BBC Ignores Palestinians Killing Israeli Driver

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Yesterday, an Israeli car was fired on by Palestinian terrorists near the city of Hebron, killing the male driver and injuring a woman and one of the children passengers. The story features on the main Mid-East section of Yahoo news from Reuters, but as we've come to expect from the BBC, nothing at all about it on their website.

It's inconceivable that if it had of been a Palestinian woman and child injured by Israelis, the BBC would not immediately be posting an article about it, but when it's Israelis who are the victims the BBC prefers not to show the Palestinians as aggressors.

BBC Watch also has this story, and evidence that the BBC were fully aware of this story, just preferring not to inform their readers about it.

Israeli motorist killed in West Bank shooting: army

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli man was killed in a shooting attack on a civilian car near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, military sources said.

The sources said the man killed in the incident was driving the car and a woman passenger was wounded. Israeli media said several children were also in the vehicle and one was wounded.

A witness to the shooting was quoted by the YNet news site as saying a helmeted gunman with an automatic rifle fired at vehicles on a road near Hebron.

There are several Jewish settlements in the area, including a heavily-guarded enclave situated among Palestinian neighborhoods of the biblical city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, a day after three Jewish families moved back into a building in Hebron at the centre of a lengthy ownership dispute between settlers and Palestinians.

Six years after Israeli security forces removed settlers from the so-called "House of Contention" in Hebron, Israel's Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of their ownership claim, paving their way for the families to take up residence.

Some 500 Israeli families live in the heart of Hebron, which is home to about 250,000 Palestinians. Enmity between the two groups runs high.

About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas which, along with the Gaza Strip, were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Most world powers deem the Jewish settlements illegal and Palestinians fear their presence will deny them a viable state.

Israel, citing historical and biblical links, as well as security concerns, has vowed to keep major settlement blocs under any eventual peace accord with the Palestinians.

[Teddy Bear]

BBC Watch have updated this story with more revelations. (More links available on their webpage)

Route 35 terror attack gets a grand total of 34 words in BBC report

Over twenty-eight hours after the April 14th terror attack on Route 35 in which father of five Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrachi was murdered and his wife and son injured, the BBC finally managed to come up with a brief mention of the incident, buried at the bottom of an article titled “Israelis and Palestinians in bid to extend peace talks” which appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on the night of April 15th.

The article was illustrated using the misleading photograph below (which appeared at the top of the report’s original version and was moved further down about 12 hours after its initial publication, only to be removed completely in an even later version of the report) which reasonable readers would interpret as intending to inform them of some sort of clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians.


The photograph’s equally misleading caption reads:

“Tensions are high in Hebron after an Israeli policeman was killed in the West Bank”

That choice of wording reinforces the mistaken impression already given to BBC audiences by the photograph that the said policeman was killed in the line of duty rather than in a terror attack against him and his family.

In the original article’s final paragraph the BBC managed to come up with the following thirty-four words to describe the incident, with notable use of the politically partial term “occupied West Bank”:

“Israel is also angry at the killing of an off-duty Israeli policeman in the occupied West Bank on Monday on the eve of the Passover Jewish holiday. The officer’s wife and child were wounded.”

The fact that this was a terror attack in which a Palestinian terrorist deliberately targeted random Israelis travelling along a major road is concealed from readers, along with the actual circumstances of the incident - details of which were amply available by the time the BBC got round to composing this report.

“The senior Israeli police officer was killed while driving to Hebron to celebrate Passover with his wife’s family. His pregnant wife, Hadas, was moderately injured in the attack and was transferred to Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment. The couple’s five children spent the holiday with their relatives as planned, and on Monday night were informed by their mother of their father’s death.

Hadas Mizrahi told the Ynet news website that while driving, her husband had seen the terrorist and cried “They’re shooting, they’re shooting, there’s a terrorist.” After her husband was shot, she took the wheel, drove out of sight, and alerted the authorities.

“I covered my blood with a rag,” Hadas, who was shot twice and broke a rib, said. “I saw that Baruch was dead. When the soldiers arrived I told them ‘Bandage me and take the children to the armored vehicle, so that they don’t see their father lying [there] dead.’ “

In the version of the report after amendment some 12 hours later, those thirty-four words became forty-one with the appearance of “a gunman”, an apparent realisation of the inappropriateness of the use of the term “occupied West Bank” by a supposedly impartial news organisation and a misleading new location for the incident which actually took place near the village of Idhna.

“Israel is also angry at the killing of an off-duty Israeli policeman by a gunman in the West Bank on Monday, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover. His wife and child were wounded in the attack outside Hebron.”

In the even later version of the report, that paragraph was changed slightly yet again:

“Tensions were raised on Monday when an off-duty Israeli policeman was killed by a gunman in the West Bank, on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover. His wife and child were wounded in the attack outside Hebron.”

In the report’s first two versions, audiences were not informed of the fact that no condemnation of the attack came from the Palestinian Authority until two days afterwards or of the celebratory announcements issued by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The report’s later version promotes the statement made in condemnation of the attack by the PA Minister for religious affairs, but fails to inform audiences that the same minister praised convicted terrorists just two weeks previously.talks art w attack

Additionally, the article continues to mislead BBC audiences with regard to the current impasse in the talks between Israel and the PLO, with the original version having stated:

“The talks hit a major crisis this month when both sides took what Washington called “unhelpful steps”.

The Palestinians launched moves to join 15 UN treaties and bodies, while Israel refused to release a tranche of Palestinian prisoners and unveiled plans for more settler homes in east Jerusalem.”

In the later version those paragraphs were altered to read as follows:

“The direct talks, which resumed last July, appeared on the verge of collapse earlier this month when both sides took what the US called “unhelpful steps”.

The Palestinians submitted applications to join 15 UN treaties and conventions, while Israel refused to release a fourth group of 26 long-term Palestinian prisoners and reissued tenders for more than 700 new homes at a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.”

Whilst in fact there is no clause in the agreement which was the precursor to this round of talks which limits Israeli construction of what it chooses to term “settler homes” (thereby pinning clearly political colours to its supposedly impartial mast), the BBC continues – as has been the case in its last two reports on the subject – to imply to audiences that the reissuing of building tenders first publicized six months ago for housing in a Jerusalem neighbourhood which, according to any realistic scenario will remain under Israeli control in any final status agreement, was somehow a contributing straw to the breaking of the camel’s back.

Notably too, Israel is inaccurately described as having “refused” to release the fourth and final tranche of Palestinian prisoners whereas in fact the release was actually delayed until the PA made its unilateral bid to join UN agencies: a move which was in breach of the agreement from last July which kick-started the current round of negotiations.

The organization which cynically claims to aspire to “remain the standard-setter for international journalism” continues to lower the bar in order to reduce those ‘standards’ to the deliberate misleading of audiences and the whitewashing of Palestinian terrorism. Hence, it is worth reminding ourselves of the wording of the opening sentence of the BBC’s own guidelines on the subject of reporting terrorism:

“We must report acts of terror quickly, accurately, fully and responsibly.”

None of those four conditions was met in the BBC’s reporting of the Route 35 terror attack.

[Teddy Bear]

Another update from BBC Watch about the way the BBC are completely misrepresenting the gravity of this terrorist attack by Palestinians.
One thing that isn't also included in the latest BBC Watch report is the headline the BBC use on their MidEast webpage where the only mention of this murder is mentioned, which is: Mid-East peace talks meeting delayed, so clearly trying to avoid mention of this attack. The actual headline on the article itself is Middle East peace talks meeting postponed after killing, which again avoids stating by whom and of whom. It's inconceivable that if it was Palestinians that would have been killed by Israel that there wouldn't be a dedicated article to this effect, and stated quite clearly in the headline.

More changes to BBC website article on Route 35 terror attack

Since the appearance of our post yesterday evening regarding the BBC’s treatment of the terror attack on April 14th in which Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrachi was killed and his wife and son injured as they travelled to a family holiday meal, the BBC’s report on the subject has undergone further changes, including a new title.later vers route 35 attack art

The report now appears on the Middle East page of the BBC News website under the title “Middle East peace talks meeting postponed after killing” and readers can view all the changes which have been made to the report since its initial publication at around 22:35 GMT/UCT on April 15th (approximately 28 hours after the terror attack took place) here.

In the original version of the report a mere thirty-four words were used to inform BBC audiences about the terror attack on the family and the victim remained unnamed in the first two versions of the article – despite that information having been available since the late evening of April 15th. In the report’s latest version, the attack is described as follows in non-consecutive paragraphs appearing throughout the piece.

“A meeting between Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators has been postponed in the wake of a killing of an Israeli in the West Bank. […]

Israeli officials declined to give a reason, but the shooting of an off-duty policeman on Monday has caused outrage. […]

The official declined to explain the decision, but said Monday’s killing of Baruch Mizrahi, a high-ranking officer in Israeli police intelligence, had been the “direct result of ongoing incitement and glorification of terrorism that we see in the official Palestinian media and education system”. […]

Israeli security forces are still hunting for the gunman who opened fire on Mr Mizrahi’s car outside Hebron. His wife and child were also wounded.”

In other words, the BBC has still not adequately clarified to its audiences the fact that this was a terror attack, with the only reference to terrorism coming in the form of a quotation from an unidentified Israeli official. Once again, no mention is made of the praise for the attack issued by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Additionally, the report’s latest version continues to promote to BBC audiences the misleading notion of six-month-old building tenders as a reason for the collapse of negotiations and introduces the subject of the deduction of debt payments from tax transfers, but again without fully clarifying the issue to readers.