12 June, 2010
We, the undersigned, wish to submit a complaint in respect of the BBCs coverage of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and its murder of at least 9 activists on 31st May 2010. The BBCs coverage of Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmora [MM] was even worse than its coverage of Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2008/9 and your news coverage was little more than an extension of Israel’s PR offensive.
Press Release – BBC Bias Over Gaza Exceeds its Previous Biased Record
150 people have signed an open letter of complaint to the BBC protesting at their biased, selective and ethically dishonest coverage of the murder of at least 9 activists on board the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
Matters we have complained about included the use, without comment or even warning, of spliced and selective Israeli video of trained navy seals being ‘attacked’ at the very same time that Israel, by its own admission, confiscated every notebook, camera, mobile and reel of film to prevent its version of events being challenged.
Despite this some footage has got out which shows e.g. that the first navy personnel injured, often from bad falls, were actually medically treated by those on board. So much for the ‘terrorist’ label.
Other film shows the deliberate murder, with 4 shots to the head, of the Turkish-American citizen Furkan Dogan. Naturally the BBC has chosen not to show any footage which directly proves that the Israeli version, whereby its trained navy personnel were subject to a potential lynching by human rights activists, was a lie.
The use of film media by one side, the side that has confiscated the other sides film and recordings, is totally unethical and an invitation to states to repeat the same trick in other situations with journalists.
The letter raises the way the BBC contributes towards a failure to understand the occupation and conflict in Gaza, preferring to engage in mainstream rhetoric about ‘terrorism’. How it mentions Hamas rockets without explaining who broke the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 4.11.2008., who has killed over seven thousand people in as many years via its rockets and bombs (Israel) yet it is the puny response that is continually highlighted which has killed 20 Israelis in the same time.
The BBC’s record is so bad and so one-sided that we have initiated this letter – from people like Mike Mansfield QC, Avi Shlaim – an Israeli Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, Moshe Machover, another Israeli Professor at London University and people like the songwriter Leon Rosselson.
Tony Greenstein
Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods
The New Dark Age 