The claims of BBC pro-Israel bias being made by pro-Palestinian activists, their far-left supporters and some Radio 4 listeners beggar belief. Anyone listening to the daily news bulletins on Radio 4 who believes that the BBC is displaying an overall pro-Israel bias is severely mistaken (at best).
This, of course, is complete nonsense.
Here's an updated list of all the interviewees featured on Newsnight and on all of Radio 4's main current affairs programmes since the discovery of the murdered Israeli teens back at the end of June (up until yesterday).
As well as present and former U.S. and U.N. figures (the former generally tilting towards Israel, the latter generally tilting towards the Palestinians), you will note that, though official Israeli spokesmen/politicians outnumber Palestinian spokesman/politicians, most of the remaining voices strongly tilt the balance back again, being mainly critics of Israel, (including a significant number of Israel-bashing Israelis.
Pinning down precise numbers for who's on one side and who's on the other is tricky, but you are welcome to give it a go.
Where would you put the former U.S. administration figures though? All on the pro-Israeli side? Where would you put the U.N. figures? All - like the self-declared pro-Palestinian former BBC reporter Chris Gunness - on the pro-Palestinian side? Doing both would be far too easy, wouldn't it?
The likes of Oliver McTernan, Greg Philo, Avi Shlaim, Gideon Levy, Mira Bar-Hillel and Baroness Tonge are easy to place in the anti-Israel camp. Others less so.
The Israeli and pro-Israeli numbers have also been made up by an almost certainly disproportionate number of 'dovish' left-liberal voices (Daniel Levy, Ha'aretz's Avi Sharit, Jonathan Freedland, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, the two Israeli Labor politicians). Robust right-wing Israelis from beyond the official sphere of Israeli politics have been largely absent (Dani Dayan being the obvious exception).
Among the Palestinians, Hamas and Fatah have each been heard in plentiful numbers. Unlike the Israelis and non-Israel Jewish commentators, they, however, have been speaking with one voice, pushing the same message: that Israel is bad. As have all the other Palestinian voices.
Anyhow, see what you make of the guest-list. Does it prove bias to you?
WORLD TONIGHT 30th June
Danny Danon, Israeli Deputy Defence Minster
NEWSNIGHT 30th June
Mustafa Bargouti, Palestinian National Initiative Party
Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom
TODAY 1st July
Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States
Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian National Initiative Party
WORLD AT ONE 1st July
Israa al-Mudallal, Palestinian foreign affairs spokeswoman
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman
Daniel Levy, European Council on Foreign Relations
NEWSNIGHT 1st July
Avi Sharit, Ha'aretz
TODAY 2nd July
Oliver McTernan, Forward Thinking
Dani Dayan, Yesha Council
WORLD TONIGHT 2nd July
Husam Zomlot of Fatah's Foreign Relations Committee
TODAY 3rd July
Dr Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the Political Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli PM
WORLD TONIGHT 3rd July
Chris Gunness, UNRWA Spokesman
Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council
WORLD TONIGHT 4th July
Gideon Remez, Harry Truman Institute at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Mouin Rabbani, senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies
NEWSNIGHT 4th July
Osama Hamdan, Foreign Affairs spokesman, Hamas
TODAY 7th July
Mark Regev, Israeli government spokesman
WORLD TONIGHT 7th July
Avi Sharit, Ha'aretz
TODAY 8th July
Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog, former chief of staff in the Israeli Defence Ministry
WORLD AT ONE 8th July
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Israeli Defence Force
Osama Hamdan, Hamas spokesman
WORLD TONIGHT 8th July
Sheera Frenkel, BuzzFeed's Middle East correspondent
TODAY 9th July
Raji Sourani, head of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom
WORLD TONIGHT 9th July
Osama Hamdan, spokesman for Hamas
Retired Brig Gen Michael Herzog, former Israel negotiator
Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department
TODAY 10th July
Fawaz Gerges, LSE
NEWSNIGHT 10th July
Dr Yuval Steinitz, Israeli Intelligence Minister
TODAY 11th July
Adele Raemer from Kibbutz Nirim, Israel
WORLD AT ONE 11th July
Hussein Agha, senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford, former Palestinian negotiator
PM 11th July
Aaron David Miller, former U.S. Middle East envoy
WORLD TONIGHT 11th July
Dennis Ross, former U.S. to the Middle East
Nancy Soderberg, former U.S. National Security Advisor
TODAY 12th July
Jacob Perry, Israeli Minister of Science
Prof. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority's diplomatic representative to the United Kingdom
TODAY 14th July
Dennis Ross, former U.S. diplomat
WORLD AT ONE 14th July
David Waltzer, Israel's ambassador to the EU
Leila Shahid, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the EU
WORLD TONIGHT 15th July
Nathan Thrall, Middle East analyst for the International Crisis Group
TODAY 16th July
Isaac Herzog, leader of the Israeli Labor Party
Greg Philo, Glasgow University
Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian/Jewish Chronicle
WORLD TONIGHT 16th July
Sara Hussein, Middle East correspondent, AFP
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman
TODAY 17th July
Chris Gunness, UNRWA Spokesman
PM 17th July
Lord Levy, Tony Blair's Middle East envoy
NEWSNIGHT 17th July
Dr Mkhaimar Abusada, political scientist, Gaza
Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom
TODAY 18th July
Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Mustafa Bargouti, Palestinian National Initiative Party
TODAY 21st July
Ambassador Badr Abdel-Aty, spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry
Farhan Haq, spokesman for Ban Ki-moon
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman
PM 21st July
Daniel Kurtzer, former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel
WORLD TONIGHT 21st July
Lord (Michael) Williams, former U.N. Under-Secretary-General
Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan
Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz
NEWSNIGHT 21st July
Hilik Bar, Israel Labor party, Deputy Speaker of Knesset
Avi Shlaim, author
TODAY 22nd July
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism
Mira Bar-Hillel, The Independent
NEWSNIGHT 22nd July
Martin Indyk, former U.S. Special Envoy
WORLD AT ONE 23rd July
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Dr. Jeroen Gunning, Durham Global Security Institute
Dr. Dore Gold, advisor to PM Netanyahu
PM 23rd July
Naama Oryan Kaplan, Israel Government Tourist Office
WORLD TONIGHT 23rd July
Husam Zomlot, Fatah Commission for International Relations
Paul Hirschson, deputy spokesman, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
NEWSNIGHT 23rd July
Baroness Tonge, independent peer
Nadhim Zahawi MP, Conservative
TODAY 24th July
Lady Amos, U.N. Humanitarian Chief
Yiftah Curiel, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London
WORLD AT ONE 24th July
PM 24th July
Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesman
WORLD TONIGHT 24th July
Khaled Meshaal, Hamas leader
Shadi Hamid, Brookings Institute, author 'Temptations of Power'
NEWSNIGHT 24 July
Mark Regev, Israeli spokesman
Khaled Meshaal, Hamas leader
TODAY 25th July
Bob Turner, UNWRA Director of Operations
Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister
WORLD TONIGHT 25th July
Gershon Baskin, Co-Chairman, Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian National Initiative Party
NEWSNIGHT 25th July
Dr Husam Zomlot, Fatah Commission for International Relations
TODAY 26th July
Badr Abdel-Aty, spokesman for Egypt's foreign ministry
Sir Dominic Asquith, former UK ambassador to Egypt
SUNDAY 27th July
Oliver McTernan, Forward Thinking
On radio 4's Outside Source today they did have an Israeli spokesperson . Only the person the BBC chose to represent the Israeli side was someone who had been in jail for refusing to fight in Gaza !!! .
ReplyDeleteTo those who complain about this to the BBC, any broadcast which does not openly condemn Israel, call everything Israel does a war crime, or show graphic photos of dead children (real or imagined) to highlight the genocide, is proof of pro-Zionist bias. Yet the BBC still assigns them the same value as legitimate complaints about things like doctored maps on the website or Donnison tweeting a photo of a dead child which was from a different conflict entirely. All this so they can claim balance because they "get complaints from both sides". It's a sham.
ReplyDelete