Listeners to BBC Radio 4’s ‘Six O’Clock News’ on February 14th heard the following (from 16:10 here):
Newsreader: “The funeral has taken place of a Palestinian teenager who was shot dead by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank. Mohammed Abu Salah, who was 17, was killed during clashes with soldiers and border police in a village near Jenin. Israel said it had been trying to demolish the home of a Palestinian man charged with shooting dead a Jewish settler.”
Let’s take a closer look at the framing of the story in those three sentences.
First listeners are told of “a Palestinian teenager” whose name and age are provided. No details are given concerning the “clashes” mentioned and so listeners remain unaware that Israeli security forces were attacked, including with live fire, when they arrived to carry out a demolition order in Silat al-Harithiya.
“The army said troops had come under fire, in addition to having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at the soldiers at several positions inside the village during the Sunday night raid.
According to the Palestine Today channel, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, the terror group’s armed wing — the Al-Quds Brigades — was behind the shooting attack on the IDF troops.
“The Jenin Battalion executed several shooting attacks tonight targeting the occupation army and causing injuries among its ranks,” the Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement put out by Palestine Today.”
Listeners are not informed that the demolition order was approved by the High Court of Justice or that the “Palestinian man” to whom that order related is Muhammad Jaradat of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation.
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror cell carried out the murder of Yehuda Dimentman – who is unnamed and described only as “a Jewish settler” in the BBC’s account – in December 2021.
The BBC News website belatedly reported that terror attack (while avoiding the word terror) on December 17th and produced a follow-up report two days later concerning the capture of suspects in which readers were informed that:
“The Israeli security service Shin Bet believes that at least two of the arrested men are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.”
Nevertheless, in this radio news report about a youth killed during a violent confrontation initiated by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as Israeli security forces tried to carry out a demolition order on the house of a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who was part of a PIJ cell that carried out a terror attack, the words Palestinian Islamic Jihad – and terror – are conspicuously absent.
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BBC NEWS BELATEDLY REPORTS TERROR ATTACKS WHILE AVOIDING THE WORD TERROR
Yet more examples of reporting by omission by the BBC. How they can brazenly claim to be unbiased is beyond the comprehension of most sane people. The BBC are supposed to report the facts not their own biased interpretation of the facts, that are always biased against Israel. #defundthebbc #sackjeremybowen