Rod Liddle hits the nail squarely on the head in his latest Spectator blog-post:
A fairly typically partisan report on the Israel and Palestine crisis last night on the BBC ten O Clock News. The focus was entirely on the killed or injured Palestinians, referred to exclusively as ‘civilians’; the point was made, at the top of the report, that Hamas had killed nobody. Yes, but only because Hamas is utterly useless: it clearly WANTS to kill lots of people, which is why, on a daily basis, it bungs over the rockets – indiscriminately – in an attempt to do so. The rockets which precipitated this crisis. We are enjoined to have sympathy for the Palestinians and treat the Israelis with odium because the former are murderous and incompetent and the latter murderous and adept. It is an infantile sensibility.
That "partisan report" on last night's BBC Ten O'Clock News was by Jeremy Bowen. It was another report that mixed copious heart-rending with blood-splattered footage but forgot all about background and context, all delivered in a tone of finger-wagging, finger-pointing moral disapproval of Israel.
I criticised Jeremy al-Bowen's coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, so he blocked me on Twitter, It woukd seem that al-Bowen doesn't like criticism. Lyse Doucet, however, seems more prepared to enter into debate but I wonder for how long as she realises that I am a persistant Goat and will get to the truth.
ReplyDeleteI've tweeted Jon Donnison asking him to read and re-tweet the 'Spiked' article Sue writes about above. Bowen should join him in Sydney, pronto.
DeleteLyse Doucet passes on a clip of the word ‘on the street’ in Jabaliya refugee camp. She asks people what they think are the chances of a ceasefire. (Hudna) A pleasant looking stall-holder (veg) opines. The translator translates.
Delete“No, it won’t work because we want our conditions to be imposed on the Israelis. Not them imposing their conditions on us. We are the ones that want conditions on ceasefire. We want the borders to be opened, we want the release of the prisoners they’ve been arresting for years because this situation is not working.”
An elderly grampa says: “Where is the ceasefire? They are already bombing us. I am 77 years old and I have never witnessed anything like this. (..) Tanks and warplanes. Palestinians and Arabs don’t have such tanks and warplanes. We have a poor people who have no ....(?)”
A black-clad lady issues these defiant words of wisdom: “A ceasefire doesn’t come without a price. We can’t keep sacrificing our children, our women, our elderly. We want to be lions and stand firm. Not our blood to be spilt in vain, we will keep resisting until the last boy in Palestine.”
To be fair Lyse Doucet did say this morning that neither Hamas nor Israel were included in the ceasefire negotiations. She said they both heard of them via the press. Other reporters only defend Hamas’s rejection of the ceasefire proposal by repeating Hamas’s complaint that they weren’t consulted.
However she went on to recount Hamas’s conditions for accepting a ceasefire along the lines in the above clip (unchallenged) and her tone of voice hinted that she thought they were justified.