BBC double standards on checkpoints

A quick perusal of the BBC News website shows that the corporation has had quite a lot to say about Israeli checkpoints for some length of time.

One undated “Guide to a West Bank Checkpoint“, produced by Martin Asser, states that:

“A recent report by a group of 20 aid agencies has drawn public attention to one of the little reported aspects of the continuing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza.

The report said these travel restrictions – some of them in place since the beginning of the intifada in 2000 – limit Palestinians’ access to schools and medical care, increase frustration and destroy hopes for peace.”

The ‘guide’ provides interactive pages on aspects of checkpoints and there, for example, BBC audiences are told that:

“Ahmed Kassem had hired this private taxi to pick him up on the north side of the Surda roadblock, which is on the north side of Ramallah, on his way home from a heart check-up in the town.

He has to walk 10 minutes uphill in the midday heat to pass through the roadblock, and is very concerned about his health.

He told BBC News Online he expected the journey – 20km in total – would take another three hours to complete.

“I think the Israelis do this because they want to make us feel like foreigners in our own land. They just want us to leave,” he said.”

The rationale behind the existence of checkpoints is generally framed with the BBC’s often used caveat of “Israel says”:

“Israel says the measures are vital to stop suicide bombers flooding into its cities to terrorise the civilian population.” 

Another – very outdated – page still appearing on the BBC website states that:

 “Israeli troops have […] severely restricted the movement of Palestinian civilians.”

And when Israeli checkpoints feature in BBC content, they are more often than not presented without the context essential for audience understanding of their necessity – for example here and here

However, it turns out that some kinds of military checkpoints are reported very differently by the BBC.UK tourists Sharm

An article about the recent floods in England which appeared on the BBC News website’s UK page on February 12th noted that:

“Our correspondent said that, with so many homes in the village evacuated, there was a real fear some of the empty properties might be looted so the Army had set up checkpoints on some roads to monitor overnight who comes and who goes.” 

In a filmed report which appeared on February 21st on the BBC News website’s Middle East page, Quentin Sommerville informed audiences of the concerns of two British holiday-makers in the south Sinai with regard to the inefficiency of Egyptian checkpoints.

“We’ve got really good security at our hotel. The checkpoints, on the other hand, have a lot to be answered for. You don’t really get stopped at the checkpoints, which…”

“There is a high presence. We’ve been on two excursions and we didn’t get checked – our passports or…We haven’t seen any vehicles stopped at a checkpoint.”

Clearly the BBC can understand perfectly well the necessity for checkpoints when they are set up to safeguard British property or British tourists, but those set up to safeguard Israeli lives are apparently a different kettle of fish.

Related Articles:

Checking BBC-propagated untruths about checkpoints

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