Visitors to the BBC News website on the morning of June 9th found no fewer than three items relating to the topic of the UK flagged one-boat agitprop which had set off from Italy nine days earlier.
Two reports appeared in the ‘updates’ section, both of which originally described the vessel using the word “aid”.
The earlier of those reports was published on the evening of June 8th and is credited to André Rhoden-Paul. Its original headline inaccurately described the one boat as a “flotilla” but that was changed to read “Israel warns it will stop aid yacht heading for Gaza”.
The report opens by telling readers that: [emphasis added]
“Israel has warned its military will “take whatever measures are necessary” to prevent a boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid reaching Gaza. […]
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the vessel, which departed Sicily on Friday, was carrying humanitarian aid and was “prepared for the possibility of an Israeli attack”.
Later on, readers find the following:
“”We will not be intimidated. The world is watching,” FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said.
“The Madleen is a civilian vessel, unarmed and sailing in international waters, carrying humanitarian aid and human rights defenders from across the globe… Israel has no right to obstruct our effort to reach Gaza.””
Only in paragraph thirteen do readers discover that the amount of aid on that roughly 16.8 metre long and 4.7 metre wide yacht was – as has been the case in the past – “symbolic”.
“The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the group said.”
Quoting the stunt’s organisers, Rhoden-Paul tells his readers that:
“The FFC argues the sea blockade is illegal, and characterised the minister’s statement as an example of Israel threatening the unlawful use of force against civilians and “attempting to justify that violence with smears”.”
He goes on to state:
“In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded Turkish ship Mavi Marmara that was leading an aid flotilla towards Gaza.”
Despite that reference to the Mavi Marmara, Rhoden-Paul fails to inform BBC audiences that following that incident, a UN Panel of Inquiry ruled that the naval blockade is legal and stated:
“Once a blockade has been lawfully established, it needs to be understood that the blockading power can attack any vessel breaching the blockade if after prior warning the vessel intentionally and clearly refuses to stop or intentionally and clearly resists visit, search or capture. There is no right within those rules to breach a lawful blockade as a right of protest.”
That information has been in the public domain for nearly 14 years and yet it does not appear either in Rhoden-Paul’s report or the additional one by Yaroslav Lukiv published early on June 9th, originally under the headline “Activists say Israeli troops have boarded aid ship bound for Gaza”.
As the day went on, that report was retitled “Israel seizes Gaza-bound activist boat and detains Greta Thunberg”, “Gaza-bound activist boat with Greta Thunberg docks in Israel”, “Gaza-bound activist boat carrying Greta Thunberg towed to Israel” and later “Israel prepares to deport Gaza activists including Greta Thunberg”.
Most versions of Lukiv’s report (which later added David Gritten to the credits) recycle the same “sea blockade is illegal” statement from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, without providing factual information on the subject.
Neither does Lukiv’s report tell BBC audiences anything whatsoever about that organisation and its history or the Hamas affiliations of its ‘general coordinator’ Zaher Birawi which CAMERA UK has repeatedly documented over the past decade.
BBC News website coverage also included a June 9th live page on the story. As in early versions of Lukiv’s report, that live page repeatedly and uncritically promoted the propaganda activists’ claims that they had been ‘kidnapped’ rather than detained. Readers also found redundant references to ‘genocide’, ‘war crime’ and a ‘siege’ that does not exist. An entry posted at 08:04 on June 9th currently reads as follows:
However the original version of that entry included superfluous punctuation around the word massacre.
That live page also includes three entries promoting statements made by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese without any information provided to readers on the subject of her long record of anti-Israel bias. Entries quoting the NGOs Amnesty International and Adalah similarly fail to provide BBC audiences with relevant context.
Two entries on that live page mention a story covered by the BBC last month. Now as then, the BBC chose to uncritically amplify politically motivated and unverified claims.
BBC PROMOTION OF UNVERIFIED CLAIMS FROM ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVISTS
11:15 – “In May, the group said a different ship – the Conscience – was struck by drones in international waters off the coast of Malta, as activists planned to sail to Gaza. They suggested Israel was behind the attack.”
Another entry on that live page names the passengers on board the yacht, including one woman previously denied entry to Israel due to her pro-BDS activities.
Notably, the BBC had nothing to tell its audiences about the “member of the Steering Committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition” Thiago Ávila’s trip to Beirut for the funeral of Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and a meet up with PFLP plane hijacker Leila Khaled just months ago.
Ynet reported on additional names on that passenger list:
“Consider Omar Faiad, a journalist with the Qatari propaganda network Al Jazeera. Just days after the October 7 massacre, Faiad equated IDF soldiers with Nazis, writing that “Israel is carrying out a new Holocaust in Gaza.” European Parliament member Rima Hassan blamed Israel for the deaths of Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, falsely claiming they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Yasemin Acar, a veteran Berlin activist, has repeatedly expressed her hatred for Israel, Jews, Zionism and even German authorities. During Iran’s missile attack on Israel, she posted a video showing her dancing joyfully in her kitchen. In one protest, she was filmed altering a sign from “Destroy Hamas” to “Destroy Zionism,” and in another, she was caught yelling at a woman confronting her, “You’re a white woman—you don’t get to tell us what to do.””
As we see, all three items of BBC News website content on this story unquestioningly promoted narratives advanced by participants in the propaganda stunt, its organisers and supporters. However, none of the thousands of words of reporting dedicated to that story informed BBC audiences of the affiliations, viewpoints and records of those quoted and promoted.
Equally significantly, at no point did the BBC make any attempt to provide readers with objective and factual information on the obviously relevant topic of the naval blockade and its legality. In other words, rather than meet its obligation to provide “a range and depth of analysis”, the BBC chose to self-conscript to a propaganda campaign.
Zaher Birawi lives in London, 115 Colindeep Lane, Colindale according to the registration of his company on UK Companies House web site https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/WTfF2cgZ3DW17rpCtjo2rsdbLcQ/appointments – ASIRA MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS LTD (07592178) claiming British nationality and profession TV producer!
Previously, he was involved with four other companies as a director that were later dissolved.https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/DWZvdyOfw8PMt2wQdX8iy5k8t5U/appointments
His nationality was given as as being Palestinian for one company but later change to Jordanian for the other.