Yousef Eldin is a London based documentary maker who works for the BBC World Service. Readers may recall that in 2019 Eldin participated in the production of a filmed report concerning detained Palestinian minors which, among other things, included promotion of an NGO linked to a terrorist organisation.
PARTISAN REPORT ON DETAINED PALESTINIAN ‘CHILDREN’ FROM BBC’S GENDER AND IDENTITY CORRESPONDENT
In the early hours of June 13th the BBC News website published a written report by Yousef Eldin headlined “‘As Palestinian youths, the political process has failed us’” and later the same day Eldin promoted a filmed version of his report which appeared on BBC World News TV.
On June 17th the BBC World Service promoted a shorter version of that film on Twitter and for reasons unknown included a link to a 2021 radio programme featuring Jeremy Bowen which was previously discussed here.
The basic premise promoted by Eldin in all those items is that young Palestinians reject the concept of the two-state solution and that their frustration with their own political leaders and processes has led to support for armed confrontation with Israel.
In the written version of Eldin’s report readers are told that: [emphasis added]
“…support for armed confrontation is highest amongst under 30-year-olds, with over 56% supporting a return to an intifada, or uprising, against Israel, according to the most recent poll in March.
In the past year, numerous new militant groups have sprung up in the northern West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin, challenging the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces.
The most well-known are the Lions’ Den and the Jenin Brigades, which have carried out attacks in the West Bank against Israeli forces and settlers.”
As regular readers will be aware, the BBC has done little to inform its audiences about the terror groups – not “militant groups” as Eldin euphemistically portrays them – such as the Lions’ Den which have emerged in areas ostensibly under PA control since 2021 (rather than “in the past year”). Readers would therefore be unlikely to know that the Lions’ Den has not confined itself to carrying out attacks in Judea & Samaria. In September 2022 a planned attack on a synagogue in Bnei Brak by a member of that organisation was thwarted when he was arrested in Jaffa. The Jenin Battalion (aka Jenin Brigades) has claimed responsibility for shooting at Kibbutz Meirav.
The report continues: [emphasis added]
“We join the Jenin Brigades at 02:00 one night as they carry out training exercises in the labyrinthine streets of the Jenin refugee camp.
Each member is armed with an M16 assault rifle and dressed head to toe in black as they silently make their way in a single line formation. Their guns point forward scanning alleys and rooftops as they move.
Mostly men in their 20s, these fighters claim to be independent of major militant groups and have publicly rejected links to political parties in the Palestinian territories.
One of the fighters, Mujahed, 28, tells us that his generation is not represented by the current leadership.
“The youth of Palestine have lost hope with the political methods of the past 30 years,” he says.
Does he support violence as a solution?
“This occupation enters here daily and kills in cold blood, in broad daylight,” he says, referring to Israeli forces. “This occupation only understands the language of force.””
Given the mandatory referrals laid out in the BBC’s editorial guidelines on ‘War, Terror and Emergencies’, we must assume that this second visit in less than a year by a BBC film crew to the Jenin Batallion was pre-coordinated with senior BBC management.
It is hence all the more egregious that Eldin failed to inform BBC audiences that Israeli forces enter Jenin and other towns and cities under PA control in order to carry out counter-terrorism operations made necessary by the sharp rise in terrorism perpetrated by groups such as the Jenin Battalion which is showcased in his reports.
Moreover, it is well known that – contrary to the claim of ‘independence’ promoted by Eldin, these new groups do have ties of one kind of another to larger, established terrorist organisations and political factions. As reported by the INSS in October 2022:
“Most of their members are young Palestinians – some former members of Fatah, Tanzim, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad – and some are sons of fathers serving in the Palestinian Authority security apparatuses. […]
Although Lion’s Den is not affiliated with any of the existing organizations or movements, it is equipped with smuggled and locally produced weapons, and is apparently supported by funds from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
Referring to the Jenin Battalion – which was founded in 2021 – the ITIC noted that:
“While the Battalion was founded by PIJ operatives, it includes operatives from other military wings, such as Hamas’ Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, thereby uniting coordination among the prominent terrorist organizations and overcoming the schism within Palestinian society. The operatives’ allegiance is more local and less connected to the various organizations they represent, as reflected in their name and the names of the other local battalions. […] Its military and operational concepts come from the PIJ. Khaled al-Batash, a senior PIJ figure in the Gaza Strip, called the formation of the battalions in the West Bank “a genuine miracle and a great achievement”. A PIJ operative named Jamil al-Amoudi is thought to have established the Battalion in the Jenin refugee camp during Operation Guardian of the Walls by forming cells of operatives which became the core of the Battalion. […] according to a report, the PIJ supplies the operatives’ weapons.”
Nevertheless, that misleading and inaccurate claim that the relatively new terror groups are made up of “fighters…independent of known militant groups” and their whitewashed portrayal as being apolitical also appears in the filmed versions of Eldin’s report.
In part two of this post we will discuss additional aspects of Eldin’s filmed and written reports.
Related Articles:
BBC WS RADIO’S ‘THE EXPLANATION’ FLOPS ON PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT – PART ONE
BBC WS RADIO’S ‘THE EXPLANATION’ FLOPS ON PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT – PART TWO
BBC WS RADIO TRIES TO EXPLAIN THE ‘LIONS’ DEN’ – PART ONE
