On January 31st the BBC News website published a short report by Robert Greenall titled “British-Israeli hostage says Hamas held her at UN facilities” which opens by telling readers that:
“A British-Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months says she was detained for some time at United Nations facilities.
During a phone call with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Emily Damari – who was released earlier this month – said she was held at sites belonging to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).”
The report goes on to present statements from UNRWA:
“In a statement, Unrwa said claims that hostages had been held on UN premises were “very serious” and that it had repeatedly called for independent investigations into claims Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, were misusing the facilities. […]
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, Unrwa’s director of communications Juliette Touma was asked about Ms Damari’s claims. She said: “For many, many months we did not have access to several of our facilities.
“So the vast majority of our buildings were turned into shelters when the war started.
“At some point we had a million people in those shelters.””
Notably, Greenall does not inform readers that, despite Touma’s claim of lack of access, just weeks earlier UNRWA had claimed that “UNRWA teams run all UN shelters”.
The BBC itself has repeatedly described locations of Israeli military operations as UNRWA schools in its reporting on events in the Gaza Strip, while amplifying Hamas denials of use of UNRWA facilities for military purposes and UNRWA’s claims to know nothing about that exploitation, despite its legal responsibility to ensure their neutrality.
Greenall’s report also includes the following:
“Israel has repeatedly accused personnel from Unrwa of being involved in the 7 October attacks and said that its buildings in Gaza were used by Hamas. The Israeli government plans to ban the organisation from operating.”
Remarkably, Greenall’s ‘Israel says’ framing conceals vital information from BBC audiences, including the fact that – as the BBC knows – a Hamas facility was discovered underneath the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City and nine members of UNRWA staff were fired due to involvement in the October 7th attacks.
The link in that paragraph directs readers to a January 29th article by Yolande Knell titled “Israel’s looming Unrwa ban a catastrophe, UN Palestinian refugee agency warns” which also quotes the UNRWA communications director frequently platformed by the BBC. [emphasis added]
“As Israel prepares to outlaw the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday, there are warnings that it could undermine vital aid delivery and long-term chances of peace.
Israeli officials have not spelt out how they will enforce the legislation passed last year by Israel’s parliament, which accused Unrwa of being complicit with Hamas – an allegation the agency denied.
“It will be a catastrophe if this ban takes place,” says Juliette Touma, communications director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa).
“It will deepen and further the suffering of the Palestinian people who rely on the agency for their survival, for their education and healthcare.””
Knell tells her readers that:
“Unrwa camps were first set up in Gaza to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land in fighting before and after the state of Israel was created in 1948.
For seven decades, those original refugees and their descendants – as well as a new wave of refugees created by the 1967 Middle East War – have been cared for by Unrwa.
Across the Middle East – in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon as well as the occupied Palestinian territories – there are some six million Palestinian refugees.”
Readers are not provided with any explanation as to why Palestinian refugees have different criteria (including hereditary status) to refugees in the rest of the world as well as a separate UN agency that refrains from working towards their integration (even in territories administered by Palestinians) and resettlement in host countries.
Neither are they told why refugee camps continue to exist in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Palestinian control for almost twenty years and in areas that have been under Palestinian Authority control for nearly three decades. No explanation is given for the fact that most of the over two million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan hold full citizenship and no mention is made of the Lebanese government’s long-running intentional discrimination against Palestinian refugees or the politics behind that policy.
Neither of course does Knell remind her readers of the fact that until last year, the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon was also the head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch.
Knell does tell BBC audiences that:
“Israel has long accused Unrwa of perpetuating conflict by keeping alive Palestinian hopes of returning to their historic homeland.
However, tensions have risen dramatically since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war they triggered.
A year ago, Israel accused 18 Unrwa employees of taking part in the deadly assault. A UN investigation then found that nine employees may have been involved and the agency fired them. UN officials reject most of Israel’s accusations against it and insist Unrwa is impartial.”
She goes on to reamplify that ‘Right of Return’ messaging in an interview with a former UNRWA employee from Shuafat who previously contributed to BBC content in March 2024. As was the case then, she fails to inform readers of his political activism, including a 2023 trip to the UK.
‘”You can see in front of us the Unrwa Shufat health centre where I was director, and on the other side are the girls’ school and separate boys’ one,” says Salim Anati, retired GP, as he shows me along the bustling main road of Shufat refugee camp where he grew up.
He tells me how his parents – who were expelled from their homes in what is now Lod in Israel – never believed that the refugee camp or Unrwa would become permanent fixtures.
The fate of refugees – a core issue in the Israel-Palestinian conflict – was meant to be worked out in peace talks. However, they stalled a decade ago. Now Palestinians feel Israel is using the opportunity to push its own political solution.
Dr Anati says Palestinians refuse to accept the abolition of Unrwa and its services.
“All people are shocked, because it’s something fundamental for us as refugees and Unrwa represents the international agreements and our dream of the right of return to our villages and cities.”’
As is usually the case in BBC content, Knell does not bother to explain to readers that the “dream of the right of return” which – like the Palestinian Authority – her interviewee claims UNRWA “represents”, in fact means the elimination of the Jewish state. By avoiding that topic, Knell sidesteps the need to explain her opening claim concerning the alleged ‘undermining’ of “long-term chances of peace”.
There is of course nothing remotely new about the BBC’s uncritical amplification of UNRWA talking points: that editorial policy has been in place for many years. It is however particularly notable that even as more and more evidence has emerged over the past 16 months concerning the use of UNRWA facilities for the purposes of terrorism, the participation of UNRWA employees in Hamas’ attack on Israel and collaboration between UNRWA officials and terrorist organisations, the BBC displays no interest whatsoever in carrying out its own investigations into those issues, choosing instead to simply continue its policy of passively and uncritically amplifying the agency’s PR messaging to its own audiences.
Related Articles:
WHAT WERE BBC AUDIENCES TOLD ABOUT THE HAMAS FACILITY UNDER UNRWA’S HQ?
BBC PLATFORMING OF UNRWA TALKING POINTS AND ALLEGATIONS
BBC NEWS DOWNPLAYS HAMAS-UNRWA SYMBIOSIS YET AGAIN
INACCURACY AND OMISSION IN BBC PORTRAYAL OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON
BBC NEWS WEBSITE COVERAGE OF UNRWA FUNDING SUSPENSIONS
BBC NEWS FRAMING OF A STRIKE ON TERRORISTS USING HUMAN SHIELDS
Knell lives in Beit Saffa in Jerusalem – it is not in the eastern sector but strange enough in the western sector of the city close to Gilo.
One wonders how she gets her information from Gaza – is there a direct telephone link or is it using internet communications – if so there is sufficient electricity in Gaza, just as there is enough water, food, petrol, diesel etc so perhaps she can explain why the people in Gaza rely on UNWRA – is it because they dont work – after all most appear to afford mobile phones!