Archive for the 'Israel' Category

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BBC refuses to broadcast Gaza charity appeal

Published on January 24, 2009 in Israel, Middle East, Palestine and UK. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The BBC has decided not to air a TV fund-raising appeal for Gaza, saying it wanted to avoid compromising public confidence in its impartiality. Indefensible, immoral, indifferent to human suffering? Yes. Impartial? No.

The medialense website has more information.

THE BBC REFUSES TO BROADCAST GAZA CHARITY APPEAL

Numerous members of the public have written to us expressing their bewilderment at the violence of Israel’s 22-day attack on Gaza killing upwards of 1,300 people and wounding 4,200. To many witnessing the onslaught on their TV screens (especially Al Jazeera) this appeared to be an act of state sadism.

Israeli forces repeatedly bombed schools (including UN schools), medical centres, hospitals, ambulances, UN buildings, power plants, sewage plants, roads, bridges and civilian homes.

On January 15, Helpdoctors.org reported that Al Quds hospital had been “again the target of bombing”. Some 50 patients, 30 in wheelchairs, fled as the burning hospital was “totally destroyed”. (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2F www.helpdoctors.org%2F&langpair=fr%7Cen&h l=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)

The hospital’s medical director said, “My heart is crying,” as he described how intensive care patients and premature babies in incubators were wheeled onto the street in the middle of the night. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7833919.stm)

On January 19, UN official John Ging said half a million people in Gaza had been without water since the conflict began – huge numbers were without power. Four thousand homes have been ruined and tens of thousands of people are homeless. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7836869.stm)

It is now known that the Israeli army (the IDF) used white phosphorus incendiary weapons – designed to burst over a wide area and burn to the bone – against civilian targets, including hospitals and UN buildings. The use of these weapons against civilians is a war crime.

Surgeons in Gaza have reported numerous, unusual cases where bomb victims had lost both legs rather than one, raising suspicions that the Israeli military used Dense Inert Metal Explosive (Dime) bombs – experimental weapons that generate micro-shrapnel that burns and destroys everything within a four-metre radius. Dr. Erik Fosse, a Norwegian surgeon, commented:

“We suspect they used Dime weapons because we saw cases of huge amputations or flesh torn off the lower parts of the body. The pressure wave [from a Dime device] moves from the ground upwards and that’s why the majority of patients have huge injuries to the lower part of the body and abdomen… The problem is that most of the patients I saw were children. If they [the Israelis] are trying to be accurate, it seems obvious these weapons were aimed at children.” (Patrick O’Connor, ‘Reports reveal devastation wreaked by Israeli military in Gaza,’ World Socialist Web Site, January 20, 2008; http://www.wsws.org/articles/ 2009/jan2009/gaza-j20.shtml)

The IDF also used hideous “flachette bombs” – high-tech nail bombs that shower victims with small metal darts that penetrate flesh and bone.

(http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/ politics/international_politics/phosphorus+controversy +in+gaza++/2909012)

The BBC – Impartial or Immoral?

Despite this carnage, despite the fact that 89% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents have received no humanitarian aid since Israel began its assault (http://www.maannews.net/en/ index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35162), the Guardian notes that the BBC has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, “leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations.” (Jenny Percival, ‘Broadcasters refuse to air Gaza charity appeal,’ The Guardian, January 23, 2008;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ 2009/jan/22/gaza-charity-appeal)

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organisation for 13 aid charities, launched its Gaza appeal yesterday saying the devastation was “so huge that British aid agencies were compelled to act”. (Ibid.)

By refusing to give free airtime to the appeal, the BBC made a rare decision to breach an agreement dating back to 1963. Other broadcasters then also rejected it. The DEC’s chief executive, Brendan Gormley, said:

“We are used to our appeal getting into every household and offering a safe and necessary way for people to respond. This time we will have to work a lot harder because we won’t have the free airtime or the powerful impact of appearing on every TV and radio station.” (Ibid.)

A BBC website article defending the BBC’s refusal to broadcast the Gaza appeal, asserted:

“The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/uk/7846150.stm)

Gormley rejected the BBC’s claim that there were question marks about the delivery of aid, saying 100 lorries a day were entering Gaza. He also challenged the alleged problem with “impartiality”:

“We are totally apolitical and are driven by the principles of the Geneva conventions in terms of impartiality and neutrality. This appeal is a response to those humanitarian principles. The BBC seems to be confusing impartiality with equal airtime.” (Percival, op. cit)

ITV said: “The DEC asked all broadcasters if they could support the appeal. We (the broadcasters) assessed the DEC’s requirements carefully against the agreed criteria and we were unable to reach the consensus necessary for an appeal.” (Ibid.)

Sky said: “We were considering this request internally when the DEC contacted us to let us know that the BBC had decided not to broadcast the appeal at this time. As, by convention, if all broadcasters do not carry the appeal then none do, the decision was effectively made for us.” (Ibid.)

This immoral and callous decision by the BBC in response to the suffering of the people of Gaza should not go unchallenged. Please complain using the phone number and email addresses below:

SUGGESTED ACTION

The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. If you do write to journalists, we strongly urge you to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

Phone the BBC from the UK on: 03700 100 222

Helen Boaden, Director of BBC news

Email: helenboaden.complaints@bbc.co.uk

Peter Horrocks, Head of BBC TV News

Email: peter.horrocks@bbc.co.uk

Richard Sambrook, Director of the World Service and Global News

Email: richard.sambrook@bbc.co.uk

General complaints to the BBC can be submitted via this form:

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Please send a copy of your emails to us

Email: editor@medialens.org

Now we’ve all seen through the Israeli government’s excuses..

Published on January 23, 2009 in Israel, Middle East and Palestine. 1 Comment Tags: .

Mark Steel asks the trillion dollar question: “If the Hamas rockets are so lethal, why doesn’t Israel swap an F-16 for some?”

The worrying part about whether the ceasefire in Gaza can hold together will be whether the international community can stop the flow of arms to the terrorists. Because Israel’s getting their planes and tanks and missiles from somewhere and until this supply is cut off there’s every chance it could start up again.

The disregard for life from these terrorists and their supporters is shocking. For example Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, wrote that the purpose of the Israeli attack must be to “inflict a heavy death toll and heavy pain on the Gaza population”.

Replace “Gaza” with “western”, and that could have been written by al-Qa’ida. Maybe this is the problem: the Israelis are writing their policies by downloading statements from an Islamic Jihad website and just changing the place names. Also, if the Israelis think the Hamas rockets are as lethal as they say, why don’t they swap their F-16 fighters and Apache helicopters for a few of them?

These things are capable of terrorising a whole nation for years apparently, yet the Israelis have neglected to buy any, wasting their money on gunboats and stuff. Given that their annual arms budget is $7.2bn plus $2.2 bn in “aid”, they’d save enough to buy a selection of banks in every country in the world.

The military advantages would be enormous because the Israelis’ complaint about Hamas is the use of tunnels to smuggle arms. But if Israel gave Hamas a few planes and tanks and helicopters, they could probably be persuaded to shut down those tunnels that seem to be the cause of such bad feeling.

Whatever you say about Israel, at least it moves its weapons about legally – except for when it secretly built a nuclear arsenal against an array of international agreements. But they did it above ground and not in a tunnel and that’s the main thing.

Watching the reports from Gaza, another reason why the ceasefire may break down becomes apparent. The Israelis might claim that their satellite pictures now show Palestinians in possession of huge mounds of rubble – lethal if thrown over the border. Luckily these weapons are easy to spot. Most of them are next to women howling, “Look what they’ve done to my house,” but perhaps the airforce should bomb them again – just in case. The Israelis say they fear Hamas will once again break the ceasefire by sending over those rockets. But the whole point of the operation was to make that impossible. Because they must have asked themselves the question, “If we slaughter 1,300 people, including 300 children, is that likely to make people: A. less cross or B. more cross?” And presumably they concluded it will make them much less likely to grow up full of hatred and determination to retaliate. Perhaps they saw medical research that shows when someone is suffering from anxiety and bouts of irascible ill-tempered behaviour, the best treatment is to pen them in with no food or medicine and then kill some of them, and that calms them down a treat.

Another way to allay their worries about Hamas breaking the ceasefire is to read the report from their government’s own Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre. This states that during the ceasefire “Hamas did not take part in any rocket fire and sometimes prevented other organisations from attacking.” Still, with all that’s been going on I suppose they haven’t had time for reading.

Despite all this there might be one cheery sign, which is that never before have so many people seen through the Israeli government’s excuses for handing out mass destruction. The demonstrations in support of Palestinians have been bigger than ever before, and even the United Nations and the Wall Street Journal have suggested Israel has committed war crimes. One poll in America suggested that 60 per cent of people opposed the bombardment, and the change of opinion reached the point that an Israeli diplomat has admitted that “The harm to civilians in Gaza is causing us huge damage.”

Maybe, best of all, was genetics expert Steven Rose who appeared on Radio 4′s Today programme to talk about a new study that’s located “morality spots”, the part of the brain that deals with our morality. Asked how we could know whether this was true, he said in a marvellously posh academic Radio 4 voice “Well we could test the brains of the Israeli cabinet and see if they’ve got no morality spots whatsoever.”

And the most immoral part of all is the perfectly cynical timing, as if three weeks ago Bush shouted: “Last orders please. Any last bombing, before time’s up? Come along now, haven’t you got homes to demolish?”

An Israeli Ceasefire

Published on January 22, 2009 in Israel, Middle East and Palestine. 0 Comments

In an attempt to prove that it was Hamas that broke the six month ceasefire, the Israelis have provided the truce agreement for international scrutiny.

Under the terms of the truce, Israel demands that:

  • Hamas end all hostilities directed at Israel
  • Hamas end all smuggling into Gaza
  • realise Gilad Shalit

In return, Israel guarantees to continue:

  • injuring and killing Palestinian men, women and children as and when it sees fit
  • the air, land and sea blockade of Gaza; preventing the entry of food, fuel and medicine and the exit of students studying outside Gaza and men, women and children seeking urgent medical treatment for life-threatening illnesses
  • keeping thousands of Palestinian men, women and children in administrative detention without charge and/or trail and to arrest others as it sees fit
  • building the Apartheid wall security fence
  • expanding the illegal settlements
  • demolishing Palestinian homes

In the event that Hamas refuses to abide by the terms of the truce, Israel reserves the right to unleash the Israeli “Defense” Force, the world’s fourth most powerful army, on the largely civilian Palestinian population and allow them to:

  • kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children
  • reduce to rubble schools, hospitals, mosques, UN warehouses
  • unleash the hasbarim division on the western media to repeatedly exclaim that “CCccchamas are teggogists, Israel is just defending itself”, “The IDF is the most moral army in the world” and “How could we know that blowing up white phosphorus shells with a blast radius equivalent to the size of a football field over a densely packed city would hit cilivians”

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