No BBC Mention of Greece Banning Flotilla Sailing

[Teddy Bear]

According to an Associated Press article in Turkey yesterday, the Greek government has banned the Gaza 'aid' flotilla from sailing. This shows that this government really views the real purpose for this flotilla to be a lot more sinister than most of the left wing media, led by the BBC want you to believe, and as is already known by the intelligent world.

For this reason the BBC fails to mention this story, and on their main Mid-East webpage still carries a 2 day old story on the flotilla that blames Israel for sabotaging one of their ships, and still refers to it as an 'aid convoy'.

Lest there be any doubt, this is not just a left wing mindset influencing views, but pure conscious deception.

[Teddy Bear]

Funny how SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW the BBC can be getting reporting certain stories when the events confute the narrative they want to portray, or for the same reason, continuing to run a story long after it's sell by date.

Like for example the recent one about an Israeli court sentencing a dog to be stoned to death. While this story originated in Israeli newspapers, by the time the BBC got a hold of it and put it on their website it had already been retracted because it was found to be untrue. Still the BBC ran it for some days before making any amendment, and it was their most 'widely read' story at the time. Even their 'amendment' made it appear that the Israelis were only claiming the story was untrue, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, when in fact it was completely bogus. While the original article has disappeared the latter still remains Jerusalem court denies dog condemned to stoning, with a link contained in it to a BBC editors apology.

You may have noticed a headline in our "most popular" module about a dog being condemned to stoning in Israel. It was followed a few days later by a denial: Jerusalem court denies dog condemned by stoning. The first story has now been taken down. This is not a step we often take so I wanted to explain why we have done so on this occasion. We based our article on sources we have used in the past: Ynet, a popular Israeli website, and the news agency AFP. What we did not know when we wrote the story was that the Israeli Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv had already published a retraction and an apology. We failed to make the right checks. We should never have written the article and apologise for any offence caused. We have kept the story carrying the denial in the interests of transparency.
Honest Reporting has more details of this and the pressure that was needed to get the BBC to issue this 'apology'.

Yesterday I showed that the BBC has yet to report about the Greek government banning the 'flotilla planning to take humanitarian aid to Gaza', as the BBC like to refer to it - (Although they don't tell you about this

Bound for Gaza with a cargo of propaganda

We must all get ready for another season of ignorant attacks on Israel as a new fleet of alleged relief ships heads for Gaza. It is not relief. It is propaganda. How do I know? Last September I visited Gaza, with some trepidation.

I found plenty of misery there, though it is clear that much of this is maintained for propaganda reasons and could easily be put right by the rich Arab world if it wanted to. But I also found many things that the propaganda reports do not mention – including a shopping mall, beach parties and luxury restaurants.

I inspected the enormous tunnels through which large quantities of goods, including cattle and building materials, are smuggled from Egypt. There is also, in this so-called prison camp, quite a lot of open space, much of which I am glad to say is now being used for the cultivation of food.

Those who doubt my word are urged to read a series of reports in the Left-wing New York Times, which last week reported the opening in Gaza City of a second shopping mall and two luxury hotels.

Today they had no choice but to report it when a captain of one of the vessels was arrested for trying to leave port without permission.

In case we don't feel sorry for this captain we are told A spokeswoman for the boat, Jane Hirschmann, told the Associated Press that the conditions of Mr Klusmire's detention were "terrible".

"There is no bed. He is sitting on a bench," she added.

How terrible!

The BBC manage to get 3 stories related to Palestinians in their top 8 on their Mid-East webpage. When you consider the major unrest going on elsewhere in the region, like the one below, with people suffering far more than having to sit on a bench, it's astonishing really - or would be if it wasn't the BBC.

Syria: Tanks and troops 'deployed in restive Hama'

Syrian tanks and troops are being deployed in the restive city of Hama after the sacking of its governor, reports say.

Troops are said to be taking up positions at key entrances to Hama, and in the city centre.

There are reports of gunfire and mass arrests taking place.

On Friday the city saw some of the biggest demonstrations yet against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

A day later, Mr Assad sacked the governor of Hama, Ahmad Khaled Abdel Aziz.

Activists say more than 1,350 civilians and 350 security personnel have been killed across Syria since protests began in mid-March.

That's without telling you that most of the 350 security personnel killed were by Assad's forces firing on them when they refused to fire on unarmed civilians.

The BBC thinks you're far better off knowing about
Palestinian Authority faces budget crisis One ironical twist to this story is that apparently Foreign donations account for just over a quarter of the total Palestinian budget of $3.7bn. Which coincides precisely with the amount the BBC gets every year from the licence fee. Makes me think that perhaps if the BBC gets too depressed about 'poor Palestinians' they can turn over their incomings to them.

The other IMPORTANT story going on in the Mid-East is this
Palestinians play first World Cup qualifier at home

Joy of Joys - and Jon Donnison can't resist putting into this 'human interest' story that
A message'
"Palestinian blood, Palestinian flesh, the Palestinian national anthem on Palestinian territory. It's good. It makes me feel proud," said Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian football federation.

"It sends a message to the outside world that we are here, that we exist," said Luai, one fan surrounded by a sea of Palestinian flags.

In the past it has been difficult for some Palestinian players living in Gaza to play because they have often been refused Israeli permission to travel for what Israel sees as security reasons.

But for this match almost all the team were available to play.

One of the Palestinian players had never set foot in the West Bank until this weekend.

Palestinian politicians have heralded this first World Cup match being played on home soil as a sign of how much security has improved in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was among the crowd.

Mr Fayyad sees the national team as another Palestinian institution and a step, albeit a small one, towards Palestinian statehood.

Barcelona fans
The match was played in the Faisal al-Husseini stadium, only a matter of metres from the thick concrete wall that makes up Israel's separation barrier in this part of the occupied West Bank.

Like most places in the world, Palestinians love football. Spanish football is especially popular with the bars and cafes of Ramallah packed out every time Barcelona or Real Madrid play.

Barcelona are by far the most popular team here and the stadium was dotted with the shirts of the Spanish champions.

One fan here told me that Palestinians and Catalans share the same spirit of resistance against a greater power.

Truly amazing how much 'evil Israel' vs the 'proud freedom fighting' Palestinian' propaganda one can get into a story such as this but Donnison manages it with ease.

It hasn't occurred to him that if the Palestinians would have chosen peace with Israel instead of terror attacks they would have been playing football in their own stadiums a long long time ago, and wouldn't need vast handouts from the rest of the world to exist.

He likes his version much better.

One fan here told me that Palestinians and Catalans share the same spirit of resistance against a greater power

What CRAP!

[Teddy Bear]

It is not often that I use articles from the Guardian here, mostly because they often match those of the BBC themselves. But yesterday there was one concerning another of the flotilla vessels being prevented from leaving a Greek port for Gaza, that EVEN the Guardian runs, but the BBC prefers to ignore completely.
Greek coastguard forces Gaza 'freedom flotilla' vessel back to port

Canadian ship Tahrir part of international attempt to break Israeli blockade of Palestinian territory


Not even today is there any mention of it.

Both Greece and Turkey have banned this flotilla from sailing, only the BBC want you to believe that it's purpose is really to bring aid to Gaza and not create another international incident.

[Teddy Bear]

Funny how the story of the captain being arrested ended up being the most popular read story on that particular day. I'm sure the BBC would have preferred it to have simply disappeared.

[Teddy Bear]

Excellent article by Christopher Hitchens on the flotilla. While not about the BBC, it gives a good understanding of those involved in it to judge just how biased reports are from the BBC.

Boat People
Some questions for the "activists" aboard the Gaza flotilla.
By Christopher Hitchens

The tale of the Gaza "flotilla" seems set to become a regular summer feature, bobbing along happily on the inside pages with an occasional update. A nice sidebar for reporters covering the Greek debt crisis: a built-in mild tension of "will they, won't they?"; a cast of not very colorful characters but one we almost begin to feel we know personally. Such cheery and breezy slogans—"the audacity of hope" and "free Gaza"—and such an easy storyline that it practically writes itself. Since Israel adopts a posture that almost guarantees a reaction of some sort in the not-too-distant future, and since there was such a frisson of violence the last time the little fleet set sail, there's no reason for it not to become a regular seasonal favorite.

However, given the luxury of time, might it not be possible to ask the "activists" onboard just a few questions? (Activist is a good neutral word, isn't it, with largely positive connotations? Even flotilla, with its reassuring diminuendo, has a "small is beautiful" sound to it.) Most of the speculation so far has been to do with methods and intentions, allowing for many avowals about peaceful tactics and so forth, but this is soft-centered coverage. I would like to know a little more about the political ambitions and implications of the enterprise.

It seems safe and fair to say that the flotilla and its leadership work in reasonably close harmony with Hamas, which constitutes the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The political leadership of this organization is headquartered mainly in Gaza itself. But its military coordination is run out of Damascus, where the regime of Bashar Assad is currently at war with increasingly large sections of the long-oppressed Syrian population. Refugee camps, some with urgent humanitarian requirements, are making their appearance on the border between Syria and Turkey (the government of the latter being somewhat sympathetic to the purposes of the flotilla). In these circumstances, isn't it legitimate to strike up a conversation with the "activists" and ask them where they come out on the uprising against hereditary Baathism in Syria?
Advertisement

Then again, Syria's other proxy party in the region is Hezbollah, which operates a state-within-a-state and maintains a private army on the territory of Lebanon. Senior associates of this group have recently been named in a U.N. indictment concerning the broad-daylight murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Hezbollah's leadership and propaganda organs, while refusing all cooperation with the United Nations, are currently expressing undying solidarity with the Assad regime, which relies additionally on heavy support from the dictatorship in Iran. Again, the Hamas leadership seems compromised at best by its association with this local Tehran-Damascus axis. Surely there must be some spokesman for the blockade-runners who is able to give us his thinking on this question, too? At a time of widespread democratic and pluralist revolution in the region, Hamas imposes its own version of theocracy on Gaza and seems otherwise aligned with the forces that stand athwart the hope of continued and deeper change. Who wants to volunteer time to make this outfit look more presentable? Half the published articles on Gaza contain a standard reference to its resemblance to a vast open-air prison (and when I last saw it under Israeli occupation, it certainly did deserve this metaphor). The problem is that, given its ideology and its allies, Hamas qualifies rather too well in the capacity of guard.

Only a few weeks ago, the Hamas regime in Gaza became the only governing authority in the world—by my count—to express outrage and sympathy at the death of Osama Bin Laden. As the wavelets lap in the Greek harbors, and the sunshine beats down, doesn't any journalist want to know whether the "activists" have discussed this element in their partners' world outlook? Does Alice Walker seriously have no comment?

Hamas is listed by various governments and international organizations as a terrorist group. I don't mind conceding that that particular word has been used in arbitrary ways in the past. But what concerns me much more is the official programmatic adoption, by Hamas, of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This disgusting fabrication is a key foundational document of 20th-century racism and totalitarianism, indelibly linked to the Hitler regime in theory and practice. It seems extraordinary to me that any "activist" claiming allegiance to human rights could cooperate at any level with the propagation of such evil material. But I have never seen any of them invited to comment on this matter, either.

The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a "warrant for genocide" forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test. I wonder whether any reporter on the scene will now take me up on this.