On March 26th the BBC News website published a report by the corporation’s Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes headlined “Gaza war: UN rights expert accuses Israel of acts of genocide”.
Given Foulkes’ uncritical promotion of UN talking points on social media in recent months, it is hardly surprising to find that her report tells BBC audiences precisely nothing about the record of the UN special rapporteur who seeks to persuade the international community that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ in the Gaza Strip.
Foulkes’ account of the report presented by Francesca Albanese to the UNHRC fails to tell BBC audiences that, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, it does not confine those allegations to the current conflict:
“In the report, the UN special rapporteur says that genocide has always been “an inevitable part of the forming of Israel,” claiming that “practices leading to the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s non-Jewish population occurred in 1947–1949,” as well as in 1967. The report does not mention either of the wars fought during those respective periods.”
Foulkes does tell her readers that:
“Since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on 7 October, Ms Albanese has called for the release of the hostages, and does so again in this report. In it she “firmly condemns the crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on 7 October”.”
Foulkes does not, however, inform readers that two days after Hamas’ unprecedented attack, Albanese told Al Jazeera viewers that the massacre should be viewed within the “context of decades of oppression imposed on the Palestinians” or that on October 11th 2023 she cautioned against “divulging unverified information” concerning the atrocities.
Neither does Foulkes tell readers that in February, Albanese was called out by France and Germany for claiming that “[t]he victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression” or that in the same month she described Israelis as “colonialists” who have “fake identities”.
Foulkes fails to mention the fact that Albanese is on record as having defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” or that she has equated the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 with the Holocaust and claimed that “the Jewish lobby” subjugates the United States of America and the BBC.
Albanese’s long record of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements prompted members of the US Congress to call for her removal in January and February 2023.
That and additional context concerning the conspiracy theory promoting author of this report accusing Israel of committing ‘genocide’ is clearly highly relevant to audience understanding of the story but Foulkes chose to erase it completely from her account.
Given that the BBC has been diligently ignoring Albanese’s record ever since she became a candidate for the position of “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”, Foulkes’ omission of that relevant information is hardly surprising.
Equally predictable is Foulkes’ failure to advise readers that the casualty figures supplied by the terrorist organisation which began the war are unverified and increasingly questioned or that the claims concerning “restrictions on aid supplies” lack basis:
“The death toll in Gaza, currently well over 32,000 according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, the bombing of densely populated areas, and the restrictions on aid supplies (which, the UN says, have brought Gaza to the brink of famine), are all proof, the report claims, of intent to destroy the group.”
No less unsurprising is Foulkes’ decision to quote a representative of an inadequately presented political NGO which is linked to the PFLP terrorist organisation and which engages in lawfare against Israel and took part in the October 7th massacre.
“Basel Alsourani, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, welcomed the report. He suggested international law had been violated by all sides in this conflict, but argued that genocide was such a serious crime the international community could not ignore it.
“Allowing genocide to happen doesn’t only affect Palestinians…, it affects all human beings around the world,” he said.
“If now Israel is committing genocide without accountability, tomorrow we don’t know which country will claim that genocide has been committed by Israel, and [therefore] I can commit genocide with no accountability.””
Foulkes goes on to quote a “human rights lawyer” without informing BBC audiences that she works for another PFLP linked NGO called Addameer.
“Tala Nasir, a Palestinian human rights lawyer who also travelled to Geneva to hear the report, hoped it would draw more attention to the fate of what she said were thousands of people detained by Israel since 7 October.
“They have arrested more than 7,700 Palestinians,” she said.
“Eighty per cent of them are being held under administrative detention which means they are not presenting any charges against them.”
Their families, she pointed out, had no contact with them, and no idea where they were.”
Foulkes does not bother to inform BBC audiences whether the number touted by Nasir includes terrorists arrested in connection with the October 7th massacre or in the Gaza Strip and she fails to clarify that over two thousand terror attacks have taken place in Judea & Samaria and Jerusalem alone since October 2023 or that 38% of those arrested in those locations since the beginning of the war are Hamas operatives.
Foulkes closes her report as follows: [emphasis added]
“Too many well-respected UN aid agencies have warned that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that families are now eating animal feed, or grass, that amputations are being performed on children without anaesthetic.
They all say Israel is restricting vital aid supplies, and governments have begun to doubt Israel’s claim that the UN is to blame for the delays.
Many will not like Francesca Albanese’s choice of words, but the content of her report will add to the pressure on Israel to change its strategy.”
Readers are not told whether those “well-respected UN aid agencies” include UNRWA – the UN agency with employees that include participants in the October 7th atrocities and members of Hamas and other terrorist organisations.
The one conclusion that can be reached from this report is that the long-standing BBC policy of uncritically amplifying UN messaging, while exempting that organisation and its various departments and agencies from any kind of critical reporting, remains stoutly in force.
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By its employment of Foulkes, the IPC (aka BBC) amply demonstrates its backing of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas. Yet the government does precisely zero to put an end to this traitorous activity.