In a BBC News website report published on the afternoon of December 6th under the headline “Bethlehem Christmas tree lights up for first time since start of Gaza war” the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell tells readers that:
“In the past two years, unemployment has skyrocketed in Bethlehem. Since the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023 which triggered the war, tens of thousands of Palestinian labourers from the West Bank have been blocked from entering Israel and its settlements for work.
Meanwhile, public servants have received only partial salaries by the Palestinian Authority (PA) – which governs parts of the West Bank. The PA relies on tax revenues collected by Israel which it is withholding – to the tune of $1.76 billion, according to the UN’s trade and development agency.
Israel says it is holding the funds because the PA makes payments to Palestinian prisoners that incentivise attacks on Israelis. The authority – which has been under international pressure to make reforms – says it has recently changed its welfare system.”
“Recently” in fact refers to early 2025 when the PA’s president announced ‘reform’ of the system through which it pays salaries to convicted terrorists and others. As was noted here at the time, the BBC ignored that story:
PA’S TERRORIST SALARIES REBRAND NOT NEWSWORTHY FOR THE BBC
As documented by PMW and others, the payments to recipients including imprisoned terrorists nevertheless continued through different channels. Following further criticism, last month the PA put out another announcement and fired its minister of finance.
Notably, Knell does not inform her readers that Israel’s withholding of tax revenues is based on a law passed in 2018 which is explained as follows at the IPF:
“The Freeze Law states that the total amount of money or in-kind transfers, whether direct or indirect, to detainees, prisoners, released prisoners, deceased terrorists and prisoners, and their families, will be deducted from the clearance revenues on a monthly basis. This is calculated in a year-end report by the National Bureau on Counter-Terror Finance, which the Minister of Defense submits to the relevant ministerial and Knesset committees. For the following year, 1/12 of the annual amount assessed to have been paid to terrorists the previous year is deducted from the monthly transfers of clearance revenues to the PA.
Between 2019 and 2023, Israel assessed that the PA spent at least NIS 3.07 billion on prisoner and martyr payments, an average of NIS 614 million per year, leading to monthly deductions of NIS 50-55 million. Due to reduced payments and a lower number of prisoners following major releases during the November 2023 ceasefire, this figure fell to NIS 470 million in 2024.
The continued existence of the prisoner and martyr payments causes other financial issues for the PA, including a law passed by the Knesset in 2024 that allows victims of Palestinian terror attacks to sue the PA for compensation due to its prisoner and martyr payments.”
Neither does Knell inform readers of the related US legislation passed in 2018, which was also ignored by the BBC at the time.
BBC journalists – including Yolande Knell – have for years downplayed or ignored the issue of Palestinian Authority payment of salaries to terrorists and their families. In this report, Knell amplifies the PA’s claim of supposed changes to its “welfare system” months after they were announced but avoids providing her readers with any information about the failure to fully enact that ostensible ‘reform’.
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Knell is the spokesperson for both Hamas and the PLO/PA/Fatah- she is employed by the BBC as their Jerusalem “correspondent” – yet she lives in the Arab bubble of Beit Sufafa in the western sector of Jerusalem.
The BBC does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the city and fails to employ Jews as their Jerusalem correspondent – one wonders why, especially after 68 years!