Previously we have discussed the BBC News website’s initial and next day coverage of the July 27th Hizballah attack on Majdal Shams which caused the deaths of twelve children and injuries to dozens more people.
BBC NEWS WEBSITE COVERAGE OF THE MAJDAL SHAMS MASSACRE
REVIEWING BBC COVERAGE OF THE HIZBALLAH ATTACK ON MAJDAL SHAMS – PART ONE
Additional content published on the BBC News website included a July 29th report by Raffi Berg which included the bizarre phrase “Netanyahu retaliation” in its headline: “Israeli ministers authorise Netanyahu retaliation against Hezbollah”.
As in most of the BBC’s previous reporting, readers found amplification of the terrorist organisation’s denial of responsibility. [emphasis added]
“Israel’s security cabinet has authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister to decide when and how to retaliate for a deadly rocket attack Israel and the US say was carried out by the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah.
Ministers met in emergency session in the wake of the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening, which killed 12 children and teenagers from the Druze community. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.”
Later in his report, Berg also promotes the Hizballah disinformation seen in previous BBC coverage:
“Hezbollah has strongly denied it was behind the attack, reportedly blaming the bloodshed on a failed Israeli interceptor missile.”
As noted here previously – and as the BBC no doubt knew by the time this report was published – no interceptor rockets were launched in response to that attack because of the difficult terrain and the rocket’s low trajectory.
Berg continues:
“In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) knew “exactly where the rocket was launched from”.
Gen Halevi identified it as an Iranian made unguided surface-to-surface Falaq rocket with a 53kg warhead. “This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever launches such a rocket into a built-up area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” he said.”
BBC audiences are not told that Hizballah originally claimed responsibility for an attack on a nearby military base (which did not happen), stating that it had been carried out using “one Falaq missile” – the same type of missile that hit the football field. Neither does Berg clarify that Hizballah’s denials of responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams began only after reports of civilian casualties emerged.
Berg’s report tells readers that:
“The attack has heightened fears that what has been relatively contained hostilities so far could spiral into all-out war.
Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint in its response.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Israel had a right to respond to Hezbollah after Saturday’s strike, but emphasised that nobody “wants a broader war”. […]
The White House said it had been in “continuous discussions with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since the horrific attack” on the playing field in Majdal Shams.
It said it was “also working on a diplomatic solution along the Blue Line [the unofficial frontier between Israel and Lebanon] that will end all attacks once and for all”.”
Like so many of his BBC colleagues, Berg fails to mention UNIFIL’s eighteen-year failure to implement UN Security Council resolution 1701 – according to which Hizballah should be nowhere near the Blue Line – and the fact that neither those “Western governments” nor the United Nations have taken any meaningful steps to enforce that resolution since Hizballah began its latest attacks on Israel ten months ago.
Another report published on the BBC News website on July 29th carries the headline “Bowen: Golan attack leaves border war’s unspoken rules in tatters”. While Jeremy Bowen appears to be somewhat less persuaded by Hizballah’s denials, he too fails to provide BBC audiences with the full picture:
“Hezbollah claims, unconvincingly, that it did not carry out the attack in Majdal Shams. Even so, it is hard to see why it would target Druze children at a football match.
Hezbollah has mostly stuck to the tacit rules of the conflict, trying to kill soldiers, not civilians since it started the border war on 8 October.
It might have been aiming for the extensive Israeli early warning stations on military positions on Mount Hermon.”
Bowen’s portrayal fails to clarify to BBC audiences that prior to the Majdal Shams attack, Hizballah had repeatedly targeted civilian communities, causing deaths in Kfar Yuval, Kiryat Shmona, Magaliot, Mattat, Dovev, the Golan Heights and elsewhere.
Notably, both Bowen’s talking points concerning “tacit rules” and “unspoken understandings” and Berg’s portrayal of “relatively contained hostilities” bear uncanny resemblance to messaging put out by Iran:
“A spokesperson for the [Iranian] mission tells CBS that until now, Hezbollah has limited itself according to an “unwritten understanding” with Israel “confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives.””
Like his colleague – and despite earlier referring to the Second Lebanon War – Bowen too fails to mention UN SC resolution 1701 which should have led to the disarming of Hizballah and its removal from the border area.
“The Americans and the French have tried to negotiate a way of de-escalating the Israel-Hezbollah border war. The absence of a ceasefire in Gaza blights their chances of success.
The border between Israel and Lebanon remains the mostly likely place for the wider Middle East war to intensify.
Even if the crisis caused by the killing of young football players and spectators in Majdal Shams passes without a much worse conflagration, the “rules” of the border war are tattered, imperfect, unstable and continue to carry the risk that a single bloody incident will touch off another catastrophic war.”
Also on July 29th the BBC News website published a backgrounder written by Raffi Berg and titled “Hezbollah, Israel and the Golan Heights: What is happening and why?” which once again amplifies Hizballah’s denial of responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams.
“A deadly strike on a playing field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has sharply escalated fears of a new war in the region.
Israel says the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group was behind the attack, though the group has denied this.”
And:
“Israel says Hezbollah carried out the attack with an Iranian-made rocket, fired from a short distance away in Lebanon. The US also says Hezbollah was to blame.
Hezbollah has strongly denied involvement.”
Berg’s backgrounder also promotes claims concerning ‘international law’:
“About 20,000 Jewish settlers live on the Golan Heights, which is also home to Israeli military bases and listening posts. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”
Another backgrounder which originally appeared in early November 2023 and has been amended several times since then was updated on July 28th and now carries the headline “What is Hezbollah in Lebanon and will it go to war with Israel?”.
The initial July 28th amendment to that backgrounder told BBC audiences that:
“A rocket attack blamed by Israel on Hezbollah which killed 12 children and young adults on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has sharply heightened fears of an all-out war between the two sides.
It was the deadliest incident in and around Israel’s northern border in nine months of near daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.”
That part of the backgrounder currently reads:
“Israel has accused Hezbollah of carrying out a rocket attack which killed 12 children and young adults in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It was the deadliest incident in and around Israel’s northern border in nine months of near daily exchanges of fire, heightening fears of an all-out war between the two sides.”
None of the victims of the massacre in Majdal Shams were “young adults”: all twelve victims were children aged between ten and sixteen. CAMERA UK has submitted a complaint to the BBC concerning that and additional inaccurate portrayals of the victims.
The original July 28th amended version of this backgrounder included a long out-of-date graphic which has since been removed:
Notably, like the rest of the BBC’s content pertaining to this story, this backgrounder’s portrayal of the Hizballah terrorist organisation has nothing to tell BBC audiences about the attacks it has carried out against Jews, Israelis and others outside of Lebanon.
As we see, most of the eleven items of content pertaining to the attack on Majdal Shams that were published on the BBC News website between July 27th and July 29th promoted Hizballah’s denials of involvement and in some cases even amplified the terrorist organisation’s disinformation while failing to provide BBC audiences with an accurate and factual account of what had happened. Far too many of those reports gave readers inaccurate impressions of the ages of the victims and just one of the eleven items made a brief mention of the crucial context that is UN Security Council resolution 1701.
Shameless and cowardly. These ‘journalists’ *must* know the true nature and aims of Hamas, Hizbollah and the Iranian regime, but feel no guilt in spreading a totally skewed narrative and shillling for the most blood-soaked oufits on earth. It pleases their editors in London and keeps them in a job. The truth was murdered by Bowen and Co long ago.
The UK’s new Labour “government” has now banned export of arms to Israel. This was easily anticipated by realist Jews – including myself – who tried to warn Jewish voters before the UK election not to vote Labour. Sadly Camera did not publish this warning.