On Orla Guerin

An unusually cheerful-looking Orla Guerin

It isn't every day that a senior BBC reporter is condemned for being “unjustifiably offensive” by a former BBC Chairman (Michael Grade) and a former BBC Director of Television (Danny Cohen). 

Nor is it every day that the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Campaign Against Antisemitism both come out against the same BBC reporter - the former calling her “crass”, the latter “sick”. 

But lugubrious BBC international correspondent Orla Guerin managed to pull off both feats this week, after that News at Ten report which seemed to link the Holocaust to Israel's treatment of the Palestinians which Sue posted about on Thursday. 

Conversely, plenty of people - mainly Corbyn supporters and Israel haters - rode to Orla's rescue, singing her praises for 'telling the truth'. 

As a reminder, here's what she said (at the end of her report):

In Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names, images of the dead. Young soldiers troop in to share in the binding tragedy of the Jewish people. The state of Israel is now a regional power. For decades, it has occupied Palestinian territories. But some here will always see their nation through the prism of persecution and survival.

In fairness, The Jewish Chronicle posted a defence of Orla Guerin from Gary Sinyor:

There was no need for those words. Guerin – yes typically - has mentioned the Occupied Territories in describing Israel but she’s not comparing the Holocaust with the Palestinians. One unnecessary reference in a report that reiterated the truth of the Holocaust, that addressed rising antisemitism, that movingly depicted a survivor from Belsen, that showed Israeli soldiers learning about the tragedy of their fellow Jews, that took up the last four-and-a-half minutes of the BBC’s main news bulletin the day before the actual memorial service, surely we can live that. In fact, we should be grateful.

Even he says, however, that Orla Guerin didn't need to say “For decades, it has occupied Palestinian territories” there, and that it's “typical” of her that she did.

Indeed.