The Egyptians started flooding Palestinian border tunnels with sewage last month.
Here’s the link on the BBC:
…………………………………………
Ahhh…it’s not there is it?
Why might that be?:
On twitter, BBC correspondent Jon Donnison is downplaying the importance of the Egyptian actions:
Jon Donnison @JonDonnison
Having further checked out #Gaza #Egypt tunnel flooding story, still think its being overplayed. Tunnels operating pretty much as normal.
https://twitter.com/JonDonnison/stat…41827425435649
Never mind the Palestinians should be pleased then….or maybe not:
One tunnel owner who identified himself as Abu Suliman said only 50 tunnels are functioning, as opposed to about 550 working at full capacity following Israel’s last military operation on Gaza in November 2012.
Some 2,000 men and boys work in the tunnel trade in the Gaza Strip. But over the past three months, more than 80 percent have lost the only work and benefits available in besieged Gaza, which remains stuck in an Israeli blockade.
That occurred after the government of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi ordered the destruction of the underground transportation network. As part of that effort, the military began dumping raw sewage into the passageways.
During Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s time, Amer recalls, soldiers fired tear-gas into the tunnels. Although some friends were killed by the gas, Amer says he fears the sewage water more.
Funny how Donnison is quite unconcerned about the working conditions and treatment of the tunnellers by their Palestinian bosses:
‘Worker abuse is also rampant, with tunnel owners underpaying and overworking the vulnerable labour force. The average excavator works 12 hours a day.
Advocate Hazem Hanyia, of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, conducted a study on the tunnels and found that working conditions do not meet minimum safety standards and violate Palestinian labour laws.
Amer says some tunnel owners create imaginary problems three or four hours into a shift in order to kick workers out and not pay them for a full day’s work.
“We never knew there is something called labour rights in this work,” says Amer. “It feels like an animal farm, and the tunnel owner comes and collects how much he needs, and he would not mind if we die.” ‘
Shame the Israelis didn’t think of the sewage ploy….they could have had a lovely little write up by Donnison…I’m sure he would have obliged.
Health and Safety!
Not a hard hat or high viz jacket….no risk assessment!
Come on BBC…demand that these tunnels are shut down NOW!
If it saves just one wee fella, then I for one will make no apology for this!
550 tunnels!
Palestinians gassed and shat on by Muslim brothers has a nice ring to it.
Blimey! And how the mujaheddun is gonna get his rightly-deserved BMW?
Overplayed? If the Jews had poured a teapot down one a single tunnel, he’d be shrieking from the rooftops about it, scouring Twitter for a photo of a dead baby lying face down in a puddle of Earl Gray. Funny how there’s no major BBC segment on Morsi’s orders. I’m sure this will show up immediately on the BBC’s Arabic and Persian websites. After all, the BBC is the most trusted news source for them, right?
When it first read it here http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=303159&R=R1 i was scanning the MSM for the outcry about the poor Gazans. Not a bleep.
“Disaster strikes privately-owned tunnels – Thatcher blamed”.
Is there going to be a massive Solidarity with the Palestinians and stop the shite demonstration in Lonon this weekend?
The Reason this has not been reported by the biased BBC, might just be a PERSON namely James Purnell, Chairman of Labour friends of Israel 2002 – 2004, James was announced as Director of PROPAGANDA, whoops, double speak failure, —correction, Director of Strategy and Digital at the BBC on Thursday 14 February. He will assume his role on Wednesday 20 March 2013. It can’t be too long before the British Brainwashing Corporation, is disbanded.
Sven, why would a “Friend of Israel” not want something reported about Egypt harming the heroic Palestinians? Please explain your logic.
Somehow I just knew this sven was a drive-by troll and not interested in dealing with the issue.
god knows,,the bbc floods us with anti isreali propaganda on a industrial scale…listen comrades,,,the left wing press and arab street make me puke with there double standards and hypocrisy,,why i say that comrades,,,well…look at the racist anti semetic hamas,,,even nick griffin admires these bunch of 7th century savages who get there arses kicked on a regular basis when there fire rockets into isreali towns and villages..but worst than that comrades,,,the left wing press and arab street treat these islamist hamas savages who throw there opponents who dont agree with them of buildings and drag them through the streets on moterbikes heroes,,that to me is wrong,,,just wrong,,,allah hu akbar !!!!
Here are four reports from respectable and/or mainstream sources which seem to prove that Donnison is covering up reality.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-13/why-the-egyptians-are-flooding-the-tunnels-of-gaza
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/world/middleeast/egypts-floods-smuggling-tunnels-to-gaza-with-sewage.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/18/us-palestinians-tunnels-idUSBRE91H04X20130218
(The BBC usually has no problem regurgitating Reuters reports about the region.)
Even the HuffPo is at it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/gaza-tunnels-flooded_n_2676416.html
Even the extremists and fellow travelers in the anti-war crowd think something happened.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/13/egypt-floods-gaza-tunnels-to-cut-palestinian-lifeline/
These are all a couple weeks old and more, so perhaps Donnison’s “nothing to see here” tweet was in response to many days of questions from his readers. Well, they’ll have to wait in line like the rest of us for the BBC to report certain stories that don’t suit the agenda.