On the evening of November 28th the BBC News website published a report by the corporation’s Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes under the headline “UN panel says Israel operating ‘de facto policy of torture’” which opened as follows: [emphasis added]
“The United Nations committee on torture says there is evidence that Israel is operating a “de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture”.
In fact, the committee’s “concluding observations” include the following:
“The Committee expressed concern over reports indicating a de facto State policy of organised and widespread torture and ill-treatment which had gravely intensified since 7 October 2023.”
Two days later, on the afternoon of November 30th, that opening paragraph was amended to read as follows:
“The United Nations committee on torture says it is concerned by reports indicating that Israel is operating a “de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture”.”
Although the headline remained the same, the following footnote was added:
“Correction 30 November: This article and the headline have been amended to make clear that the UN committee heard evidence, but did not determine whether there was a state policy of torture. It has also been amended to make clear the committee is not mandated to determine whether international crimes have been committed.”
Several hours later, the headline was amended and it now reads “UN panel hears evidence Israel operating ‘de facto policy of torture’”.
In other words, in the first two days after this report’s appearance BBC audiences were given inaccurate impressions of the UN committee’s conclusions and remit.
Foulkes’ report goes on to tell readers that:
“The committee regularly reviews the records of all countries which have signed the convention against torture, taking testimony from their governments, and from human rights groups.”
Indeed – as noted by Marc Goldberg – the committee’s relevant “concluding observations” actually relate to four states: Albania, Argentina, Bahrain and Israel. Imogen Foulkes, however, chose to focus audience attentions on just one of those countries.
Moreover, while Foulkes quotes one member of that UN committee – “Peter Vedel Kessing of Denmark” – she refrains from informing readers that it also currently includes representatives of countries somewhat less than renowned for their records on human rights, such as Russia, China and Turkey – a known Hamas ally.
Foulkes tells readers that:
“During Israel’s review both Israeli and Palestinian rights groups gave harrowing details about conditions in Israeli detention centres. It is alleged that thousands of Palestinians have been detained by Israel since the Hamas attacks of October 7th 2023.”
She does not however identify any of those “rights groups”, thereby denying BBC audiences the ability to check out for themselves the political agendas (and in some cases, terror links) of relevant NGOs including Adalah, PCATI, DCI-P, and PCHR.
Foulkes continues:
“Under Israel’s laws on administrative detention and on Unlawful Combatants – suspects who cannot be classed as prisoner of war – they can be held for long periods without access to a lawyer or family members.
Many Palestinian families say they have waited months to even find out that a loved has been detained, amounting, the UN committee said, to “enforced disappearance”.
The committee was particularly critical of Israel’s reported use of the Unlawful Combatants law to detain whole groups of Palestinians, including children, pregnant women, and the elderly.”
As is usually the case in BBC reporting on Administrative Detention, Foulkes does not explain that topic fully to her readers. The same goes for the Unlawful Combatants Law, which Foulkes mentions but fails to explain.
Referring to a report by the UN HRC’s controversial “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel” which she and others had promoted on the BBC News website in September of this year, Foulkes advances the ‘genocide’ libel.
“The committee pointed out that, according to the UN’s own commission of inquiry into the situation in the Occupied Territories, such treatment “amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and forms part of the actus reus of genocide”. Actus reus is a Latin term meaning “guilty act”, or one of the elements normally required to prove commission of a crime.
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Despite quoting him later in her report, Foulkes does not tell BBC audiences that the same commission of inquiry was mentioned by one of the Israeli representatives addressing the committee.
“Mr. Meron said from the first day of the war, there had been a mass disinformation campaign against Israel, including baseless claims and distorted data often originating from Hamas. Regretfully, some members of the Committee had relied on disinformation published by Special Rapporteur Francesa Albanese, and the Commission of Inquiry. Both mechanisms were notorious for their political agendas, anti-Semitic rhetoric, and justification of terrorism. Israel expected integrity, impartiality and neutrality.”
Neither does Foulkes inform BBC audiences that – like the BBC itself on all too many occasions – the UN committee misrepresented the ICJ’s January 2024 decision.
“The Committee would focus on the Convention during the dialogue and would not discuss genocide, unlawful occupation, or war crimes, if not directly related. However, it had noted with grave concern that the International Court of Justice found in its order of 26 January 2024 that it was plausible that Israel had committed acts of genocide in Gaza. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian occupied territories and other groups had concluded ‘that the world is witnessing genocide in Gaza’.” [emphasis added]
As was clarified to the BBC by the ICJ’s former president in April 2024, the court “didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible”.
Aa we see, although Foulkes chose to uncritically amplify the ‘genocide’ libel as advanced by the UN commission of inquiry without providing any information about that highly problematic body, she had nothing to tell her readers about the misrepresentation of the ICJ’s decision by the UN committee that is the topic of her latest report.
Sadly for the BBC’s funding public, there is however nothing novel about the editorial policy of unquestioningly amplifying UN messaging while exempting that organisation and its various departments, agencies and officials from any kind of critical reporting.
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