, that’s too close to the truth for the BBC. Best leave the British public in the bliss that is ignorance.
What’s the deal with that first part about “committed by militants believe to be the Jews”. Is the BBC passing on Arab conspiracy theories that Jews actually did it? Someone tell me what I’ve missed here.
Good point.
Sounds like the way they report on Islamic militants committing atrocities, when they know they did it, but not confirming it only to create the impression that the BBC wants to be ‘legally fair’. By doing the same with these settlers, even though there’s no dispute that it’s them, they BBC are almost equating their acts with those of the Islamics in the mind of the reader.
It would be fine if all the Islamics did was a bit of arson on an empty building, and paint on the sides of mosques – but as we know, beeboids are not renowned for independent thought – unless it’s done by the newspaper of that name 😉