BBC News endorses its Six Day War narrative by celebrity proxy

BBC News promotes celebrity endorsement of its Six Day War narrative.

Apparently not content with ten straight days (and counting) of multi-platform promotion of a monochrome narrative on the Six Day War, on June 13th the BBC came up with a new idea: endorsement of that narrative by celebrity activist proxy.

A filmed report appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page under the bland title “Israeli conductor visits West Bank”. That link leads to a video titled “Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim visits West Bank” and its synopsis tells BBC audiences that:

“He has been a strong opponent of Israel’s occupation of land that the Palestinians want for their future state, saying his visit was timed to remember the 50th anniversary of the 1967 war – when Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

The maestro, who also has Palestinian citizenship, has been speaking to the BBC.”

Barenboim has not only been “speaking to the BBC”: his leverage of the anniversary of the Six Day War for promotion of his political activism has also been facilitated by additional media outlets such as Ha’aretz and the Financial Times.

The video opens with Barenboim (who of course has not lived in Israel for decades) speaking:

“You know Jewish blood runs through my veins but my heart beats for the Palestinian cause. I have both Israeli and Palestinian citizenship and so I’m torn.”

The BBC then adds:

“This world famous Israeli musician is a vocal critic of his country’s policies in the Palestinian Territories. In an unusual move, he was given a Palestinian passport nine years ago. But he’s not performed back in the West Bank until now…”

Barenboim: “Today, for me represents the beginning of 50 years of occupation by Israel of the Palestinian territories and it’s a day that saddens me very much. Even if you believe that the Six Day War in 1967 was indispensable for Israel’s security, I think it is very clear that the occupation since then is totally disastrous.”

BBC: “These students attend the Ramallah music school Barenboim co-founded. He also conducts an orchestra of musicians from across the Middle East – including enemy countries.”

Barenboim: “There are many Israelis who think differently from the government and I think it is simply not very intelligent not to think of any contact with them because when this conflict is solved one day, hopefully soon – but even if it takes a long time then what? Then we will be facing each other.”

Viewers are not told that those latter remarks relate to calls by some Palestinian parties to boycott Barenboim’s ‘Divan Orchestra‘ because it includes Israelis. 

So what do BBC audiences get in this dumbed-down piece? They get celebrity activist endorsement of the politically motivated narrative that the BBC has already repeatedly promoted on its various platforms according to which the modern-day Palestinian-Israeli conflict is all down to the outcome of the Six Day War – and specifically ‘the occupation’.

However, not only do audiences not get an explanation of the events that led to the outbreak of that war, they are steered towards the view that whether “Israel’s security” was a stake at the time is a matter of ‘belief’.

Neither are they informed that Israel withdrew from Gaza twelve years ago, that the areas of Judea & Samaria most populated by Palestinians have been under Palestinian Authority control for some two decades or that the fate of the remaining land – Area C – is, according to agreements willingly signed by the Palestinians, to be determined in final status negotiations.  The inconvenient fact that the land both the BBC and Barenboim refer to as “the Palestinian Territories” was under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation for nineteen years before 1967 is of course erased from audience view.

This item joins the growing list of simplistic and context-free BBC promotion of a narrative that deliberately conceals the more relevant underlying issue of Arab refusal to accept the presence of the Jewish state in the Middle East.

Related Articles:

BBC’s Bateman erases history and context from his account of the Six Day War

Jeremy Bowen promotes political narrative in BBC’s Six Day War centrepiece

BBC’s filmed Six Day War backgrounder falls short

A third feature promotes the BBC’s chosen Six Day War narrative 

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