Everyone remembers the death of Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera. She was standing just outside the entrance to Jenin on May 11, 2022, while a firefight went on between the IDF and terrorists from Jenin camp, when she was shot and killed. The Israelis have said that they believe there was a “high possibiity” that an Israeli bullet had hit Abu Akleh, but that there had been no intent to kill her; in the fog of war, errors are made. And indeed, it would have made no sense for the IDF to have deliberately killed her; there was nothing to be gained, and everything to lose, in the propaganda bonanza that the Palestinians could — and did — exploit as they denounced the IDF’s “deliberate murder.” The American government, having studied the evidence, came to the same conclusions as the Israelis: that the IDF had likely fired the shot that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, but had “no intent” to do so. The killing of Abu Akleh continued to receive extensive coverage from the BBC, which treated with great skepticism Israel’s version of events, as part of its well-known anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian coverage, demonstrated by such BBC reporters as Robert Fisk, Jeremy Bowen, Barbara Plett, Orla Guerin, and Yolande Knell. More on how the BBC covers the “mistreatment” of Arab journalists when Israel is not involved can be found here: “The Limitations of BBC Interest In the Safety of Palestinian Journalists,”
BBC coverage of the death of the Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in May 2022 included cross-platform promotion of an interview with one of her colleagues who was injured at the same time, Ali Samoudi, from his hospital bed.
Samoudi was Abu Akleh’s producer at Al Jazeera. From his bed, he claimed that the Israelis had first shot him in the shoulder before shooting Abu Akleh. Unlike its taking responsibility for Abu Akleh’s killing, Israel has not accepted blame for wounding Ali Samoudi.
In that [the hospital interview with Ali Samoudi] and additional content, the BBC repeatedly promoted the notion that Israel deliberately targets journalists, as claimed by Abu Akleh’s employer at the time.
Israel does not have a policy of deliberately targeting journalists. As in every war, journalists may be caught between the sides. Bullets fly everywhere. And sometimes journalists are hurt or even killed. But every time a Palestinian journalist is hit, and Israel is blamed, the Palestinians win a propaganda victory. It makes no sense, under these circumstances, for the IDF soldiers to deliberately shoot at journalists. And they don’t.
On August 5th 2023, following the fatal terror attack in Tel Aviv which was barely reported by the BBC, members of terror groups in Jenin took to the streets for a celebratory procession which was reportedly dispersed by Palestinian Authority security forces using tear gas and live fire. During those events, two journalists were injured, one of whom was Ali Samoudi.
As the Palestinians in Jenin were celebrating a terrorist murder in Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Authority rightly concluded that this would look bad in the eyes of the world, and they decided to shut down that Jenin procession using tear gas and even live fire.
While the source of Samoudi’s injury is disputed, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom (MADA) blamed the PA security forces…
The Palestine Center for Development and Media Freedom (MADA) is one of the few sometimes trustworthy Palestinian groups. It claims that the PA security forces wounded Ali Samoudi in the course of dispersing the celebratory crowd in Jenin.
BBC audiences have not seen any coverage whatsoever of Ali Samoudi’s latest injury or of that procession in Jenin celebrating the fatal attack by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist and its dispersal by PA security forces….
The BBC audience was not shown the wounded journalist Ali Samoudi on this occasion, nor was he interviewed, as the BBC had been so eager to do when reporting on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Nor was the network’s worldwide audience provided by the BBC with MADA’s considered conclusion that Samoudi had been deliberately shot by the PA security services. The BBC is clearly in the business of protecting the PA, not in reporting truthfully on its violent suppression of journalists. And it is also determined not to report on anything that makes the Palestinians look bad, such as those ghoulish celebrations in Jenin of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad murder of an Israeli civilian in Tel Aviv. If you are seeking journalistic fairness in the coverage of Israel and the Palestinians, don’t ever rely on the BBC. Don’t listen to those attempting to emulate, in their anti-Israel animus, such BBC reporters as Robert Fisk, Jeremy Bowen, Orla Guerin, and Yolande Knell. Even such an outlet as NPR would be vastly preferable.
Bexarkat says
BBC, ’nuff said.
Fitna says
The BBC are a bunch of slimy scoundrels in service of a terrorist death cult…and I’m sure they know what they’re doing. Perhaps they’re afraid of having their offices trashed and burned by the lovely followers of the ‘religion of peace.’ Or maybe they’re just evil aholes and Jew haters and they’ve picked their team (Palis).
The CBC in Canada is a similar traitorous anti-western organization…that we the public pay for but they censor and ban any views that oppose their narrative. Sadly, it appears the Left, so called ‘Liberals’ who dominate the media seem to have the same anti-freedom, pro-Muslim slant.
Just like Robert’s other article on the UK, they are greasing the wheels to Islamify their nations and have decided the enemy is anyone that wants to defend freedom and opposes rolling back to the clock to the Dark Ages and an Islamic state.
Twenty years ago when 9/11 happened, I had hoped that the media would’ve found it’s backbone or at the very least try to expose Islam as objectively as they could. Instead we see total capitulation and subservience to the Islamic agenda.
So if anyone decides to step into the arena to make a stand for freedom, democracy and our way of life, expect to receive a barrage of hate and vitriol not just from Muslims but also the useful idiots and cowards on the Left, in the media and traitorous politicians.
Some stupid people think if they try to be “neutral” that they can save their own necks. But the reality is, even standing on the sidelines is a choice with consequences. Because if you stand back and cede ground to the evil barbarians, eventually they’ll come after you anyways. You’ll be forced to live as a dhimmi, convert to Islam or have to leave the country or face execution.
Assuming you prefer freedom, then you are better off joining that crowd…because even if we lose, well we’ll die (or be forced to flee) anyways…but in fact that’s a far greater chance we’ll win because we still vastly outnumber them on our soil…plus we have the resources and the power to defeat them.
However should Lefties decide to unite with Islam then we’ll have a civil war on our hands. Whatever the case, people need to decide whose team they’re on and stick with it….also note that people who were traitors will probably have to answer for their treason and crimes when the dust settles.