BBC's ludicrous response to my complaint about its report on the murder of Dafna Meir

BBC's online report about the terrorist attack

On 18 January I made a formal complaint to the BBC about its online report on the terrorist attack that killed Dafna Meir. My complaint was based on what I wrote here.

Below is the main part of the response (which failed to address many of the complaints I raised) from Brian Irvine. I have highlighted some especially dubious parts, but the most ludicrous is the whole paragraph in response to the complaint that the BBC never mentions Palestinians as being the perpetrators. Irvine's response is to deny this by pointing to a different report of a different terrorist attack - a report dated 8 days after my complaint - in which he says Palestinians were mentioned as being the perpetrators. So - no need to be accurate in a report so long as you can point to some different report which was accurate. This suggests the BBC's policy is to routinely fail to mention Palestinians as being the perpetrators in its reports of terrorist attacks by Palestinians as long as once in a blue moon this rather salient fact is mentioned (also note that the report he links to was the murder of Shlomit Kreigman - but you would not know this because Shlomit's name is never mentioned - another example, in fact, of the BBC's dehumanisation of Israeli victims).

I was sorry to read you were unhappy with a number of aspects of the BBC News article 'Israeli woman stabbed to death in Otniel settlement house'.

BBC News makes no distinction between the value of Israeli or Palestinian lives, and strives to report what are often highly emotive stories about the conflict in a neutral way.

Sadly and tragically, deadly violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not rare. Incidents where the scale of deaths or casualties is low unfortunately are characteristic of the ongoing conflict, and for this reason we do not routinely report each attack or violent death.

In regard to headlines, our headlines are designed to a give a short, brief outline of what the article is about and can't include all the details. This is often due to limited space and readers are expected to read the complete article to get the full picture of a particular story.

As for your comment "Palestinians are never mentioned as being the perpetrators"; this is not the case, we aim for the highest standards of accuracy in each article we publish and always seek to report on a story in impartial manner. A recent example of this can be seen here:

'Israeli woman dies of wounds after West Bank stabbing attack' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35407654

We believe we have reported on the recent violence in an accurate and impartial manner and will continue to do so.

Brian Irvine

BBC Complaints

See also:

• International community perplexed why an Arab teenager would stab to death a defenceless Jewish Mum…..  
• Rules and Guidelines for reporting on Israel
• 4-1 in favour of the Arabs - all the world will know of the murder of another Jewish woman
• Another brutal terrorist killing the media will ignore
• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists" 
• Palestinians celebrate murder of Dafne Meir 
• Understanding media terminology for events in Israel 
• Exposing the antisemitic scorecards

4-1 in favour of the Arabs - all the world will know from the murder of another defenceless Jewish woman

Shlomit Kreigman aged (age 24) attacked and killed by 'heroic' Arabs

Another day, another terrorist attack by 'Palestinian' Arabs against defenceless Jewish women in Israel one of whom, Shlomit Kreigman, was stabbed in the head and killed. These terrorists also had bombs.

Outside of Israel, yet again nobody will hear about Shlomit Kreigman. All they will hear will be an update to the antisemitic scorecards that the western media uses** to summarise the current unprovoked terrorist violence against Israeli civilians.  Because both the Arab terrorists were shot and killed by a security guard as they tried to kill more people, and because this followed an earlier attack the same day where two terrorists were killed in the act, the scorecard update will show

"4 dead Palestinians and 1 dead Israeli"

- further 'proof' of Israel's 'disproportionate aggression'.

Honest Reporting highlights the hypocrisy of the Guardian's appalling reporting (Guardian headline was "Two Palestinians shot dead after knife attack in West Bank Shop")

**Fox News (supposedly the most pro-Israel Western media outlet) actually runs the scorecards in ticker-tape continually whenever there is an attack. No context - just the scorecards - and no choice for the viewer to ignore them as they move relentlessly back and forth across the screen for hours on end.  Currently showing "26 Israelis and at least 149 Palestinians killed in wave of violence":

Fox News 26 Jan 2016: obsessive use of antisemitic scorecards

See also:

• Understanding media terminology for events in Israel 
• Exposing the antisemitic scorecards 
• Fox News: Israel construction on 'holy sites' to blame for terrorism

Terrorist death creates crisis for world media

The story tonight from Israel that a terrorist has been killed by his own bomb without any intervention of any Israeli during an attempted attack (as reported in the Jerusalem Post) is causing panic and hysteria among the international media.

They are searching frantically for a headline that can make Israel the aggressor (earlier today after a female terrorist was shot dead in the act of stabbing a security guard the New York Times led with the headline shown at the bottom of this post).

Assuming that even they will not fall for the inevitable Arab spin on the story ("Israel kills Palestinian with planted bomb") my bet is that the media will come up with one of the following compromises:

"Palestinian killed in Israel bomb attack"

 "One Palestinian killed, no Israelis killed in latest Israel violence"

For the time being the entire Western media seems to playing safe and doing what they do when only Israelis are killed in terrorist attacks: refusing to report the attack at all.

***************************************************************************

New York Times earlier today after female terrorists attack guard with knife:

Yachad stoops ever lower and becomes increasingly dangerous for Israel supporters in the UK

This is an important update to recent postings.

Earlier this week I reported how Yachad - the anti-Zionist group fraudulently claiming to be 'pro-Israel' - closely partners with the vicious B'Tselem organisation who are so anti-Zionist that they hand over Arabs who sell land to Jews to be tortured and murdered by the Palestine Authority. I'm still waiting for a Yachad response/statement on this.

I then reported on the irony of how Yachad's attempt to delegitimize Israel ended with their own event being sabotaged by antisemites proving that, no matter how low Yachad stoops to kiss the boots of Israel haters, it will never be low enough. The event was the talk by the leftist former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon at Kings College London. Yachad brought Ayalon  to the UK for a lecture tour simply because he is an outspoken critic of the Israeli Government, demanding that Israel make major unilateral concessions to the Palestinians. Most significantly, Ayalon has stated that Israel is 'heading toward being an apartheid state' and much of what he says is used by Israeli haters in their propaganda, hence contributing to the international delegitimization campaign. Also, many believe that Ayalon's disgraceful contribution to the film the Gatekeepers was an act of treason against Israel.

The only reason Yachad brought Ayalon to the UK was because they knew he would speak exclusively about  Israel's faults and blame Israel for most of the problems in the Middle East. By emphasizing his former Shin Bet credentials he was an extremely useful and 'credible Israeli' pushing exactly the Yachad narrative. Now, Ayalon - like most left-wing Israeli useful idiots - genuinely thinks that parroting the narrative of Israel's enemies in the UK will help Israel win friends. But, ultimately, he is still an Israeli who believes in the Jewish State (albeit much reduced and indefensible) and in the eyes of Israel's enemies that makes Ayalon a 'war criminal' who, like every other "Zionist", must be silenced.

So Yachad - whose members are normally among those protesting when Israelis speak in the UK - found themselves on the receiving end of the Israel haters' venom as reported by Richard Millett.


But if you think that this kind of brutal exposure of the futility of Yachad's policy (of adopting the narrative and lies of Israel's enemies) has been a wake-up call then you will be disappointed. As I reported the day after the event their Facebook page actually tried to downplay what happened. But now it gets much worse. Incredibly, Yachad's leader Hannah Weisfeld has written an OpEd in Haaretz (where else do you expect?) with the title It's Not Only pro-Palestinian Students Who Use Intimidation to Silence Free Speech. She says (about the behaviour of the violent antisemites):

This behavior is emulated by members of the Jewish community here in the U.K. who, seeing the behavior of the Israeli government, believe that shutting down voices that disagree with the policies of the Israeli government is now the model of how to be a truly committed supporter of Israel.

She is referring to the fact that pro-Israel Jews had objected to an orthodox synagogue hosting one of the lectures by Ayalon on his Yachad tour of the UK. Given that the only voices that are publicly heard about Israel in the UK are those which are critical of its Government, it is strange that Weisfeld should bring out the censorship card here. Nobody in the Jewish community is trying to to ban her from hosting talks by Ayalon and his ilk. But she thinks she has a right to demand that such talks take place in orthodox synagogues and that is where any sane Israel supporter would draw the line. Does it mean, for example, that Yachad also have the right to demand, say, that Hamas or Hezbollah supporters speak at Zionist Federation events and that failure to do so amounts to censorship?

The fact is that the scenario Weisfeld paints is the perfect inversion of reality. While anti-Israel speakers are everywhere, it is becoming increasingly rare for any strong supporters of Israel to be heard publicly anywhere. Moreover, to demonstrate the hypocrisy of Weisfeld it should be noted that Yachad and their supporters have been at the forefront of trying to ban such pro-Israel speakers from the UK.

The fact is that 80% of the British Jewish community are strong supporters of Israel and ; if they knew what Yachad's true objectives were they would have been totally shunned by now. Yet, not only are Yachad fully embedded in mainstream Jewish organisations (including the Board of Deputies) but they are gaining an increasingly influential role. Most worrying is that they have devoted serious resources to brainwashing young Jews and this is reflected in the fact that they have managed to take over many of the Jewish Student societies (convincing naive Jewish kids that they really are 'pro-Israel, pro-peace').

If anybody thinks my concerns about Yachad are an exaggeration, then you need to know what the highly respected Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz thinks about their sister organisation JStreet in the US. While Derschowitz is a supporter of Israel nobody can accuse him of being a 'right-winger'. He is a Democrat who supported Obama and has been a consistent critic of Israel's policy of retaining East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Yet this is what he said (Tablet Magazine, August 2015) about the US version of Yachad:

"I think J Street has been the most damaging organization in American history against Israel. It has been the most damaging, more damaging than Students for Justice in Palestine [and] more damaging than the early anti-Zionist Council for Judaism. J Street has done more to turn young people against Israel than any organization in the whole of history. It will go down in history as one of the most virulent, anti-Israel organizations in the history of Zionism and Judaism. It has given cover to anti-Israel attitudes on campus and particularly its approach to Israel's self defense"

Exactly the same is true of Yachad and people need to wake up to this.

Understanding media terminology for events in Israel

See also:  

• Understanding media terminology for events involving Muslims in Western countries
• Rules and Guidelines for reporting on Israel

Yachad's attempts to delegitimize Israel fail to save it from attack by antisemites at London University

PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT UPDATE TO THIS POSTING HERE.

As I reported earlier Yachad is the anti-Zionist group (fraudulently claiming to be 'pro-Israel') that partners with B'Tselem who are so anti-Zionist that they hand over Arabs who sell land to Jews to be tortured and murdered by the Palestine Authority.

But, no matter how low Yachad stoops to kiss the boots of Israel haters it will never be low enough, and this was proved by what happened  yesterday at Kings College London. It is Yachad who  brought the leftist former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon to the UK for a lecture tour. Ayalon has been a vocal critic of the Israeli Government, demanding that Israel make major unilateral concessions to the Palestinians. His claim that Israel is 'heading toward being an apartheid state' is contributing to the international delegitimization campaign and much of what Ayalon has said has been used by Israeli haters in their propaganda. This includes his disgraceful contribution to the film the Gatekeepers which many believe was an act of treason against Israel. But while Yachad brought him to the UK to speak about Israel's faults, Ayalon is still an Israeli who believes in a (much reduced) Jewish State. And in the eyes of our enemies that makes Ayalon a 'war criminal' who, like every other "Zionist", must be silenced.

So Yachad - whose members are normally among those protesting when Israelis speak in the UK - found themselves on the receiving end of the Israel haters' venom. Richard Millett provides an eye witness report of what happened. The story has even been picked up by some main stream media and a Government spokesmen has condemned the disruption.


But if you think that this kind of brutal exposure of the futility of Yachad's policy (of adopting the narrative and lies of Israel's enemies) has been a wake-up call then you will be disappointed. Their Facebook page is actually trying to downplay what happened. Their report says

Whilst some of what happened at the event has already been documented on social media, some important details have been left out.  

Except their report contains much less detail than Richard Millett's. The only 'detail' seems to be the following assertion that attempts to downplay the significance of what happened:

These 20 something protesters were incredibly small in number

UPDATE

The B'Tselem scandal and its implications for Yachad

B'Tselem is an NGO (Non-Government organisation) whose English title is: "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories".  Like most of the NGOs who operate in Israel and the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, B'Tselem has no interest in "Palestinian Human Rights" (despite that being their main claim) but is instead dedicated to destroying Israel as a Jewish State by spreading anti-Zionist lies and propaganda. Almost of all of these organisations are funded by EU and US taxpayers who are never told anything about them because their governments are so obsessed with 'helping the Palestinians' that they are blinded to what really goes on. The British Government has recently given £227,988 to B'Tselem. The (only) reason B'Tselem and its activities are now in the spotlight is because a recent TV documentary exposed its members as being involved in the murder of Arabs simply because they were interested in selling land to Jews.

The fact that the B'Tselem scandal has finally made it into the mainstream British media (albeit only the online edition of the Sun) is good because it should be the catalyst to destroy any remote credibility that Yachad has for its claim that it is 'pro-Israel' (for US readers: Yachad is JStreet's UK sister organisation). This is because B'Tselem are a major partner of Yachad (and JStreet). In fact, all of Yachad's 'educational trips' to 'Israel and the West Bank' are coordinated with B'Tselem (and also involve other vicious anti-Zionist organisations like "Breaking the Silence"). For example, this is the itinerary of their most recent such trip from their own website. Yachad runs joint meetings with B'Tselem and consistently promotes B'Tselem's appalling propaganda on their website and facebook page.

Interestingly, Yachad received another wake-up call yesterday.

I do not believe that these latest wake-up calls will help Yachad realise the folly of what they do. So it is time for others to expose Yachad for the fraud and danger that they are.

From last year (satire but not much different to their actual website):

International community perplexed why an Arab teenager would stab to death a defenceless Jewish Mum…..

So the Arab terrorist who killed Dafna Meir was a teenager (described as either 15 or 16  in different reports). Apparently from a wealthy family. And his father said he was 'proud' of his son for carrying out the attack.

See also:

•  BBC dehumanizes Dafna Meir
• Another brutal terrorist killing the media will ignore
• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists" 
• Palestinians celebrate murder of Dafne Meir

BBC's dehumanization of Israeli terrorist victim Dafna Meir

BBC's online report about the terrorist attack

UPDATE 30 Jan 2016: BBC's ludicrous response to my complaint

Israel supporters have become so used to anti-Israel bias by the BBC (and the rest of the main stream media) that some of the worst examples - like the BBC's online report on the terrorist attack that killed Dafna Meir - pass by unnoticed (BBC Watch did report it but did not expose the points below). Indeed, since most terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians go completely unreported, there was some 'satisfaction' in the fact that the murder was reported at all (but note: it was not mentioned in any TV or radio broadcast and you will find it extremely hard to find the above article on the BBC website if you did not have the link or the exact title text to search for).

But let's dig a little deeper into the headline and the article itself and note the following systematic tricks that are now so standard that we simply accept them as 'normal' to the extent that we have become anaesthetized to it and fail to see that the aim of these is to delegitimize Israel and dehumanize Israeli civilians:

1. By making "settlement house" a key feature of the headline the BBC is notifying its readers that any Israeli victim there is a 'legitimate' target as it has consistently preached the (flawed) narrative that 'settlements are illegal'.
2. The headline not only fails to tell us that Dafna was killed in her own HOME but makes it clear it does not recognise the house as her home. Settlers are not really 'human beings', so they do not have 'homes'.
3. While the headline makes sure to name the 'settlement' it does not name the victim Dafna. To name her would be to make her 'human'. But nor does her name appear anywhere in the report (UPDATE: The report has now added her name). This BBC trick applies uniquely to Israeli victims. In any report of a single terrorist victim anywhere in the world where the victim was known, the name of the victim would be given. The BBC always gives the names of Muslim 'victims of Israeli violence' and even gives the names of terrorists when they are known (usually these are one and the same people) but never Israeli victims.
4. Since the BBC refuses to name Israeli victims for fear of humanising them, it means that they never report anything about the victim - so here readers must not be told how Dafna was a loving mother of 6 children - two of whom she adopted - and worked as a nurse in Beersheva where she treated Arab and Jewish patients with love and care (see Dafna's own poem about her life). 
5. BBC does not even categorically accept the report of the incident to be true. Indeed it is qualified in both the photo caption text and the main text by "The Israeli Army says...". This is a consistent trick used only against Israel. Since the BBC continually accuses the Israel Army of various forms of misbehaviour, the implication is that the entire report may be made up. In contrast, when Hamas and other terrorist organisations claim (normally falsely) that civilians have been killed by Israel, the BBC never states "Hamas claims" but reports it is an uncontested fact.
6. When terrorists are killed while committing attacks the BBC always uses the text "Israel kills..Palestinians" in its headline, but Palestinians are never mentioned as being the perpetrators of a terrorist act. So from the headline nobody (except those who know a lot about Israel) will have any idea who 'stabbed to death' this woman. Maybe it was her husband or a Thai worker (and yes those ludicrous claims have actually been used by Israeli haters in many previous similar cases, such as the Fogel family massacre).
7. Whereas in any other single victim terrorist attack the photo for the story would be the face of the victim - the BBC refuses to do this for Israelis. Again this would 'humanise' them, especially as in this case the victim was a beautiful young woman. 
8. Instead of a photo of the victim we have a photo of Israeli soldiers which, along with the caption, reinforces the BBC's (false) narrative that Israeli is a militarized society whose main objective is to hunt down Palestinians.
9. The main text in the report focuses on the 'militarised' response of the Israelis so as to emphasize the narrative of the previous point.
10. The BBC refuses to describe the full horror of the attack - that Dafna was killed in front of her children and that only because of her struggles and screams was the terrorist stopped from further killing  - or the context whereby the Palestine Authority has been inciting its people to carry out exactly this type of attack to murder Jews and where such attacks are wildly celebrated. Above all else the BBC must never let its readers know about the viciousness and antisemitic hatred of the 'poor Palestinians'.

I have made a formal complaint to the BBC based on the above.

Finally, since you will not see this in the main stream media here is a poem that Dafna's family wanted to share:

PLEASE SHARE (Anat):
Imagine growing up in a broken home;
Imagine finding a new adoptive family;
Imagine growing up,
Going to school,
Becoming a nurse,
Treating people in pain;
Imagine getting married;
Imagine having four children;
Imagine adopting two more.
Imagine dreaming about finding and providing a home,
and Finally,
Living your dreams.

Then imagine a terrorist breaking into your home
And Stabbing,
All these dreams.
To death.
Rest In Peace Daphna Meir.

Update: BBC's reponce to my complaint
Update: International community perplexed why an Arab teenager would stab to death a defenceless Jewish Mum….. 

See also:

•  Rules and Guidelines for reporting on Israel
• Another brutal terrorist killing the media will ignore
• While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists" 
• Palestinians celebrate murder of Dafne Meir 
• Backwards Headlines and Dehumanizing Israelis: BBC and Co. Run Rampant(Ari Sofer)

While Jews are murdered by Muslim terrorists the Jerusalem Post says the real threat to Jews is "Jewish terrorists"**

Jerusalem Post front page: Ignore actual Arab terrorists killing Jewish Mums; it's the Jews we have to worry about

While some of us rage at the anti-Israel bias of the Western media, the Israeli media itself (and not just Ha'aretz) continues to do a splendid job of deligitimizing Israel without outside help. Today an Israeli mother was murdered in her home in a brutal terrorist attack. But that story never made it on to the front page of the Jerusalem Post. Instead, the above screen shot is its front page. This ludicrous headline** and 'story'  is nothing more than the personal view of yet another leftist former Shin Bet moron Carmi Gillon made during a Sunday lecture at the Jerusalem Press Club. And to get a feel for just what a disgrace Carmi Gillon is read this article by Daniel Greenfield.

Which 'story' from Israel do you think the Western media will choose to talk about? The one above or the one below? Who needs enemies when we have friends like Carmi Gillon and the Jerusalem Post.

** Note that, not only is the JPost headline exceptionally offensive but it is also flawed due to political correctness. Since the article title explicitly said "Jewish terrorists" the ONLY correct comparison is with "Muslim" terrorists (which is why I titled this posting that way). By saying "Arab" instead of "Muslim" the JPost article was simply compounding ignorance and bias with political correctness (it's OK to talk about "Jewish terrorists" but not "Muslim terrorists"). Also note that it cannot even bring itself to say "Arab terrorists", instead using "Arab counterparts".

See also: Duma and the return of the King

Another brutal terrorist killing in Israel that the media will ignore

19 Jan 2016 Update: I have sent the following self-explanatory letter to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk)

Dear Sir/Madam

Where is the British condemnation of the corrupt Palestinian Authority which continues to incite brutal terrorist attacks against Jews?
 
Yesterday a 39-year-old Jewish Israeli woman Dafne Meir, mother of six, was murdered in her home by a Muslim 'Palestinian' terrorist in front of her children. Like almost all of the recent spate of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, the terrorist came from an area fully controlled by the Palestine Authority. Indeed, the Palestine Authority have been actively inciting their people to go out and murder Israeli civilians (see, e.g. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6647/abbas-palestinians-murder). As in every previous terrorist attack, the Palestine Authority will praise and honour the terrorist who murdered Dafne and call it it a ‘brave act of resistance’, while celebrations will take place throughout their territories because a Jew was killed.

Via British taxpayers, the British Government has, in the last 5 years alone, funded the Palestinian Authority to the tune of £400 million (despite the fact that its corrupt leader Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 11th year of his 4-year Presidency). Much of this money has been paid directly in salaries to convicted terrorists and to fund antisemitic incitement. I have not heard any British condemnation of the latest terrorist atrocity.

While I know the British Government has not condemned the Palestinian Authority publicly for its antisemitic incitement which led to the latest murder, I would like to know if any condemnation has at least been issued privately. I would also like to know if the Government has ever considered withholding any of its generous funding of the Palestinian Authority until they stop their antisemitic incitement.

Finally I would like to know if the Government thinks that the £400 million taken from British taxpayers in the last 5 years and given to the Palestinian Authority is money well spent.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

P.S. I've also asked the Board of Deputies why they have been totally silent on this (Update: an hour after I sent them a twitter message they posted a message to Facebook).

See also:

• Palestinians celebrate murder of Dafne Meir
• Why is Britain funding the murder of Arabs who sell land to Jews?

Bar mitzvah of orphan whose family's massacre was ignored by the media

Murdered 4-year-old Elad Fogel (one of several pictures that were posted with the family's permission after the attack).

One Family reports today the happy news that Roee Fogel, whose mother Ruth, father Udi, and three of his siblings; Yoav (11), Elad (4) and Hadas (3 months) were murdered in their home in Itamar in 2011, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah today.

The Fogel family massacre - which included the beheading of 3-month old baby Hadas - was one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in Israel's history.  Yet the massacre went completely unreported in the entire Western media as I reported from Israel at the time (interestingly several months later a British MP managed to get an apology from the BBC for failing to cover the story).

Something I never reported at the time, but is worth mentioning in the light of the current scandal about leftist Israelis who seek to destroy the Jewish State, is that several Israeli leftists told me that they felt no sympathy at all for the Fogel family 'because they chose to live in the occupied territories'. There are sadly many leftist Israelis who hate 'Jewish settlers' as much as the Muslims do...

Why is Britain funding the murder of Arabs who sell land to Jews?

As this incredibly important story is not being reported outside of Israel, and as there is a clear 'British' angle, I have written the following self-explanatory letter to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk)

Dear Sir/Madam

British Funding of anti-Zionist Organisations involved in the murder or Arabs who sell land to Jews
 
In case you are unaware of it, I would like to draw your attention to an important story from Israel that was revealed last week by the television program Uvda of Israel’s Channel 2.  It concerns the activities of Ezra Nawi, a far-left activist from the anti-Zionist Ta’ayush organisation, in collaboration with employees of another anti-Zionist organisation B'tselem. Nawi is heard gloating about how he passes on to the Palestinian Authority’s counter-intelligence arm the names of Palestinian Arabs who sell land to Jews. Nawi is heard saying: “The Palestinian Authority catches them and kills them. But before it kills them, they get beat up a lot.”

The 'British' Foreign & Commonwealth Office angle on this story is that the British Government - through taxpayer money has been directly funding both the B'teslem and Ta'ayush organisations to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Moreover, these organisations also receive substantial additional funding indirectly from British taxpayers via EU grants to which Britain contributes.

I would like to know why Britain is funding these organisations and whether such funding will now stop.

Also, I am sure you are aware that the context of this story is that, in the Palestinian Authority, the penal code reserves capital punishment for anyone convicted of selling land to Jews. I would therefore also like to know why the Foreign & Commonwealth Office - which in the last 5 years alone has funded the Palestinian Authority to the tune of £400 million - has done nothing to intervene with such a murderous, anti-Semitic penal system.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

Also a note to British Jews: B'tselem is an especially treasured 'charity' of Yachad and the New Israel Fund, while the Jewish Chronicle, Limmud and the Union of Jewish Students also consistently fall over themselves to provide a platform for their representatives. Yachad's 'educational trips' in Israel are actually run by B'Tselem.

Updates:

• The Israeli hard-left circles the wagons 
• The Israeli hard-left goes over the edge, aiding and abetting murder 
• Leftism absent morality in Israel
• Police open criminal investigation of far-left activists

Family member (Alon Bakal) was one of the victims of today's attack in Tel Aviv

I posted earlier today about the typically biased and indifferent reporting of today's attack. I am now shocked and saddened to discover that one of the victims was family member Alon Bakal (aged 27). May his memory be a blessing.

See also: Father mourns 'very special' son

Two people die in bar in unspecified city of unspecified country

An Islamic terrorist with an automatic weapon waited for a bar in central Tel Aviv to fill with people before opening fire, killing at least two and many seriously injured. The attack has apparently been claimed by Islamic Jihad.  Compare those facts with the above screenshot I just took from skynews.com. Not only is the story considered less important than a bomb plot in Munich, but Sky News refuses in its headline to mention even the name of the city let alone the country. And the report itself does not mention even the possibility of terrorism.

UPDATE

I am now shocked and saddened to discover that one of the victims was family member Alon Bakal (aged 27), first cousin of Yaniv Rachamim my late brother-in-law who also died at a tragically young age. May his memory be a blessing.