In July 2023 the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten (which is still available online) headlined “Israel condemns EU envoy’s Gaza paragliding flight” that opened by telling readers that:
“Israel has condemned the EU’s outgoing envoy to the Palestinians after he paraglided over Gaza’s coast to draw attention to the blockade of the strip.
A video showed Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff declaring he had carried out “the first Gaza paragliding flight in history”.
“Once you have a free Palestine, a free Gaza, you can do exactly the same thing,” the German diplomat adds.”
As was noted here at the time, Gritten had nothing to tell readers of his report about the relevant issue of the already controversial record of that EU “diplomat”.
NGO Monitor recently published details of a Hamas document found in the Gaza Strip relating to Kühn von Burgsdorff.
“In the document, dated 28 September 2021, officials from Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry describe Kühn von Burgsdorff as “a professional figure” who “strongly supports and sympathises with the Palestinians”.
“He is demanding [that the EU] open official channels to engage with Hamas, but the public policy of the EU dismisses this,” the document states.
At the same time, Hamas officials acknowledge that the envoy’s stance did not reflect the EU’s institutional position and could change with his departure.
“The positive approach and inclinations of the EU representative to the Palestinian territories and his sympathy with the Palestinian cause are a personal approach, and this might change when the current EU representative changes, since the European position is committed to the red lines of American policies,” the document reads.”
As was also noted at the time, Gritten’s report amplified anonymous portrayals of restrictions on the import of certain dual use goods to the Gaza Strip as “collective punishment” and “in clear violation of international humanitarian law”.
Another BBC journalist opined that the EU envoy’s stunt (which was later deemed “regrettable and inappropriate” by the European Commission) was “meant to draw attention to Israel’s bar on so-called dual use items, which it says cd be used by Hamas”. [emphasis added]
Less than three months later the reasons behind what Israel “says” became clear when Hamas used paragliders apparently smuggled from Egypt to execute its October 7th 2023 invasion and massacres of hundreds of civilians at the Nova festival and in additional locations.
While the BBC frequently mentions Israel’s “blockade of the [Gaza] strip”, it has done remarkably little over the years to inform its audiences on topics such as the reasons for the restrictions on dual-use items, terror-related smuggling attempts or the diversion of aid for the purposes of terrorism, such as the construction of tunnels.
As was noted here in 2021:
“…following the 2014 conflict, the BBC ignored Hamas’ previous misappropriation of construction materials for the purpose of tunnel building and the related failure of supervisory international bodies to ensure that those materials went solely to civilian construction projects.
Despite a UN monitored mechanism to prevent building supplies being hijacked for terror purposes having been introduced in October 2014, there was plenty of evidence that that was exactly what was happening and yet the BBC chose to repeatedly close its eyes to that story and its outcome.”
With the topic of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip once again on the BBC’s recent agenda, it would of course be helpful to audiences were they to finally see some accurate and impartial reporting on the issue of why a serious monitoring mechanism for goods entering the territory is necessary, rather than just something that ‘Israel says’ is the case.
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