The BBC has surpassed itself in breathtaking anti-Israel bias in its report of the Hamas-led terrorist attack today. The following a self-explanatory letter of complaint I have just written to the BBC:
The report on the10.00pm News this evening regarding the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel was extremely biased against Israel and contained a major factual error. The report claimed that the attack was revenge for Israel "killing 13 Palestinian civilians" in the last week. In fact most of those civilian deaths were a result of an explosion at a Gaza beach, which was originally claimed to be from a stray Israeli shell, but has since proved to be almost certainly from a mine (probably planted by the Palestinians themselves). The other civilian deaths resulted from an Israeli air strike that targetted terrorists in the act of travelling with Qassam rockets to fire at the Israeli town of Sderot. The fact that Palestinian have been firing these rockets (at the rate of dozens every day) from densely populated areas suggests that they, not the Israelis, are to blame for such civilian deaths.
It was extremely unbalanced and unprofessional of the BBC to present the news in this way, especially as the BBC has been silent in its news broadcasts about the continued indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli towns.
Yours
Edgar Davidson
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Demonisation of Israel
The following is a self-explanatory letter I sent to Metro (the freebie daily London newspaper):
Dear Sir/Madam,
The Metro on 26 May contained a theatre review (by Claire Allfree) of a play called "The Daughter". According to the review the play looks at how an 'ordinary young Palestinian woman' is driven to 'suddenly turn to martyrdom' (meaning she decides to become a suicide bomber). The review goes on to say: "Horrified, her drunken father decides to go instead, only to get caught at the border. The Israeli police demand his daughter's virginity in exchange for his life..." The review then states that the Director "deliberately refuses to give .. much of a political or religirous argument".
If your reviewer genuinely believes that a play that portrays Palestinian suicide bombers as heroes and Israeli police as rapists and blackmailers is "non political" then she has clearly been fooled by the casual, but incessant, demonisation of Israel that has been promoted by the media over the last few years. The notion that Palestinians are suddenly, out of sheer desparation, driven to become suicide bombers is a media myth. No Palestinian suicide bombing has ever been anything other than intensely well planned and financed, with willing recruits always available because of the long-term indoctrination of hatred practiced by all Palestinian political organisations. Your reviewer (and the Director) also appears to be unaware that, rather than expressing "horror" the parents of Palestinian suicide bombers inevitably rejoice publicy in their child's 'martyrdom' and the Palestinian Authority has always bestowed the highest respect on both the 'martyrs' and their parents. It is also worth pointing out that there has never been a single recorded instance of an Israeli policeman raping a Palestinian woman. In contrast, here is a recent example of the kind of brutal act perpetrated regularly by Palestinians: on 4 May 2006 a Palestinian (Anwar Ahdush) working illegally in Israel raped and murdered an 8-year-old Israeli girl Lipaz Himi from Beit Shemesh. Not surprisingly, like most terrorist acts against Israel incuding the daily rocket attacks from the Gaza strip and more recently from Lebanon) this news item was never reported in the Metro.
Dear Sir/Madam,
The Metro on 26 May contained a theatre review (by Claire Allfree) of a play called "The Daughter". According to the review the play looks at how an 'ordinary young Palestinian woman' is driven to 'suddenly turn to martyrdom' (meaning she decides to become a suicide bomber). The review goes on to say: "Horrified, her drunken father decides to go instead, only to get caught at the border. The Israeli police demand his daughter's virginity in exchange for his life..." The review then states that the Director "deliberately refuses to give .. much of a political or religirous argument".
If your reviewer genuinely believes that a play that portrays Palestinian suicide bombers as heroes and Israeli police as rapists and blackmailers is "non political" then she has clearly been fooled by the casual, but incessant, demonisation of Israel that has been promoted by the media over the last few years. The notion that Palestinians are suddenly, out of sheer desparation, driven to become suicide bombers is a media myth. No Palestinian suicide bombing has ever been anything other than intensely well planned and financed, with willing recruits always available because of the long-term indoctrination of hatred practiced by all Palestinian political organisations. Your reviewer (and the Director) also appears to be unaware that, rather than expressing "horror" the parents of Palestinian suicide bombers inevitably rejoice publicy in their child's 'martyrdom' and the Palestinian Authority has always bestowed the highest respect on both the 'martyrs' and their parents. It is also worth pointing out that there has never been a single recorded instance of an Israeli policeman raping a Palestinian woman. In contrast, here is a recent example of the kind of brutal act perpetrated regularly by Palestinians: on 4 May 2006 a Palestinian (Anwar Ahdush) working illegally in Israel raped and murdered an 8-year-old Israeli girl Lipaz Himi from Beit Shemesh. Not surprisingly, like most terrorist acts against Israel incuding the daily rocket attacks from the Gaza strip and more recently from Lebanon) this news item was never reported in the Metro.