On the Today programme of January 17Th (beginning at 1:21:00) BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen delivered a short report reacting to the announcement of the members of Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza. Presenter Justin Webb asked two questions about the Board of Peace, the answers to which he steered away from the subject at hand and into accusations against Israel. In a piece less than 5 minutes in length Bowen misrepresented the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and one of its founders, erased Hamas ceasefire violations, omitted key context on IDF activity in Gaza and the detail of Trump’s Twenty Point Plan, and left listeners with almost no information on the Board of Peace, but a clear impression of arbitrary Israeli cruelty.
Justin Webb’s first question is:
“What are we to make of this announcement, these names Jeremy?”
To which Bowen replies by listing several members of the board according to their personal wealth, and then moving on to the current state of the ceasefire:
Bowen: “Israel has been killing a lot of Palestinians in military action. Including UNICEF says effectively a child a day more than a hundred children since the ceasefire happened.”
Bowen fails to report however that according to the IDF and INSS Palestinian Terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have violated the ceasefire 78 times since its implementation, and that the IDF strikes have been retaliatory, rather than deliberate attempts to kill Palestinian children which is the unfortunate implication of such emotive framing.
Webb’s second question brings the topic back to the Board of Peace but Bowen veers into accusation again:
Bowen: “controversially, there’s someone called Aryeh Lightstone, who was one of the Americans behind the Gaza humanitarian Foundation, which you may remember, was something that was tried last year to try and essentially replace the UN as a way of bringing food aid to Palestinians and resulted in, the way they work resulted in hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians being killed trying to get aid at that, those sites”
Aryeh Lightstone is CEO of the Abraham Accords Peace Institute, someone with long experience of working towards peace in the region, and so his involvement with the Board of Peace can only be described as “controversial” as part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to that description of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began before the organisation became operational.
Bowen fails to mention that GHF provided 178 million meals to Gazans before it ended its operations, or that Hamas had been heavily involved in causing chaos at the aid sites, as Andrew Fox reported for the Henry Jackson Society:
“Multiple incidents suggest Hamas operatives have infiltrated crowds or dispatched provocateurs to incite violence at aid sites…armed operatives in civilian clothing, grenade attacks, and the exploitation of civilians to incite unrest… In other words, Hamas is applying its playbook of orchestrating chaos in a crowd, knowing that Israeli soldiers may respond with force to turn the GHF sites into flashpoints.”
And
“According to the GHF, Hamas has actively sought to increase the strain on its aid sites…hoping to create overwhelming crowds and chaos. The logic behind this “pressure valve” strategy is cynical: if Israel insists on running a new aid program, Hamas aims to make that program appear unworkable and disastrous, thereby scoring a propaganda victory.”
Having previously reported a false story by a “whistleblower” about a child being killed at a GHF site, Bowen continues his commitment to the narrative of nefarious intent around GHF without offering any context, while Hamas, once again, completely disappears from the picture.
Bowen continues to discuss the future of the ceasefire as if Hamas have no agency over their own actions at all:
Bowen: “How do they either force or persuade Hamas to disarm because they say they won’t? and the IDF couldn’t do it in two years of war.”
What he fails to mention is that Hamas are already in breach of the ceasefire terms having not released the final hostage Ran Gvilli, and that by refusing to disarm they are refusing the terms of Trump’s Twenty Point Plan explicitly. However, when discussing the actions of Israel and the IDF Bowen is happy to apportion blame, even when the actions he’s describing do not contravene the Twenty Point Plan:
Bowen: “how do they persuade Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to order the IDF to leave Gaza? That is something they’re meant to do under the terms of the ceasefire, but there’s been a lot of satellite evidence saying that the Israelis are actually setting up military outposts in the area that they control, which is roughly 54% of the territory, and that they are continuing to demolish several thousand buildings in the area”
In fact as the BBC reported when they published the Twenty Point Plan in full, under point 16 of the plan the IDF is not required to withdraw from Gaza until the International Security Force is ready to take over:
“Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As the ISF establishes control and stability, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the United States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens. Practically, the IDF will progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”
And under point 13:
“All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt.”
Bowen does not, however, inform his listeners that the demolition in Gaza is related to the destruction of terror tunnels and infrastructure as agreed under the plan, nor that the IDF is not yet required to pull out. Instead ascribing an accusation of non-compliance to Israel while ignoring Hamas’ actual non-compliance.
The end result of this reporting is that Hamas has no role, no agency and no ability to influence events, while the actions of Israel and anyone associated with it are always “controversial”, malicious and deliberate. More unbalanced and inaccurate reporting from the BBC which erases Palestinian actions entirely.
Jeremy has always been anti Jewish and he has slanted his reports in that vein. The disturbing part is that he has been permitted to enter Israel and been given a Government Press Card as an accredited journalist rather than being refused entry. He picks up and spreads a lot of trash in the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem – a favorite haunt of anti Jewish journalists who muck rake!
Bowen needs firing, he has had three decades of misreporting and reporting by omission, BBC bosses have given him free reign to spread his anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hatred, time to close down BBC News #defundthebbc