For the past nineteen months the BBC’s Fergal Keane has been a man on a mission.
On his periodic trips to Israel, Keane and his team have produced multiple reports presenting a monochrome and highly limited view of the conflict from the perspective of Palestinians, with most playing heavily on the emotions of readers or viewers. As we noted in February 2024:
“The point of this and previous content produced by Fergal Keane is clearly not to inform BBC audiences about the current war by means of accurate and impartial reporting. Rather, Keane’s reports inevitably focus audience attentions on emotional accounts from one side of the conflict alone and thereby distort views of a story which is far more complex.”
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Keane’s latest campaign is part of a wider and ongoing BBC effort to promote the narrative of famine in the Gaza Strip.
In the space of eight days, the BBC News website published three related reports by Keane and his team:
May 6: “‘No food when I gave birth’: Malnutrition rises in Gaza as Israeli blockade enters third month”. Credited to Fergal Keane in Jerusalem “[w]ith additional reporting by Alice Doyard and Nik Millard”. Also translated into French and Spanish.
May 13: “Gaza parents desperate as children face starvation under Israeli blockade”. Credited to Fergal Keane. Promoted twice on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page.
May 14: “Scared and malnourished – footage from Gaza shows plight of children and aftermath of Israeli strike”. Title later changed. Credited to Fergal Keane in Amman, “[w]ith additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Kawar and Nik Millard”.
Notably, the fact that two months ago both Keane and Doyard ignored BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality in order to sign a campaign letter initiated by ‘Artists for Palestine’ clearly did not deter the BBC from sending them back to report from the Middle East.
Keane’s May 6th report features a baby who is a patient at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. The fact that Nasser hospital is exploited by Hamas, including as the location of its “West Khan Younis Police Investigations Department” is not mentioned by Keane.
Like most of Keane’s reporting on the topic of the Gaza Strip, this article too is of course based on unverified information provided by an unidentified “local BBC colleague”. [emphasis added]
“Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza to report independently.
A local BBC colleague filmed the unmistakable signs of advanced malnutrition on Siwar’s body. The head that seems far too big for her frame. The stick-like arms and legs. The ribs pressing against her skin when she tries to cry. The large brown eyes that follow her mother’s every small movement.”
Later in the report, readers find a vague reference to a “specific kind of milk”.
“According to Siwar’s doctor, Ziad al-Majaida, it was her second stay in the hospital. She was back because of the shortage of milk formula.
“Nothing enters through the borders, no milk, food or anything. This leads to big problems here for the kids. This baby needs a specific type of milk. It was available before, but because of the border closure, the stocks have run out for a while now.”
The hospital is trying to find more supplies but Siwar is weak and suffering from constant diarrhoea.”
The same baby appears in the filmed report dated May 13th and in the written report published on May 14th, where readers are told that:
“In the past few days Siwar has developed a skin infection. Sores have appeared on her hands. She also has a severe gastrointestinal condition. The battle is to keep nourishment inside her. Her immune system is fighting the deprivation caused by the Israeli blockade.
The baby’s cry is weak, yet it is full of urgency, the sound of a life struggling for its survival. Siwar can only drink a special milk formula due to severe allergies.
On Tuesday there was some better news. Medics at the nearby Jordanian Field Hospital managed to find some of the formula she needs. It is a small amount but they plan to send more.”
Keane refrains from providing any actual professional medical diagnosis of the baby’s condition in all three of his reports, meaning that it is not clear from his reporting whether her physical condition as he describes it is in fact attributable solely to “advanced malnutrition” or whether it involves some underlying medical condition.
Interestingly, a Guardian report about the same child notes that she suffers from an undefined congenital disorder:
“From birth, Siwar had a problem with her oesophagus that has made it hard for her to drink breast milk and left her dependent on specialised formula, which is in critically short supply.”
That, however, is clearly of no interest to Keane. The images, footage and descriptions of Siwar and other children, including some with underlying medical conditions, are employed to advance his chosen narrative concerning malnutrition, starvation and “the deprivation caused by the Israeli blockade”.
Notably, that narrative is not new as far as Keane is concerned. His May 13th filmed report includes a section which is introduced by Keane with the words “In the past year we followed the experiences of American doctor Sam Attar”.
Over a year ago, in April 2024, Fergal Keane and his colleagues Alice Doyard and Nik Millard produced a report about Sam Attar titled “The US doctor who cannot forget what he saw in Gaza”. Although there was no “Israeli blockade” at the time (nearly 110,000 tons of food entered the Gaza Strip in April 2024 alone) Keane nevertheless chose to tell his readers that:
“The last trip – his third into Gaza since the war began – saw him join the first team of international medics to be embedded in a hospital in northern Gaza where malnutrition is at its most acute.
The mission was organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which has warned of looming famine. Some 30% of children below the age of two are reported to be acutely malnourished, and 70% of the population in northern Gaza is facing what the UN calls “catastrophic hunger.””
Readers may recall that Keane was by no means the only BBC reporter to promote the narrative of impending famine in the northern Gaza Strip in the Spring of 2024:
AN OVERVIEW OF BBC NEWS WEBSITE PROMOTION OF AN IPC REPORT
Even though the analysis upon which that WHO warning was based was later shown to be implausible, the BBC failed to cover that development at the time and the lessons of promoting unsubstantiated claims have clearly not been learned, with these latest reports from Keane et al failing to inform BBC audiences that during the ceasefire between January 19th and March 2nd 2025, 25,200 trucks carrying 447,538 tons of aid entered the Gaza Strip.
Keane did however find fit to amplify both UN talking points and Hamas denials.
“Israel has long accused Hamas of hijacking aid, which Hamas denies.”
Another notable aspect of Keane’s reports is his use of the ban on the entry of foreign journalists as an excuse for not having verified the claims and statements he promotes in his reporting:
“Without being able to enter Gaza and report independently, it is difficult to investigate the unfolding events.”
The May 14th report includes a video showing a “BBC cameraman” (who happened to be present in the grounds of a hospital housing a Hamas command centre) whose face is blurred. Keane’s narration includes the statement: “For his safety, we’re not revealing his name.”
In the written part of his report, Keane repeats that messaging:
“The war’s horrors multiply. The dead, the pieces of the dead. The dying. The starving. More and more of them now – all the weight of human suffering witnessed by my brave colleagues in Gaza.
The urge to avert our gaze can be overpowering. But the cameramen who work for the BBC cannot turn away, and on Tuesday one of them became a casualty himself. For their safety we do not reveal the names of our colleagues in Gaza.”
As has been documented here on previous occasions, the BBC has consistently failed to identify its “brave colleagues in Gaza”. Although Keane’s claim that that the reason for that is “their safety” – a not so veiled reference to the BBC’s repeated smear concerning supposed ‘targeting of journalists’ by Israel – is new, the upshot is of course that BBC audiences have no way of knowing the identity and affiliations of those selecting and supplying the news from the Gaza Strip that BBC journalists such as Keane do not fact-check or verify before promoting it – and their chosen narratives – worldwide.
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Good Morning
Re baby Siwar
I emailed Fergal Keane saying, to use a child who has a likely allergy to cows milk, which is very common in newborns, is blatant BBC propaganda. How low can they go.
Credit to him he responded but only to the issue of the formula. He said the reason there was no correct formula was because of the “blockade”. He then said in his report there was some available at the nearby Jordanian Hospital.
Peter
This proves that the BBC are the leaders of International Anti-Semitism – this Goebbels propaganda is broadcast world wide though the BBC World Service and BBC iPlayer as well as domestically!
It is high time the government of Israel kicked out all BBC journalists accredited by the GPO (Government Press Office) unless they want more pogroms of Jews residing in the Diaspora because of this Goebbels slur on the Jews!