As readers will recall, a filmed report by Orla Guerin which appeared on BBC television news programmes on October 11th included a sympathetic interview with the father of the terrorist who perpetrated the attack at Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem on October 3rd in which two Israelis were killed and two more wounded. The attack was later claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and praised by Hamas, although that part of the story was absent from the BBC report.
In that report, Guerin told viewers:
“This is the family home of Muhannad Halabi – a Palestinian law student turned killer. Last weekend the 19 year-old stabbed an Israeli couple and a rabbi who intervened. His father, Shafik, is grief-stricken but unapologetic.
‘In the beginning, I felt pain’ he says. ‘No-one wants to lose a son, but then I saw people backing what he did. Now I have mixed feelings; pride and sorrow at not seeing him anymore.'”
Just before that segment of the report, Guerin had told viewers that “anger and frustration are driving ordinary people to carry out attacks” and that “there’s no sign of involvement by militant groups”.
Via MEMRI we learn that Orla Guerin was not the only one to pay a visit to the Halabi family.
“A delegation of Fatah officials paid a condolence visit to the family of Muhannad Al-Halabi, who stabbed two Jews to death on October 4 [3 – Ed], 2015. The delegation included Fatah Central Committee members ‘Azzam Al-Ahmad, a senior PA official close to PA President ‘Abbas, as well as Nabil Sha’ath, Mahmoud Al-‘Aloul and Jamal Al-Muhsin; Fatah spokesman Ahmad ‘Assaf; Fatah’s secretary in Ramallah Muwaffaq Sahwil; assistance commissioner of recruitment ‘Abd Al-Mun’im Wahdan; Hassan Faraj, secretary-general of Fatah’s Shabiba youth movement; Mustafa ‘Abd Al-Hadi, member of Fatah’s leadership in Ramallah and Al-Bira, and others. During the visit, ‘Azzam Al-Ahmad said on behalf of the Fatah: “The Palestinian people will continue to defend itself against aggression and it is very determined to struggle, no matter what the cost, until the occupation ends.”
The Palestinian Bar Association, whose heads are Fatah members and which receives funds from the E.U., announced it would award an honorary law degree to “the martyred hero Muhannad Al-Halabi,” who had been studying law. The association also decided to hold its next conference in honor of Al-Halabi.”
Orla Guerin obviously did not consider that BBC audiences needed to know about those two examples of PA glorification of terrorism.
Palestinian Media Watch brings us the Halabi family’s views of their son’s actions – when not speaking to the Western media.
Readers will note the proliferation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags at Halabi’s funeral procession.
The BBC has consistently tried to frame the current wave of terror in Israel as “protests” and “lone-wolf” violence born out of “anger and frustration” at the lack of political process. As the material above demonstrates, there is considerably more to the story than that, but all information concerning incitement and glorification of terrorism within Palestinian society is being meticulously censored from the view of BBC audiences.
