OK, here you go, a new UN approved Open Thread. (Just kidding, I would need it to be a Jew free thread for that to be the case) Off you go…

Sorry there’s no sex….but lies and videotape there’s aplenty of.

The probable Pallywood video we looked at earlier has been going viral, not just on the internet but on mainstream news..in the papers and apparently on C4.

The BBC has ignored the video completely, commendably not reporting it as genuine, but incredibly, in light of its massive presence on the web and in the MSM, they have ignored the fact that the Palestinians have almost certainly created another Pallywood masterpiece that has become fact.

The Independent, despite being seemingly pretty anti-Israeli also doesn’t report the story…but does question its authenticity on a page that looks at social media about Gaza:

Trying to separate fact from fiction on social media in Israel-Gaza

Claim 1: A volunteer aid worker was killed by an Israeli sniper

The video has been widely covered but has still not been independently verified.

Not so ‘widely covered’ that the BBC even deign to examine its authenticity.

It’s not as if the BBC isn’t interested in what is ‘trending’…they after all have a dedicated site to monitor what’s ‘hot’:

But no mention on there.

The BBC have looked a few times at the propaganda war over Gaza:

#BBCtrending: Are #GazaUnderAttack images accurate?

Hamas and Israel step up cyber battle for hearts and minds

But no mention of this video.  Could it be that the ‘fisking’ of this video would be so embarrassing to the Palestinians, and cast so much doubt on their other claims about casualties, that the BBC has decided not to bring it or the fact that it is likely a fake, to its audience’s attention?

Never mind…here’s what the BBC think is important…still no sex..but it is funny:

The BBC splash this:

Gaza conflict: Abbas backs Hamas ceasefire demands

But has the BBC reported this?…I don’t think so:

In an interview on 11 July with Al Mayadeen satellite channel, the PA President Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of being “merchants of war” and called on them to accept the Egyptian ceasefire initiative and proceed with political negotiations later. 

Five days later, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, director-general of the PA presidency and member of the Fatah Central Council, commented on Hamas’ rejection of the Egyptian proposal. He accused Hamas of serving regional agendas and “sacrificing Palestinian blood in the service of a global Muslim Brotherhood plot.”

Riyad al-Maliki, the PA’s foreign minister, has also reportedly said in a conversation with Frans Timmermams, the Dutch foreign minister, that the current escalation in Gaza only serves Hamas’s political interests.

PA officials are echoing the Israeli government’s narrative, putting the blame on Hamas for the high loss of civilian life in Gaza and ignoring the reality imposed on the Strip.

The BBC has gone frontpage with the UN’s suggestion that Israel ‘may have committed war crimes’:

UN’s Navi Pillay warns of Israel Gaza ‘war crimes’

Curiously no mention of the UN’s own war crime on the BBC….the hiding of Hamas weapons in one of their schools…for the second time…at least:

For second time, rockets found at UN school in Gaza

Also where are all those tunnel entrances used to launch attacks on Israel been hidden?

To hide the tunnel work from Israeli intelligence, the entrances are mostly located on the bottom floor of houses, mosques, schools or other public buildings.

Clearly that wasn’t a revelation from any of the BBC’s journalists who don’t dwell on such truths:

Dr Eado Hecht is an independent defence analyst and lecturer in military doctrine at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University.

The UN of course has a great record when accusing Israel of ‘possible war crimes’:
Goldstone: Israel didn’t target civilians
By JPOST.COM STAFF
04/02/2011 12:38

Richard Goldstone writes that Israeli investigations refute allegations against it; slams Hamas war crimes, calls UNHRC “skewed against Israel”; “Israel has right, obligation to defend itself, its citizens.”

Judge Richard Goldstone said that if Israel had cooperated with his UN-sanctioned fact-finding mission into Operation Cast Lead and if he had known then what he knows today, “the Goldstone Report would have been a different document,” especially its allegations of “possible war crimes” directed at Israel.

Goldstone also slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report, saying that the original mandate given to him was “skewed against Israel.”

“I have always been clear that Israel, like any other sovereign nation, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens against attacks from abroad and within,” he wrote.

Saying that he changed the original mandate handed to him in order to investigate Hamas as well as Israel, he noted, “something that has not been recognized often enough is the fact that our report marked the first time illegal acts of terrorism from Hamas were being investigated and condemned by the United Nations.” He added that he had hoped his inquiry would usher in an era of even-handedness in the UNHRC, whose bias against Israel “cannot be doubted.”

Seems not.

The BBC grudgingly admit that Goldstone exonerated Israel when more evidence came to light but only right at the bottom of their article, the very, very last sentence:

The Goldstone report was rejected by Israel and the US as biased and flawed.

In 2011, the report’s author, South African judge Richard Goldstone, said that new accounts indicated Israel had not deliberately targeted civilians.

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.

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.