BBC slams “racist” Jewish settlers on West Bank while continuing to censor Arab and Palestinian anti-Semitism
Coming hard on the heels of this week’s appalling Panorama documentary on Jerusalem (see last post but one), the BBC is now giving major prominence to a story about the alleged desecration of a Palestinian cemetery in the West Bank by a group of racist Jewish pilgrims.
The story stands in sharp and striking contrast with the policy of de facto censorship operated by the BBC on almost all instances of the deep-seated anti-Semitism that is a central feature of the political culture in the Palestinian territories, in Arab countries and in the wider Muslim world.
The incident in question is said to have taken place in the northern West Bank village of Awarta after a group of Jewish pilgrims were taken to nearby Jewish tombs by a settler group. Opening the piece on its website, the BBC, which is the world’s most powerful English language media outlet, said:
“Damaged graves and racist graffiti have been found in the Palestinian village of Awarta in the northern West Bank after a Jewish group visited the area.”
Now, from a journalistic point of view this is certainly a reasonable story to cover since it follows the arrest of 10 Israeli settlers earlier this week in connection with the arson attack on a mosque in the village of Yasuf in December, and the threats by some maverick settlers to respond to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s settlement freeze with attacks on Palestinians.
But in the context referred to above of a complete whitewash of Palestinian anti-Semitism the piece provides stark illustration of the insidious bias, by both commission and omission, that leaves the BBC’s audience with only one conclusion to draw about where our sympathies should lie in the wider conflict.
The agenda here is very clear: all illustrations of extremism among settlers are painted on as broad a canvas as possible; all instances of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim extremism and bigotry are brushed over or ignored.
I have remarked many times that the BBC continues to run a profile of Hamas which excludes all reference to the group’s Holocaust denial and its Protocols of Zion style anti-Semitism. Despite vast amounts of evidence of the daily assault on the Jewish people from “moderate” Palestinian leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas, who wrote a doctorate denying the extent of the Holocaust, that too is censored out of the reporting. In my recent book, A State Beyond the Pale (link below), I also provide polling evidence showing that negative sentiment about Jews even in “friendly” Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan runs at 97 and 98 percent respectively. Again, such realities are simply not referred to.
Without being aware of such a fundamental issue it is simply impossible to understand the Israeli point of view, which is presumably why the BBC is so adamant that it will not report on it.
To read the article in full, click here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8472193.stm
For my book, click here:
Tags: Israel
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
A minor incident of hooliganism, that if it happened in this country would probably go unreported by the MSM, yet because the implication is that Israelis were responsible the BBC is happy to not only report it, but put it on the main Middle East headline news page.
The Daily Mail felt this story was worthy of covering Saudi girl, 13, sentenced to 90 lashes after she took a mobile phone to school, but of course you won’t find any mention of it on the BBC. When it comes to militant or extreme Islam, much goes unreported by them, as can easily be confirmed by going to Jihad Watch.
This clearly shows the blatant and insidious bias of this weasel cowardly corrupt corporation
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I think that this sort of blatant bias must come from a BBC that has amongst its news staff people from cultures that are not compatible with the normal British sense of balance.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
The BBC has been regularly pumping out this kind of malicious agitprop about Israel since before the Six Day War in 1967. This period of near-monopoly is sufficiently long to inculcate two generations with anti-Israel sentiments. But the BBC’s problem is that we now have the internet and blogs like yours, Robin, breaking the mainsteam media’s control on the widespread dissemination of information.
Inquiring minds can now freely learn of the BBC’s perfidy in its broadcasts on Israel. The internet has shown this tearcherous bias to the world and especially the Americans, whose views matter in the peace process in a way that Britons’ views increasingly do not. Thus, one only has to read your incisive blog or Tom Gross’s middle east dispatch archive to see the BBC’s propagandising dismissed for what it is.
Egyptian Copts have just demonstrated in the streets against the BBC’s biased coverage of the murders of their co-religionists outside Church. Unfortunate licence fee payers like me can now make our views of this coerced television tax known to our Members of Parliament and felt by Jonathan Ross among others, by demanding the repeal of the BBC charter. Moreover, the internet is the tool with which to do it.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:15 am
The BBC stinks. Is it not time to ask whether this organization is now pumping out blatant antisemitism?
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:29 am
This is about the level of reporting that I’ve come to expect from the DBC (Dhimmi Broadcasting Corporation). As J Isaacs says, their anti-Israeli bias goes back for decades. I’ve noticed it myself as far back as the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
The sad thing is that the beeb used to have a reputation for telling the truth. Whatever happened to that organisation?
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Turns out there was no Hebrew writing on the gravestones, and B’tselem admitted the photos used in the media were “misleading”. Did the BBC report this followup?
Everyone please email the BBC these links and ask them to report the updated story.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/179089?
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135650?
January 24th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Pamela said: The sad thing is that the beeb used to have a reputation for telling the truth. Whatever happened to that organisation?
It is sad. The only thing that I can trust them with now are some documentaries about nature and even then, I wonder if there is some subtle agenda that they are pushing there trying to manipulate me.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Teddy Bear/Khartoumi, you SEEM to be a reformed character but many of us are not fooled.
January 24th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Robin, the bloggers here, and other British critics of the BBC’s Middle East coverage perform a valuable service. The BBC still enjoys considerable prestige abroad, well-deserved for its cultural exports. But, unfortunately, here in New York, anglophiles may get all their Middle East news and views from the Beeb (yes, we can see BBC World on public TV), the Economist, and the Financial Times. Of the major American pro-Israel organizations, only Camera.Org is paying serious attention to the BBC’s game.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:15 am
Thank you for your support of Israel. The level of hypocricy and outright hatred for Israel in Britain is frightening. Thank you for confronting that with truth and facts.