Category Archives: Media

BBC Panorama goes off the rails

In an alternate universe, had Israel decided that Jerusalem’s light rail would discriminate against Palestinian residents of the city by avoiding their neighborhoods, you can bet that the BBC (and many others) would be up in arms. In reality, the light rail serves all populations of Jerusalem, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian.

But that hasn’t stopped the BBC from focusing on the light rail as a means to portray Jerusalem’s Palestinians as the victims of some malevolent scheme to “Judaize” the city at their expense. And all led by the development of Jerusalem’s transport network.

BBC Panorama, the network’s flagship current affairs program, broadcast “The Train That Divides Jerusalem” on July 20. It is a biased and one-sided look at Jerusalem.

Read more at Honest Reporting »

Tom Gross: Is the BBC really ‘pro-Israel’?

From the National Post:

Some 5,000 rowdy demonstrators chanting anti-Israeli (and, in some cases, blatantly anti-Semitic) slogans brought traffic to a virtual standstill outside the BBC’s central London headquarters in Portland Place last week. They were protesting what they claim to be the BBC’s “pro-Israel” bias.

The next day, the BBC flagship Today radio news program (a program which is near compulsory listening for the British political elite, including the prime minister), ran an item on the demonstration, examining the absurd proposition that the BBC – which for decades has been at the forefront of providing a worldwide platform for Palestinian extremists (one correspondent, Barbara Plett, even admitted on air that she cried in sorrow when Yasser Arafat died) – was in fact “pro-Israel.”

“Are the protesters right? Have we been biased at the BBC in favor of Israel?” BBC anchor Mishal Husain asked her guest Greg Philo, professor of Communications and Social Change at Glasgow University.

Philo responded: “I’ve had many senior journalists at the BBC saying they simply can’t get the Palestinian viewpoint across… the Palestinian perspective is just not there.”

Leaving aside Husain’s own bias against Israel, which was well documented by watchdog organizations at the time of the last major Hamas-Israel flare-up in November 2012, the claim by Philo, and the choice to use him as the studio guest, is bizarre.

Read the full article »

Channel 4 distorts Middle East history

The Promise

4-part drama on Channel 4 (UK television)

This drama will, I’m sure be well produced and eminently watchable. Produced by Channel 4, It’s about a young woman who goes to Israel with a friend who’s about to do military service. Shortly before she goes, she and her mother discover a diary kept by her grandfather about his time in Palestine just after the war when the British Mandate Powers were still doing all they could to hinder the Jewish homeland that they were mandated to facilitate. (My own uncle and the father of one of my good friends were there.)

On Channel 4’s website, Lindsey Hilsum has produced a summary of the conflict in which she airbrushes out:

  • The League of Nations Mandate;
  • UN Resolution 181, its acceptance by Jewish leaders and rejection by Arab leaders
  • The Arab League’s calls for Arab Palestinians to leave their homes whilst Arab armies destroyed Israel and murdered her Jewish inhabitants – which led to the Palestinian refugee problem
  • Arab League unprovoked invasion of Israel in 1948.
  • Arab aggression against Israel from1948-1967
  • Nasser’s aggression against Israel which led to 1967 war
  • Arab aggression which led to 1973 war

Continue reading Channel 4 distorts Middle East history

What did you read in the papers today?

Want to know what those living in the Palestinian territories get as their daily media diet? Here is a sample, analyzed by Palestinian Media Watch:

Jews fan the flames of evil, provoke wars, control finance and media and dominate US policy

by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Palestinian Media Watch

The official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published a vicious anti-Semitic article last week that included many of the classic anti-Semitic libels and modern “updates”:

– Jews start wars, including the war in Iraq, to promote Jews’ power and control
– Jews are the dominant force in United States policy
– Jews control international finance
– Jews control international media

In the article, Muhammad Khalifa, columnist from the United Arab Emirates, argues that the US is planning to control all of the world’s countries from a single central government in New York. The Jews, who dominate or control every key element in the US, including the stock market, the media and international finance, have used their “custom” of starting international wars to cement this US control.

The Jews, says Khalifa, started the war in Iraq as the first step to “force the other Arab nations to voluntarily surrender to their will.” But this tactic will ultimately fail, lead to World War III and be the end of Western culture.

It is important to note that Al Hayat-Al Jadida is controlled not by the Hamas government but by the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Continue reading What did you read in the papers today?

Pope rage

As is now well known, Pope Benedict last week gave an academic lecture which has apparently caused offense to Muslims. You can read the lecture to see just how innocuous the remarks were here. His remarks seem to have been quite deliberately ripped out of context.

But the madness continues with violence, church burnings and street demonstrations. In this video clip, Infolive.tv gives an overview of the controversy.

Infolive.tv report