Don’t know about you but I’d drop my phone if I’d been shot and fallen to the ground….especially if I’d been shot not once but three times, apparently.  Having said that her indoors probably would cling on to hers hell or high water.

The BBC has remarkably played it cool with this video which claims to be of a Palestinian out looking for his lost family when he was allegedly shot by an Israeli sniper in the hip…he is then shot twice more…apparently in the chest…which would be most likely if he were to be shot again. However there is no sign of any injury to the chest and the hip injury is conveniently on the other side of the camera, a camera fortuitously on hand, provided by the International Solidarity Movement…otherwise known as Palsolidarity.org…..

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.

Wonder if that ‘commitment to resisting the Israeli occupation’ could include a bit of play acting? Remarkably not only does the man cling on to his phone but he is seen checking it immediately after being shot….and he is still moving after the third shot.

The ISM claims the ‘body’ is still out there in the rubble…After Salem was murdered, the rescue team was unable to recover his body, which like so many others, remains among the rubble….so they obviously didn’t check to see if he was still alive…as he was definitely moving…they just left him.  With no body of course there is conveniently no need to show where the bullets hit…much like the vanished ‘body’ of Muhammed al durah.

As for an Israeli sniper…who says it was?  Where’s the proof?  Where are the wounds and where are the soldiers?  The shots sounded very close…have to be a brave sniper team to be infiltrating a Hamas held area to get that close.

Why shoot someone who is obviously with a film crew from some form of activist group in their hi-viz vests?

I’m sure the poor guy really was shot but with no visible sign of injury, no body, the background of the film makers and the unlikelihood that an Israeli ‘sniper’ would target him so openly the authenticity of this video should be questioned.

Finally if even the BBC is reluctant to go with this there must be a high degree of doubt….not something either the Telegraph, Mail or Mirror seem concerned about as they splash it over their websites.

One up for the BBC then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyNGFJJqpxI

The BBC has often opined that Gaza is destitute and failing, lacking resources to build its infrastructure…indeed it highlights Ban Ki-Moon trying to blame the Israeli blockade for the rocket attacks on Israel:

Mr Ban is due to travel to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meetings with Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

Mr Ban said he appreciated Israel’s right to defend itself, but said restrictions on Gaza should be lifted “so that people should not resort to this kind of violence as a way of expressing their grievances”.

The blockade is of course a response to those very rocket attacks…so Moon’s logic fails me there. Good though that such a deep thinker is at the head of the United Nations in charge of peace negotiations.

The BBC frequently tells us that Gazan civilians have no where to go to take cover when the fighting begins.

But that’s just not true is it?

For a start thousands of Gazans fled to UN controlled safe areas, in agreement with Israel.

Second, instead of investing in the people of Gaza Hamas has been building a large number of tunnels, lined with concrete, some up to one mile long.

They took years to plan and build.

With all those resources Hamas has used to build these tunnels to attack Israel they could have used to build schools, homes or indeed bomb shelters.

The tunnels themselves could be used as shelters if Hamas were so concerned about their civilians.

Or indeed Hamas could just stop bombing Israel and killing Israelis and there would be no need for shelters, no need for a blockade and Palestinians could get on with their lives turning the rat trap of Gaza into a thriving society as Israel has done with its own land even whilst under 65 years of Muslim attacks designed to wipe it off the face of the earth.

The BBC has decided not to report all the words of John Kerry…just the ones that suit its apparent anti-Israel agenda.

John Kerry is the US Secretary of State and is leading the effort to agree a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians.  You might think his words would be worthy of some note by the BBC.  But no. Or rather, not all of them.

He said some important things two days ago in support of Israel but look as I may I cannot find them reported on the BBC website:

After airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza, Kerry backs Israel’s right to defend itself

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Israel “has every right in the world to defend itself” against attacks by Hamas in Gaza.

Kerry said Israel has long endured rocket attacks by Hamas, and no nation “would sit there while rockets are bombarding it.” He said “thousands of rockets” were being fired at Israel. “People can’t live that way.”

Kerry also cited tunnels constructed by Hamas in what he said is “an obvious effort” to try to kidnap Israelis.

He that it is “unacceptable by any standard anywhere in the world” and that Israel must protect its citizens.

In response to a question on ABC’s “This Week,” Kerry dismissed claims that Israel was committing genocide as “rhetoric that we’ve heard many, many times.”

Kerry turned his answer into an excoriation of Hamas and continued, “What they need to do is stop rocketing Israel and accept a ceasefire. It’s very, very clear that they’ve tunneled under Israel. They’ve tried to come out of those tunnels with people with handcuffs and tranquilizer drugs to capture Israeli citizens and hold them for ransom, or worse. They’ve been rocketing Israel with thousands of rockets.

“They’ve been offered a ceasefire, and they’ve refused to take the ceasefire. Even though Egypt and others have called for that ceasefire, they’ve just stubbornly invited further efforts to try to defuse the ability to be able to rocket Israel.”

Kerry placed responsibility for the escalation on Hamas, arguing that “when three young Israeli kids are taken and murdered, and Hamas applauds it and celebrates the fact that they were kidnapped and supported the kidnapping, and then starts rocketing Israel when they’re looking for the people who did it, that’s out of balance by any standard, George. And I think it’s important for people to remember the facts that led to this. Hamas needs to join up, be part of a solution, not the problem.”

The BBC on 5Live has just quoted Kerry saying that Israel has the right to defend itself….but two days later than The Times of Israel reported the same words.

The BBC instead chose to report this:

Gaza crisis: Kerry Israel air strike remarks caught on mic

Kerry said, apparently unaware it was being recorded: “It is a hell of a pinpoint operation. We’ve got to get over there.”

Mr Kerry later told Fox News he “reacted obviously in a way that, you know, anybody does with respect to, you know, young children and civilians.”

More than 500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began 13 days ago, Gaza’s health ministry says.

Twenty Israelis – 18 of them soldiers – have died, Israel says, as it seeks to end rocket fire from Gaza.

Curiously the BBC has gone the other way in reporting the words of the UN’s Ban Ki-Moon, here on the web admitting that he says Israel had the right to defend itself…but then goes on to blame Israeli blockade for the rockets….er…isn’t the blockade in place because of the rockets?:

Mr Ban is due to travel to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meetings with Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

Mr Ban said he appreciated Israel’s right to defend itself, but said restrictions on Gaza should be lifted “so that people should not resort to this kind of violence as a way of expressing their grievances”.

It was a different matter on the radio bulletins where the BBC preferred to report that Ban Ki-Moon had utterly condemned the Israelis….“dozens more civilians, including children, have been killed in Israeli military strikes in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza. I condemn this atrocious action. Israel must exercise maximum restraint and do far more to protect civilians.”

Anyone looking at the way the BBC has reported Kerry’s and Ban Ki-Moon’s words might rightly consider that the BBC has been trying to paint the Israelis in the blackest light possible.

Listening to Lyse Douchet parrot the propaganda lines put forward by Hamas, one can be forgiven for thinking that there are in fact no Hamas terrorists in Gaza and that Israel only ever gives innocent people. When it comes to reporting what goes on in Gaza, the BBC show a level of bias that is so spectacular that it amazes.

Even the BBC cannot really hide the obvious fact that Miliband’s encounter with Obama was …. awkward! Have a read, this made me smile.

Quite remarkable that the BBC can produce this lengthy article on Female Genital Mutilation and never once mention the faith group that practises it with such devotion – ISLAM.

Let’s think…….

Hamburg/Dresden

D-Day

Nagasaki/Hiroshima

Vietnam

Afghanistan

Iraq

Guess we’d know what ‘you’d’ do.

The same as the Israelis when it comes to defeating terror and a merciless and ruthless enemy which seeks to eliminate you……’never again’ is the Israeli response…and who can blame them.

Pounce originally came up with these figures in the comments and I was reminded of them by Is the BBC biased?:

Analysis Of Gazans Killed So Far In Operation Protective Edge

From their figures, and I haven’t looked at the source myself, it looks like the Palestinian casualties are 14% male under fighting age (up to 17), 18% women, 6% male over age (over 60) and the bulk being 61% of male fighting age…up to 60 years old.

So when the BBC reports ‘X’ number of Palestinians have been killed…just how many are in fact Hamas fighters or commanders?

The figures of course are changing as time goes on and more operations take place but the BBC’s blanket use of the simplistic and misleading description ‘Palestinians’ for casualties feeds into the Hamas narrative and is a highly emotive way of wording their reports…note how in contrast the BBC is very careful to emphasise how many Israeli casualties are ‘military’…

Twenty Israelis – 18 of them soldiers – have died, Israel says, as it seeks to end rocket fire on the country.

Over 500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began two weeks ago, Gaza’s health ministry says.

The BBC has absolutely no proof of a casualty’s status…it is relying, as it says, on the Palestinians own figures.  Are they likely to be truthful?  ‘Mainly civilians’.…at present that is pure propaganda but the BBC doesn’t seem to be too bothered about the truth at the moment.

Any civilian casualty is  a terrible thing but the BBC’s pretence that nearly all casualties are civilian when they fail to differentiate between the status of the various victims makes the BBC part of Hamas’ ‘human shield’ ploy….a cynical charade that the BBC turns a blind eye to.

I don’t think there can be any doubt whose side the BBC takes in this war.

Judge for yourselves how much attention BBC journalists have paid to Hamas’ media guidance to its own supporters…whom, if you were of a cynical bent, might say included the BBC, or elements thereof:

Via Harry’s Place/Memri:

The Hamas guide to social media

MEMRI provides some excerpts:

“Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don’t forget to always add ‘innocent civilian’ or ‘innocent citizen’ in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“Begin [your reports of] news of resistance actions with the phrase ‘In response to the cruel Israeli attack,’ and conclude with the phrase ‘This many people have been martyred since Israel launched its aggression against Gaza.’ Be sure to always perpetuate the principle of ‘the role of the occupation is attack, and we in Palestine are fulfilling [the role of] the reaction.’

“Beware of spreading rumors from Israeli spokesmen, particularly those that harm the home front. Be wary regarding accepting the occupation’s version [of events]. You must always cast doubts on this [version], disprove it, and treat it as false.

“Avoid publishing pictures of rockets fired into Israel from [Gaza] city centers. This [would] provide a pretext for attacking residential areas in the Gaza Strip. Do not publish or share photos or video clips showing rocket launching sites or the movement of resistance [forces] in Gaza.

“To the administrators of news pages on Facebook: Do not publish close-ups of masked men with heavy weapons, so that your page will not be shut down [by Facebook] on the claim that you are inciting violence. In your coverage, be sure that you say: ‘The locally manufactured shells fired by the resistance are a natural response to the Israeli occupation that deliberately fires rockets against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza’…”

Additionally, the interior ministry prepared a series of suggestions specifically for Palestinian activists who speak to Westerners via social media. The ministry emphasizes that conversations with them should be conducted differently from conversations with other Arabs. It stated:

• “When speaking to the West, you must use political, rational, and persuasive discourse, and avoid emotional discourse aimed at begging for sympathy. There are elements with a conscience in the world; you must maintain contact with them and activate them for the benefit of Palestine. Their role is to shame the occupation and expose its violations.

• “Avoid entering into a political argument with a Westerner aimed at convincing him that the Holocaust is a lie and deceit; instead, equate it with Israel’s crimes against Palestinian civilians.

• “The narrative of life vs. the narrative of blood: [When speaking] to an Arab friend, start with the number of martyrs. [But when speaking] to a Western friend, start with the number of wounded and dead. Be sure to humanize the Palestinian suffering. Try to paint a picture of the suffering of the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank during the occupation’s operations and its bombings of cities and villages.

• “Do not publish photos of military commanders. Do not mention their names in public, and do not praise their achievements in conversations with foreign friends!”

 

It is surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, easy to tie in BBC reporting with the Hamas version of events:

‘Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine’

Rarely does the BBC provide the figures for actual civilian deaths preferring to say ‘X’ number of Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli attacks began.

‘This many people have been martyred since Israel launched its aggression against Gaza.’

The BBC always limits the casualties to those caused ‘since’ the Israeli counterattack on Gaza began….never mind this is is a 65 year old war.

‘You must always cast doubts on this [Israeli version], disprove it, and treat it as false.’

Well….how often have we heard the BBC interviewer challenge an Israeli spokesman’s explanations?

‘Try to paint a picture of the suffering of the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank during the occupation’s operations and its bombings of cities and villages.’

That’s just constant from the BBC.

‘In your coverage, be sure that you say: ‘The locally manufactured shells fired by the resistance are a natural response to the Israeli occupation that deliberately fires rockets against civilians in the West Bank and Gaza’…”

Oh yes..those famous ‘homemade contraptions’…inaccurate and harmless.

‘There are elements with a conscience in the world; you must maintain contact with them and activate them for the benefit of Palestine. Their role is to shame the occupation and expose its violations.’

The BBC…the world’s ‘conscience’…imposing its own moral values and judgements upon others….taking it upon themselves to ‘shame the occupation and expose its violations.’

Yep….reckon Hamas must be pretty pleased with the BBC’s reporting despite it being so pro-Israeli according to Greg Philo who would seem to be a firm favourite of some at the BBC (h/T  Is the BBC biased?) such as Roger Bolton who lavishes praise upon him:

On Today on Tuesday he was also in challenging mode, alleging that the Beeb’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza was pro-Israel. Many Feedback listeners agree with him, and almost as many disagree.
It was refreshing to hear his views, and I look forward to the publication of his detailed analysis, and that of those who allege the opposite. I also hope voices like his will be heard more regularly. Broadcasters need to be challenged. That’s what Feedback is all about.

‘Now here’s a story for BBC Trending.’

Neither BBC Trending nor any other department has shown any interest whatsoever in the topic of the use of conventional and social media by Hamas for propaganda purposes  – despite the fact that there are numerous recent examples.

That lack of interest appears to have caused the BBC to fail to notice that it has itself been co-opted to Hamas propaganda.

A picture circulated by Hamas purporting to show a teenager in Gaza killed by an Israeli airstrike is in fact a still image from the Hollywood horror film ‘Final Destination 4′, as can be seen in this video below.

Note the caption in Russian inserted by Hamas: it reads “BBC Israel kills Palestinian teens in Gaza”.

Evan Davis, the BBC’s economics goto guy, is in the Newsnight hotseat:

Evan Davis to replace Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight

“Evan is an outstanding journalist,” said BBC director general Tony Hall. “I think he is an extraordinary, clever and intelligent interviewer. He has a wonderful presence on TV and I’ve got no doubt he’ll be a really great presenter of Newsnight,”

Wonder if he will get away with the giggling and smirking interviews on Newsnight as he did on the Today programme in which his sole aim seemed to be to make a fool of the politician, usually Tory, point scoring rather than a sensible interview.

Apparently no one will replace him on the Today prog, surplus to requirements:

His appointment solves a conundrum for the Today programme, which has been widely perceived to have had one too many presenters since Husain’s appointment last year, bringing the total number to six, along with John Humphrys, Justin Webb, James Naughtie and Sarah Montague.

The BBC said Today would continue with a rota of the remaining five presenters.

The BBC is losing some of its audience as well:

The news was revealed on the day the BBC’s annual report was published. It also stated that audiences spent 18.5 hours with the BBC each week.

That is an hour less than 2012/2013. The figure includes radio, TV and online use.

But 96% of UK adults still use the BBC each week.