This goes on all over western media not only the bbc.
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Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
251–260 of 434 posts
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, the coverage of this has been a weird one to watch. How does this remark differ from what the Israeli government regularly says about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, just as much an official body in Iran as the IDF is in Israel? No one, to my knowledge, would consider calling for the demise of the IRGC to be hate speech against Iranians. No one has ever shut off a live transmission of a Netanyahu speech b…
They also regularly say there are no innocent Palestinians [1] [2] [3] [too many others to count] but weirdly it's not considered evidence of genocidal intent when Zionists say it! [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/israel-posts-video... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eICdhG1qgI [3] https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/poll-overwhelming-majority-of...
A minority of Israelis do say this. It's not something shouted in a music festival e.g. The official position and policy of the IDF is that Israel does not target civilians. I would say the majority of Israelis do not agree with this statement. [EDIT: for clarity that there are no innocents in Gaza]
Not to justify but they (the minority) are partly referring to the complicity of random Palestinians in cheering and participating in parading hostages and dead bodies brought in from the Oct 7th attacks. Civilians that followed the militants on Oct 7th to pillage and kill. The general support Hamas has in the population, including for the Oct 7th attacks. The celebrations after the attack. Civilians involved in holding Israeli hostages (some/many of the Israeli hostages were held by civilians) and otherwise actively participating in the conflict.
Either way civilians should not be a target, regardless of the views they hold. Trying to draw a target on all civilians, is not ok. The statement that there are no innocents in Gaza (that's usually the framing) is also very obviously wrong. Even if a large number is Hamas and engages in the kinds of behavior described above it's certainly far from all. Many Palestinians are under death threats from Hamas as well.
This expression isn't at the same level of calling for their death (though "Death to Arabs" has been chanted by the Israeli right wing after e.g. terrorist attacks in the past). It's possible some Israelis use this to support more aggressive tactics but in general the official policy is that the IDF targets Hamas and not civilians. It's also different when these things come out of parties to the conflict vs. random third parties.
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#253I'm starting to realize, very belatedly in life, that we suffer from an end-of-history illusion in politics and political economy. I used to think we live in a golden age because a hundred years ago, democracy broadly replaced monarchies, market economies replaced feudalism and other coercive systems, and with it went many of the old, indirect mechanisms of subjugating large populations (e.g. moral imperatives throug…
The problem is you can't even point a finger or single out people responsible for the current state of things. Unless we collectively accept there is a problem, the solution will not get implemented.
This is why monarchies are better than democracies. There is no accountability or ownership. A king wants to pass down something better to his progeny. A politician wants to make money and generally doesn’t care what state he leaves things in.
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#254Recent BBC World headlines: Gaza doctor whose nine children were killed in Israeli strike dies from injuries (June 2) Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC (June 4) Three journalists among five killed in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital (June 5) Four killed near Gaza aid centre, health workers say (June 8) Dozens of Palestinians killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals say (June 11) More t…
Imagine China started doing to the Uyghurs exactly what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and on the exact same scale. For that matter you can even say for the exact same justification - there have indeed been multiple mass death terrorist style incidents carried out by Uyghurs. Would you expect remotely similar framing? The entire population of Gaza was only ~2 million and Israel has now killed/wounded hundreds o…
> we would have long since been calling it a systemic genocide
Without knowing what "we" means, allow me to cite a few more recent BBC headlines, these related to "genocide":
Gaza war: UN rights expert accuses Israel of acts of *genocide* (March 26)
UN experts accuse Israel of sexual violence and *'genocidal acts'* in Gaza (March 13)
Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of *acts of genocide* in Gaza over water access (December 19, 2024)
Amnesty accuses Israel of *genocide* against Palestinians in Gaza (December 5, 2024)
Saudi crown prince says Israel committing *'genocide'* in Gaza (November 11, 2024)
Brazil's Lula compares Israel's Gaza campaign to the Holocaust (February 28, 2024)
ICJ says Israel must prevent *genocide* in Gaza (January 26, 2024)
Again, this notion that there is some pro-Israel bias plaguing the BBC just doesn't compute for me. Were the claims of this anonymous open letter valid, I wouldn't be able to tap a couple keywords into X and dump a list of such BBC headlines. Apparently any leader, pressure group or institution on Earth that cares to make a headline need only accuse Israel of "genocide" and it will be on the BBC the same day. Whatever supposed editorial bias is in effect appears to be highly ineffective.
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's about the careful wording, about who gets to be on the spotlight, about who gets to call the other side a tyrant, an evil state, about saying things like "regime change" and no-one batting an eye. Slowly, but surely, you form an opinion as to who the bad actor is as you've seen or read about its bad behaviour (but not of the behavior of the other party) Most interestingly, it's about who holds the microphone and…
In a meta sense, yes, but in practice it’s mostly just a large collection of journalists and editors, real humans, working in a chaotic information space where there’s a large variety of angles and sources being put out at all times depending on the context. It’s equally easy to cherry pick this sort of thing to build a narrative of some ulterior agenda. Especially given the high pace that news demands in the social…
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Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article mentions this.
Apologies for the oversight. However I feel the author's phrasing "hysterical pro-Israel campaign" to downplay their concerns is telling.
Well, we should accept that it was a bit hysterical. "Terror chief's son" [1]? Really? Apparently he's the deputy minister of agriculture. Ministers, bureaucrats and civil servants in Gaza are appointed by Hamas [2]
[1] https://www.gbnews.com/news/bbc-hamas-propaganda-documentary...
[2] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-palestinian-chi...
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#257Coming from an outsider, the letter is frustratingly vague. The only concrete allegation is the pulling of the documentary "Gaza: Medics Under Fire", but without a statement from BBC explaining why they pulled it, it's basically impossible from an outsider to know whether censorship is indeed happening or not. The rest of the letter basically down to a he-said-she-said over bias/censorship happening. Owen's article d…
Other sources:
- https://cfmm.org.uk/bbc-on-gaza-israel-one-story-double-stan...
- July 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/jul/03/gaza-film-prod...
- February 2025 https://www.declassifieduk.org/battle-for-the-truth-pro-isra...
- November 2024 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bbc-israel-g...
- November 2023 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/23/as-israel-pounds-g...
Review of documentary BBC refused to air: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/03/gaza-do...
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How many people die in civil wars in Sudan or Congo, compared to how much coverage are they getting? Does that mean the BBC has a anti-Sudan bias? Yes.
Yet, when was the last time 100+ concerned journalists penned a open letter saying that we needed more coverage of the genocide in Sudan? It's all good if it's some sort of principle that's being applied evenly, but it's pretty clear in the case of the Israel vs Palestine conflict, most people are invoking that principle are doing it only when it suits them.
No. pointing out genocide, attacks that kill hungry or starving people trying to get food is not some special unusual mean thing. It's something that all decent peoples should be against. I'm against all attacks on the innocent. It doesn't need to be repeated, but I'll do it - I was against the attacks by Hamas on Israel too.
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…
Anyone who call it "Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza" is hardly a reliable source. And the entire criticism is amount of coverage per death? I men the Israeli deaths have names attached to them and you can verify them, the Palestinian ones are just numbered by Hamas. Obviously the coverage will be different. I skimmed the article by CfMM and it's hardly a neutral source. Like they complain that BBC doesn't call Palesti…
The Palestinian dead have names too, and it doesn’t take much to verify them.
Beyond the deaths, the hostages taken by both sides are exactly that: hostages. Why do you suggest Palestinian prisoners are not? What makes you think anything akin to “due process” is happening in Gaza right now?
Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza
#260Offending or over-accusing sides of this conflict is a very asymmetric risk. Misrepresent Palestinians negatively and you may eventually get an angry, vague letter - with a quarter of signatories doing so anonymously. Misrepresent Israelis negatively and you get very powerful and well-organised protests. BBC is sadly doing the rational thing of staying clear of suggesting Israel may be doing some bad things. It is a Corporation after all and so acts in corporate ways.
But this is also the example coming to them from the top. On the occasions where Israel has clearly committed egregious violations, such as shooting at people massed at the aid dispensal locations or the medics who then got buried in shallow graves, Israel gets barely a whimper of criticism from European politicians - and apparently full-throated cheering and support from the US. The ICC arrest warrant is as forgotten as last year's snow.
So why are we surprised the BBC doesn't want to stick its head above the parapet?