On July 18th the BBC News website published an item titled “Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions” which carries the BBC Verify logo.
The item itself is credited to Benedict Garman, Matt Murphy and the BBC’s Visual Journalism team, with additional reporting by Mohamed Shalaby.
The item begins by telling BBC audiences that:
“Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March, with entire towns and suburbs – once home to tens of thousands of people – levelled in the past few weeks.
Satellite images show massive amounts of destruction in several areas which Israel’s military command claims to have under “operational control”.
Large swathes of it have been caused by planned demolitions, both to already damaged buildings and ones that appeared largely intact.
Verified footage shows large explosions unleashing plumes of dust and debris, as Israeli forces carry out controlled demolitions on tower blocks, schools and other infrastructure.”
With no explanation of why such “controlled demolitions” might be being carried out and no mention of relevant context such as entrances to tunnel shafts concealed within residential and other buildings or the Hamas practice of booby-trapping buildings – and the Israeli casualties sustained as a result of such tactics – BBC Verify’s item jumps straight to promotion of the notion of ‘war crimes’:
“Multiple legal experts told BBC Verify that Israel may have committed war crimes under the Geneva Convention, which largely prohibits the destruction of infrastructure by an occupying power.”
Paragraph six presents readers with a quote from an IDF spokesman:
“An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said it operated in accordance with international law; that Hamas concealed “military assets” in civilian areas, and that the “destruction of property is only performed when an imperative military necessity is demanded”.”
Notably, Garman and Murphy have nothing at all to tell BBC audiences in their own words about Hamas’ well-known exploitation of civilian areas and facilities for military purposes.
Much of the item is given over to written descriptions of demolitions in various locations, accompanied by graphics such as the one below:
While the original video used provides the name of that former school, BBC Verify chose not to inform readers that it was named after Mariam Farhat or to explain who she was. Other sources citing the same video note that the building was used by terrorists.
Despite BBC Verify’s claim of expertise in the field of open source information and fact-checking, Garman and Murphy continue to make no attempt themselves to inform BBC audiences about terrorists’ use of civilian infrastructure but instead again recycle the quote from the IDF:
“BBC Verify presented the IDF with a list of places in which we documented demolitions and asked it to provide specific military justifications. It did not do so.
“As has been widely documented, Hamas and other terrorist organizations conceal military assets in densely populated civilian areas,” an IDF spokesperson said. “The IDF identifies and destroys terrorist infrastructure located, among other places, within buildings in these areas.””
Another section of the item – which was also promoted on BBC Verify’s live page – is devoted to further promotion of the notion of ‘war crimes’ and includes the following:
“Several human rights lawyers who spoke to BBC Verify suggested the campaign could amount to war crimes.
Eitan Diamond – a senior legal expert at the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre in Jerusalem – said there was little justification under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the document which generally covers the protection of civilians in wartime.
“International humanitarian law prohibits such controlled destruction of civilian property during armed conflict, except under narrow conditions of absolute military operational necessity,” Mr Diamond said.
“Destruction of property because of concerns or speculations about its possible future use (for example, that it will be used to launch attacks in the future) falls well outside this exception.””
Despite the existence BBC editorial guidelines on the topic of ‘contributors’ affiliations’, readers are told nothing about the “affiliations, funding or particular viewpoints” of Daikonia or its quoted legal expert.
Similarly, a quote from another “analyst” is promoted without readers being told that last year he made a submission on a related matter to the ICC and less than a month after the Hamas invasion and massacres which sparked the current war (and before any of the hostages had been released) he described Israel’s response as ‘disproportionate’.
“One analyst – Adil Haque of Rutgers Law School – suggested that the IDF’s demolitions could be seeking to create a “security zone” that it could “permanently control”.”
One particularly remarkable part of BBC Verify’s item comes after a graphic showing “the scale of destruction” in Rafah: [emphasis added]
“In July, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz outlined plans to establish what he called a “humanitarian city” over the ruins of Rafah, with an initial 600,000 Palestinians being confined there.
The plan has been widely condemned. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the BBC that the proposal would be “interpreted as being akin to a concentration camp“.”
That BBC Radio 4 interview with Ehud Olmert took place four days before the appearance of this BBC Verify item, on July 14th, and was also promoted on additional BBC platforms.
The day before that – July 13th – the BBC News website published a report by Nick Beake headlined “Outrage builds over plan to force all Gazans to southern city” which opens by telling readers that:
“For Gazans, a 60-day ceasefire being negotiated between Israel and Hamas would be a lifeline.
A window to bring in large quantities of desperately needed food, water and medicine after severe – and at times total – Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries.
But for Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz a two-month pause in military operations would create an opportunity to build what he has called a “humanitarian city” in the ruins of the southern city of Rafah to contain almost every single Gazan except those belonging to armed groups.
According to the plan, Palestinians would be security screened before being allowed in and not permitted to leave.
Critics, both domestically and internationally, have condemned the proposal, with human rights groups, academics and lawyers calling it a blueprint for a “concentration camp”.”
Beake also quotes a legal expert:
“British human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy KC told the BBC the project would force Palestinians into a “concentration camp”.
The description, which other critics including academics, NGOs and senior UN officials have used, holds considerable resonance in light of the role of concentration camps in the Holocaust.
Baroness Kennedy said the plan – as well as the latest actions of Israel – has led her to conclude Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“I was very reluctant to go there, because the threshold has to be very high. There has to be specific intent for genocide. But what we’re now seeing is genocidal behaviour,” she said.”
The interview in which Kennedy used the term “concentration camp” also took place on BBC Radio 4’s ‘World at One’ on July 8th.
BBC editorial guidelines concerning ‘contributors’ affiliations’ were again completely ignored by Nick Beake, with readers told nothing about Kennedy’s record, her position as a patron of the anti-Israel NGO ‘Medical Aid for Palestinians’ or the fact that, as reported by the Telegraph and others, she was a member of the ICC’s ‘panel of experts’ which laid the ground for the issue of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former minister of defence.
“Within weeks of Hamas’ murderous onslaught last October, Kennedy warned Israel was overstepping in its response, accusing it of breaching international law by cutting off critical water supplies to Gaza as part of its “complete siege” of the coastal enclave. “Water is a basic human right and its denial violates international law. It is a war crime,” she told Prospect Magazine on October 24. “Israel has a right to self-defence. But it has to be proportionate and in accordance with international law,” Kennedy added, defending her stance as neither pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, but instead “pro-human rights.””
Another BBC News website report published on July 13th – “Gaza ceasefire talks on verge of collapse, Palestinian officials say” by Rushdi Abualouf – tells readers that:
“On Monday, Katz briefed Israeli reporters that he had instructed the military to prepare a plan for a new camp in Rafah that would initially house about 600,000 Palestinians – and eventually the whole 2.1 million population.
According to the plan, the Palestinians would be security screened by Israeli forces before being allowed in and not permitted to leave.
Critics, both domestically and internationally, have condemned the proposal, with human rights groups, academics and lawyers calling it a blueprint for a “concentration camp”.”
As we see, the BBC is engaged in multi-platform framing of a proposal which as yet does not even have a practical plan or a budget as a “concentration camp”, notwithstanding the insensitive and inflammatory nature of that politically motivated Holocaust analogy.
