BBC News website invents ‘1967 ceasefire lines’ in Jerusalem

On the morning of March 6th a terror attack took place in Jerusalem.

“Five people were injured Friday morning in a car-ramming terror attack near a Jerusalem Light Rail station in the north of the city. Four of the wounded were young border policewomen, in their twenties, and the fifth was a civilian bicycle rider in his fifties

A Palestinian man in a private vehicle hit the five as they stood on a sidewalk. He was identified as Mohammad Salima, 21, from east Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud. After the car attack, he then emerged from the vehicle with a butcher’s knife and attempted to stab passersby, but was swiftly shot and incapacitated by a Border Policeman and a Light Rail security guard at the scene.”

BBC News website reporting on the incident began soon after it took place.

Pigua Jlem 6 3

pigua Jlem on HP
BBC News website Middle East page, 6/3/15

The article underwent numerous changes as the day progressed and it currently appears on the website’s Middle East page under the title “Jerusalem: Israeli police hit in Palestinian car attack” where it is presented together with a short filmed report (also shown on BBC television news) headlined “Jerusalem attack: Driver rams car into pedestrians“.

The current version of the written report opens by informing readers that:

“A Palestinian has rammed his car into a group of Israeli pedestrians in Jerusalem, injuring six policewomen, police say.”

Predictably, the BBC refrains from clarifying the nature of the incident to readers in its own words, instead using the following phrasing:

“Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld described it as a “terrorist attack”, adding that the injured officers are in a “light, moderate condition” in hospital.”

A photograph used to illustrate the report is captioned:

“Police have called the incident a “terror attack”.”

Pigua Jlem photo

Likewise, whilst the report notes that a previous attack took place at the same location last November, it fails to adequately clarify that it and another attack close by on October 22nd 2014 were carried out by perpetrators with links to terrorist organisations.Pigua Jlem filmed 

“It happened on the seam of East and West Jerusalem, on the same junction as a previous attack last year. […]

Last year, Palestinian militants killed three Israelis and an Ecuadorian woman in attacks using vehicles in Jerusalem as tensions soared between Israel and the Palestinians.”

An additional victim of the November 5th attack whom the BBC fails to mention – Jerusalem resident Abd al-Karim Nafith Hamid – died on December 7th.

The article implies to readers that there is some kind of linkage between this latest terror attack and the unrelated topic of the PLO’s recent call for a halt to security co-operation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“The incident came shortly after Palestinian officials voted to halt security co-operation with Israel. […]

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) decided to suspend co-operation, part of 1993 peace accords with Israel, at a meeting on Thursday night.”Pigua Jlem written

The BBC fails, however, to clarify to readers that the PLO’s decision does not have any practical effect at this stage.

“A source close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Israel Radio that the council’s decision was a recommendation only. Another Palestinian official said that Abbas must issue a presidential order ending the security cooperation with Israel.”

With regard to the location of the attack, in addition to describing it as having taken place “on the seam of East and West Jerusalem”, the article adds:

“Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.

It regards the whole of Jerusalem as its “eternal and indivisible” capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.”

Included in the article is a BBC-produced map of the location of the attack in which the 1949 Armistice Lines are inaccurately – and absurdly, given the above text – represented as the “1967 ceasefire line”.

Pigua Jlem map

One might have thought that the BBC’s incessant promotion of “East Jerusalem” would at least ensure geographical and historical accuracy.

 

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