In the early hours of January 31st (Israel time) the BBC News website published a report headlined “Palestinian born after father was jailed hugs him for first time”. Credited to Wyre Davies “[r]eporting from Ramallah, West Bank”, that report opens as follows:
“After a delay of several hours, there were jubilant scenes here in Ramallah where around 60 Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli detention into the arms of their overjoyed loved ones.
Among those released and tasting freedom for the first time in 22 years was 47-year-old Hussain Nassar, who was arrested in 2003 for taking part in the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.” [emphasis added]
At no point in Davies’ long account of Nassar’s meeting with his daughters – which includes two videos he made in Ramallah – are BBC audiences informed that Hussain Nassar is a member of the PFLP terrorist organisation or that “taking part” actually means that he was serving a life sentence after having been convicted of membership of a banned organisation and attempted murder.
Later in his report, Davies tells readers that:
“Among the 110 Palestinian prisoners released at this stage of what is still a fragile ceasefire, were several women and children – the youngest of them 15 years old.
Some of them were accused of relatively minor offences, others had not been convicted or formally charged.
But 21 prisoners convicted of the most serious offences, including murder, were not allowed by Israel to return home to the Palestinian Territories and were exiled to Egypt or neighbouring countries.”
Davies however refrains from providing details of any of those “serious offences”, which include directing a suicide bombing at a restaurant in which 21 Israelis were murdered, organising Hamas suicide bombings on buses in which 45 Israelis were murdered and murdering a Greek Orthodox monk.
Davies continues:
“One senior figure who was not sent into exile, despite being convicted for his involvement in the deaths of several Israelis, was Zakaria Zubeidi.
The former commander in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades was one of several detainees carried aloft by jubilant supporters through the streets near Ramallah’s civic centre.”
Notably, Davies has nothing more to tell his readers about Zubeidi’s “involvement”, or the fact that he carried out shooting attacks on buses in 2018 and 2019 which the BBC failed to report at the time.
“Zubeidi was indicted on 24 separate counts, the earliest of them from 2003. In addition to the recent alleged shooting attacks, he was charged with two counts of intentionally causing death — the military legal system’s equivalent to murder — as well as multiple counts of attempting to intentionally cause death, membership in a terrorist group, weapons sales, firing guns at people and preparing explosives.”
Davies apparently finds it remarkable that Israelis would be ‘irked’ by Palestinian glorification of terrorists responsible for the murders of hundreds of their fellow countrymen.
“It was a scene, like the earlier Hamas show of strength in Gaza, that will irk many Israelis and undoubtedly lead to renewed calls from some right-wing politicians for the war against Hamas in Gaza to resume after this initial six-week phase of the ceasefire is over.”
His inclusion of “right-wing politicians” in his framing of the topic is all the more remarkable given his failure to inform BBC audiences that Israelis of all political viewpoints are only too aware of the fact that a high proportion of terrorists released in previous deals – including the architect of the October 7th attacks – have returned to terrorism.
Davies closes his report with quotes from an interviewee whom he fails to inform readers has a record of glorifying terrorism.
“For the governor of Ramallah and El Bireh, Dr Leila Abu Ghanam, this homecoming for so many former prisoners was an occasion to celebrate.
But she had mixed emotions as Israeli military operations intensify in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, and the Gaza ceasefire is still under strain.
“All Palestinians are happy about the release of the prisoners but we’re sad about what is happening in the provinces at this very moment. Mothers today, despite how happy they are for the release of their children, are also sad for those mothers who have lost their homes and children.”
Today was one of very few days, while covering this intractable conflict, that I’ve seen so many happy faces among both Palestinians and Israelis.
It has been a terrible, destructive war that has shattered so many lives.
Governor Ghanam accused the Israeli government of not being interested in peace. “But we don’t lose hope,” she said, smiling. “If we had lost hope, Palestinians would have ended 75 years ago.”
Notably, Davies refrains from informing his readers that it was Palestinian terrorists who chose to start the “terrible, destructive war” or that it is the Palestinians (who he describes as having “happy faces” as murderers were released) who have on multiple occasions demonstrated that they are not “interested in peace”, including by means of threats to repeat the October 7th massacre.
Equally remarkable is Davies’ statement that “Israeli military operations intensify in the northern part of the occupied West Bank”, while avoiding any mention of the fact that such operations come in response to elevated levels of terrorism since mid-2021, which have included attacks by at least three “former prisoners” who were released in November 2023 in exchange for Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Davies’ reporting on the third phase of releases of Palestinian prisoners is consistent with the BBC’s terror-erasing portrayal of the two earlier phases. None of the BBC’s coverage to date has made any attempt to explain the concerns of the Israeli public following the release of hundreds of convicted terrorists and not one BBC report has provided audiences with the points of view of the families of those murdered by terrorists who now walk free.
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