Baby Killers: BBC Butchers the Real Story
March 13, 2011 15:42 by Simon PloskerOnly days after HonestReporting’s Managing Editor wrote about the thread that links Palestinian incitement to inevitable acts of terror, Israel has suffered a shocking and brutal terrorist attack carried out by baby killers. Yet the BBC has still managed to turn this into a story about settlements.
As the JPost reports:
A mother, father and three of their children were stabbed to death late Friday night by at least one suspected terrorist who infiltrated the Itamar settlement southeast of Nablus.
The killings occurred shortly after 10 p.m., when one or two attackers jumped the fence that surrounds Itamar and broke into the home of Ruth and Udi Fogel, aged 35 and 36, respectively. The attackers went room to room, stabbing the parents, a three-month-old girl, Hadas, and two boys, Elad, three, and Yoav, 11.
Clearly, those who are capable of the premeditated murder of babies and children are driven by something far deeper than an aversion to the existence or building of Israeli settlements. There is nothing more innocent than a three-month old. Yet, many media outlets still chose to politicize the horrific slaughter of innocents by focusing less on the despicable act itself and more on making an issue of the location of the attack and dehumanizing the victims as “settlers”.
Note some of the following headlines:
- Suspecting Palestinians, Israeli Military Hunts for Killers of 5 West Bank Settlers – New York Times
- Israeli troops scour West Bank villages for killers of 5 Jewish settlers – Washington Post
But the most shocking and callous treatment of the incident was produced by the BBC. While the news cycle moved on and media outlets turned towards an announcement of approval for construction in Israeli settlements, most at least gave prominence to the appalling details of the terrorist attack even if this became part of a story relating to settlements.
The BBC, however, virtually buried the Fogel family’s massacre, once again demonstrating its obsession with the settlement issue above all other issues relating to the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
No dedicated reportage of the brutal attack was featured elsewhere on the site. Instead, subsumed in a story of settlements, it warrants only a few lines. The BBC does, however, report that the attack “has shocked many Palestinians”. Of course, the BBC failed to mention that Hamas described the attack as a “heroic operation” while sweets and candies were handed out in Gaza in celebration.
The BBC has exercised its own moral judgment that says that the issuing of building permits in settlements is the cause of terror. Otherwise, the story may have included statements from Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu attributing the terror attack to Palestinian incitement.
The BBC has a well-staffed bureau in Jerusalem with the same access as other media outlets. Yet it chose not to publish any photos or specific details of the terror incident.
In the BBC’s world, it is all about the settlements. By politicizing such a heinous terrorist crime perpetrated against a baby, two small children and their parents, the BBC is as guilty as the perpetrators of dehumanizing innocent Israelis based on where they live. For the BBC, it seems that the location of the murders and the stress on how settlements “are held to be illegal under international law” is more important than the murders themselves.
If the BBC ever had any moral compass, it has demonstrated that it has completely lost it. In the BBC’s eyes, there is no moral difference between deliberately murdering innocent babies and the construction of homes in disputed territory. Indeed, for the BBC, the settlement issue at best allows one to “understand” why such an atrocity could take place and at worst, justifies it.
The BBC is by no means the only guilty party in creating an environment where Israeli Jews living in West Bank communities are dehumanized to the point that a three-month old is merely a “settler” – the Palestinian Authority’s continuous incitement in the Palestinian media and education system bear much responsibility. But the international media have bought into this narrative of demonization and helped to create such a toxic environment that the murder of innocents is deemed to be almost acceptable and the human story behind a tragedy is cynically removed.
Send your considered comments to the BBC Complaints website. For more on how to navigate the complaints process, click here for our guide on how to make a complaint to the BBC.
UPDATE
YNet News reports that the director of Israel’s Government Press Office, Oren Helman, has demanded an apology over CNN’s coverage of the terrorist attack:
A CNN website report avoided describing the event as a terror attack, noting that the Israel Defense Forces consider it an act of terrorism. “Only you decided to use the term terrorist attack in quotation marks, as if this were not necessarily the case,” Helman wrote. “There is a limit to the extent of objectivity regarding such a horrific deed.”
CNN has responded, as of 1714 GMT, by removing the quotation marks from the headline and the opening paragraph.
The GPO’s other complaints, however, concerning CNN’s descriptions of the terrorist as an “intruder” or “assailant” have not been addressed at this time.
Send your considered comments to CNN using a feedback form or by joining in the discussion on the comment board below the CNN article.
UPDATE 2
The BBC covered the terrorist attack in an article that was last updated on March 12 at 15:04 GMT. The story was as problematic as CNN’s, using a headline that cast doubt on the circumstances of the terrorist attack through the use of quotations.
The BBC usually links to related materials on later stories such as the settlement one critiqued above. Instead, the story of the terror attack disappeared from the main news pages, including that of the Middle East news where such items usually stay visible online for a period of at least a few days.
So why is it that the BBC’s original coverage of the terror attack, as problematic as it was, does not even appear as a related item at the bottom of the settlement story? Having drawn a link between the building of settlements and the attack, it is extremely surprising that the original story has been omitted. An innocent slip or is there something more sinister behind the scenes at the BBC?
UPDATE 3
Why did Sky News wait over 48 hours to cover the brutal terrorist murder and only then in a story highlighting settlements?
Read more at HR UK’s latest communique – Settlements Trump Baby Killers: Sky’s Skewed Priorities
Scott
7:30 am
May 27, 2011
Don’t take the low self-esteem and vile rage you see in the mirror and try to put it on me. You expose more about yourself than I ever could by preaching christ in a forum full of mourning Jews.
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patricia jones
8:15 am
May 27, 2011
AWWW SCOTTY – I CAN SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE. YOU ARE PROBABLY STILL AT SCHOOL…… JUNIORS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DISRESPECT THEIR ELDERS AND I WOULD QUESTION YOUR REMARK ABOUT BEING A ‘MOURNING JEW’. THE JEWS I KNOW WOULD NOT RESPOND LIKE YOU TO THE COMMENTS ON THIS POST. YOU ARE REALLY A MUSLIM – I HAVE SEEN THROUGH YOU.
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sigal
9:50 am
May 29, 2011
look
I dont see the point of receiving more posts from this very vicious forum
Here is my two cents worth on the matter
I personally can do without preaching from so called good hearted christians
and i really can live without them supporting Israel or the extreme right wing parties of switzerland and Holland ,
I would like to see a liberal Israel that can live with its neighbors and most importantly that has citizens who can live with eachother and tolerate differences
I can not stomach missionaries, and i never understood the point of spreading the so called good word. Jews survived thousands of years terrible ordeals to keep their identity and belief system
The family murdered was no different.
Despite political differences i am shocked like everyone that such a murder can take place
and see it as a very clear vote against peace which makes me sad
I am for religious freedom which means that the so called preachers for christianity butt out of this forum and choose other vicitims for their preachings
I am so tired of people who can not let others breathe
enough
i also think it is very very disrespectful for ALL jewish people and liberal people who do not want to have religion shoved down their throats
Enough of these ugly arguments
this is really not the place nor the time
shalom peace
and religious fanatics Hasta La Vista
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American
8:52 pm
Dec 31, 2011
TO DIS-HONEST REPORTING, HERE IS THE REAL TRUTH:
Historical, documented facts prove there was widespread collaboration between Zionists and Hitler…all for the purpose of possibly receiving jurisdiction over a minute piece of earth, Palestine! The Zionists ignored the plight of their dying Jewish brothers by denying them help, they actually publicly refused to assist in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of Jews, fully knowing they’d be exterminated in gas chambers. Even more shockingly, the Zionists displayed the ultimate abysmal contempt for their Jewish brothers by collaborating with Hitler’s Third Reich and knowingly actively participating in the war on the side of Hitler which resulted in their fellow Jews EXTERMINATION. There are many, DOCUMENTED examples in the historical record of this, here are only a FEW:
President Roosevelt convened the Evian conference July 6-15 1938, to deal with the Jewish refugee problem. The Jewish Agency delegation headed by Golda Meir (Meirson) ignored a German offer to allow Jews to emigrate to other countries for $250 a head, and the Zionists made no effort to influence the United States and the 32 other countries attending the conference to allow immigration of German and Austrian Jews. (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
On Feb 1, 1940 Henry Montor executive vice-President of the United Jewish Appeal refused to intervene for a shipload of Jewish refugees stranded on the Danube river, stating that “Palestine cannot be flooded with… old people or with undesirables.” (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
It is historical fact that in 1941 and again in 1942, the German Gestapo offered all European Jews safe transit to Spain, if they would relinquish all their property in Germany and Occupied France; on condition that: a) none of the deportees travel from Spain to Palestine; and b) all the deportees be transported from Spain to the USA or British colonies, and there to remain; with entry visas to be arranged by the Jews living there; and c) $1000.00 ransom for each family to be furnished by the Agency, payable upon the arrival of the family at the Spanish border at the rate of 1000 families daily.
The Zionist leaders in Switzerland and Turkey received this offer with the clear understanding that the exclusion of Palestine as a destination for the deportees was based on an agreement between the Gestapo and the Mufti.
The answer of the Zionist leaders was negative, with the following comments: a) ONLY Palestine would be considered as a destination for the deportees. b) The European Jews must accede to suffering and death greater in measure than the other nations, in order that the victorious allies agree to a “Jewish State” at the end of the war. c) No ransom will be paid This response to the Gestapo’s offer was made with the full knowledge that the alternative to this offer was the gas chamber.
In 1944, at the time of the Hungarian deportations, a similar offer was made, whereby all Hungarian Jewry could be saved. The same Zionist hierarchy again refused this offer (after the gas chambers had already taken a toll of millions).
The British government granted visas to 300 rabbis and their families to the Colony of Mauritius, with passage for the evacuees through Turkey. The “Jewish Agency” leaders sabotaged this plan with the observation that the plan was disloyal to Palestine, and the 300 rabbis and their families should be gassed.
On December 17, 1942 both houses of the British Parliament declared its readiness to find temporary refuge for endangered persons. The British Parliament proposed to evacuate 500,000 Jews from Europe, and resettle them in British colonies, as a part of diplomatic negotiations with Germany. This motion received within two weeks a total of 277 Parliamentary signatures. On Jan. 27, when the next steps were being pursued by over 100 M.P.’s and Lords, a spokesman for the Zionists announced that the Jews would oppose the motion because Palestine was omitted. (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
On Feb. 16, 1943 Roumania offered 70,000 Jewish refugees of the Trans-Dniestria to leave at the cost of $50 each. This was publicized in the New York papers. Yitzhak Greenbaum, Chairman of the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency, addressing the Zionist Executive Council in Tel Aviv Feb. 18 1943 said, “when they asked me, “couldn’t you give money out of the United Jewish Appeal funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said NO! and I say again, NO!…one should resist this wave which pushes the Zionist activities to secondary importance.” On Feb. 24, 1943 Stephen Wise, President of the American Jewish Congress and leader of the American Zionists issued a public refusal to this offer and declared no collection of funds would seem justified. In 1944, the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People called upon the American government to establish a War Refugee Board. Stephen Wise testifying before a special committee of Congress objected to this proposal. (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
During the course of the negotiations mentioned above, Chaim Weizman, the first “Jewish statesman” stated: “The most valuable part of the Jewish nation is already in Palestine, and those Jews living outside Palestine are not too important”. Weizman’s cohort, Greenbaum, amplified this statement with the observation “One cow in Palestine is worth more than all the Jews in Europe”.
In 1947 Congressman William Stration sponsored a bill to immediately grant entry to the United States of 400,000 displaced persons. The bill was not passed after it was publicly denounced by the Zionist leadership. (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
On Feb. 23, 1956 the Hon. J. W. Pickersgill, Minister for Immigration was asked in the Canadian House of Commons “would he open the doors of Canada to Jewish refugees”. He replied “the government has made no progress in that direction because the government of Israel….does not wish us to do so”. (The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1976)
The Zionists knew full well that the denial and refusal to assist these Jews to relocate to any other country other than Palestine sent these poor Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers.
AND…Another vile example of Zionist collaboration with Hitler (especially note the SOURCE of this excerpt at the end:
In early January 1941 a small but important Zionist organization, the NMO, submitted a formal proposal to German diplomats in Beirut for a military-political alliance with wartime Germany. Part of the proposal is quoted below:
“The NMO which is very familiar with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its officials towards Zionist activities within Germany and the Zionist emigration program takes the view that: 1.Common interests can exist between a European New Order based on the German concept and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as embodied by the NMO. 2.Cooperation is possible between the New Germany and a renewed, folkish-national Jewry. 3.The establishment of the Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, and bound by treaty, with the German Reich, would be in the interest of maintaining and strengthening the future German position of power in the Near East.
“On the basis of these considerations, and upon the condition that the German Reich government recognize the national aspirations of the Israel Freedom Movement mentioned above, the NMO in Palestine offers to actively take part in the war on the side of Germany.
“The indirect participation of the Israel Freedom Movement in the New Order of Europe, already in the preparatory stage, combined with a positive-radical solution of the European-Jewish problem on the basis of the national aspirations of the Jewish people mentioned above, would greatly strengthen the moral foundation of the New Order in the eyes of all humanity.
“The cooperation of the Israel Freedom Movement would also be consistent with a recent speech by the German Reich Chancellor, in which Hitler stressed that he would utilize any combination and coalition in order to isolate and defeat England.”
SOURCE –> [Quoted from the Original Document in German Auswertiges Amt Archiv, Bestand 47-59, E224152 and E234155-58. Complete original text published in: David Yisraeli, The Palestinian Problem in German Politics 1889-1945 (Israel: 1947) pp. 315-317]
More horrific evidences:
In a tape-recording made by an orthodox moderate named Yitzhak Frankental and later published in the Israeli press, Rabbi Rabinovitch says that if soldiers come to uproot settlers he intends “to scatter the area with roadside bombs like the Arabs do” (quote is his words).
Zionist Rabbi Schachter says: “It is forbidden to pray for peace in Eretz Yisroel, because the Israeli-Arab wars are the ‘beginning of the redemption’ and if there is peace, it will delay the redemption.”
Founder of zionism, Theodor Herzl, promoted anti-semitism to further the zionist cause. He states very clearly in his own diary: “It is essential that the sufferings of Jews…become worse…this will assist in realization of our plans…I have an excellent idea…I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth…The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews.” (from Herzl’s own Diary, Part I, p. 16)
At the Zionist Congress in London in 1937, Dr. Chaim Weizmann established policy with his words: ” The hopes of Europe’s six million Jews are centered on emigration. I was asked, ‘Can you bring six million Jews to Palestine?’ I replied, ‘No’….From the depths of the tragedy I want to save two million young people…The old ones will pass. They will bear their fate or they will not. They were dust, economic and moral dust in a cruel world…Only the branch of the young shall survive…They have to accept it.” (from the book: Holocaust Victims Accuse, p. 25)
One of the founders of the Haganah (the Zionists’ paramilitary militia-army before the 1948 war), Ze’ev Jabotinsky, declared that settlement of the “land” is the only “law”. He declared: “There is no justice, no law, and no God in heaven, only a single law which decides and supercedes all–Jewish settlement of the land.” (from the book: Righteous Victims, p. 108)
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira says: “In any situation in which a non-Jew’s presence endangers Jewish lives, the non-Jew may be killed even if he is a righteous Gentile and not at all guilty for the situation that has been created,” ….AND another of his quotes… “Also, anyone who weakens our own state by word or similar action is considered a pursuer…Hindrances—babies are found many times in this situation. They block the way to rescue by their presence and do so completely by force. Nevertheless, they may be killed because their presence aids murder. There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.” – Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira. (Source: coteret.com/2009/11/09/settler-rabbi-publishes-the-complete-guide-to-killing-non-jews)
Quotes of Ben Gurion – Israel’s founding Father and war criminal extraordinaire:
“Dedication to the Zionist cause also produced a clear-minded but amoral aspect to Ben-Gurion’s character and behavior. On the one hand he once admitted: “If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel…we came here and stole their country”. On the other, he prescribed the following: “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” ” [Excerpt from the book: A Concise History of the Middle East - by Arthur Goldschmidt & Lawrence Davidson, p. 309]
In 1937 Ben-Gurion says: “We must EXPEL ARABS and take their places …. and, if we have to use force-not to dispossess the Arabs of the Negev and Transjordan, but to guarantee our own right to settle in those places-then we have force at our disposal.” (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 66)
Ten years later in 1947 Ben-Gurion says: “The strategic objective [of the Jewish forces] was to destroy the urban communities, which were the most organized and politically conscious sections of the Palestinian people. This was not done by house-to-house fighting inside the cities and towns, but by the conquest and destruction of the rural areas surrounding most of the towns. This technique led to the collapse and surrender of Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed, Acre, Beit-Shan, Lydda, Ramleh, Majdal, and Beersheba. Deprived of transportation, food, and raw materials, the urban communities underwent a process of disintegration, chaos, and hunger, which forced them to surrender.” (Simha Flapan, p. 92-93)
FACT: real Jews are 100% AGAINST zionism:
The Rebbe of Satmar, Hungary, Grand Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, a high-ranking rabbinical scholar of uncontested holiness, is one of the greatest giants in all of Jewish history. He called zionism “the work of Satan”, “a sacrilege” and “a blasphemy”. He forbade Jews to have any participation with anything even remotely associated with zionism and said that zionism was bound to call the wrath of God upon His people. He maintained this stance with unwavering bravery from the very onset of zionism. He wept that the Holocaust was a direct result of zionism as a punishment from God. In his book Vayoel Moshe (middle of Section 110) he states: “It is because of the Zionists that six million Jews were killed. The fact is that this is the bitter punishment stipulated in the Talmud (Tractate Ketuboth 111)
The great Rabbi from Shinova, who was the son of the Holy Sanzer Rabbi of Poland said this 100 years ago, at the dawn of Zionism: “You should know, that when a Jew recites ‘Hear O Israel, G-d is our Lord, G-d is One’ he should have in mind to reject all idolatry in the world, and Zionism is also idolatry, and he must reject it as well.”
In a letter written by the famous Rabbi Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin, Poland, before World War II: “THE CONCLUSION IS TO BE DRAWN THAT IF THE ZIONISTS GAIN DOMINION THEY WILL SEEK TO REMOVE FROM THE HEARTS OF ISRAEL BELIEF IN G-D AND IN THE TRUTH OF THE TORAH. ALL THE INTENT OF THESE INCITERS AND SEDUCERS IS TO CAST ISRAEL INTO INFIDELITY, WHICH IS DESTRUCTION. Tzadok Hakohen”
In a letter from Rabbi Aryeh Leib Alter, known as the Sfas Emes, which he wrote early in the Zionist period, the Rabbi says: “Now behold Satan has come and confused the world….A thick cloak rest over the eyes of the leaders of the Zionists. ONLY OWING TO THEIR LACK OF FAITH AND ABSENCE OF BELIEF IN G-D DO THEY FAIL TO REALIZE THE EXTENT OF THE DANGER INVOLVED IN THEIR PROMISES TO THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLES AMONG WHOM WE LIVE, OF ALL THE WORLDLY DELIGHTS PROVIDED THEY GIVE AID TO THE ZIONISTS. THEY EVEN URGE THEM TO EXPEL JEWS FROM THEIR MIDST. Every sensible person will realize the help they are providing the enemies of the Jewish People…. Aryeh Leib Alter”
In this book, in chapter 26, Rabbi Yitchak Aramah states that the Decree of Exile for the Jewish People is so serious that even if the Jewish People were to terminate the Exile from the Holy land ONE DAY before the willing of G-d, the entire People would be in great danger by virtue of having violated the prohibition of ending the Exile as discussed in the Talmudic Tractate Kesuboth 111.
Plus…there are so MANY MANY more proven historical documents, records, statements, and events, all of which show a multiplicity of CLEAR evidences proving beyond doubt that Zionism is terrorism, against Jews, against peace, and has absolutely NOTHING to do with true Judaism. Read all about it yourself, and you will if you have ANY genuine interest in the real, unadulterated TRUTH!
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The BBC In Its Own Words: “We Made a Mistake” | Blogs about Israel aggregation
5:05 pm
Jun 26, 2012
[...] the BBC’s coverage or, rather, lack of coverage of the brutal murders of the Fogel family generated outrage as well as shock and grief that an Israeli family, including a three-month old baby girl, could [...]
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The BBC In Its Own Words: “We Made a Mistake” | The Conservative Papers
5:33 am
Jun 29, 2012
[...] 2011, the BBC’s coverage or, rather, lack of coverage of the brutal murders of the Fogel family generated outrage as well as shock and grief that an Israeli family, including a three-month old baby girl, could [...]
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Note to MSM: Replace the Word "Settlers" with "Family" | Jennifer Hanin . com
7:57 pm
Aug 26, 2012
[...] “S word” dominated headline after headline after headline, while the BBC placed politics ahead of murder. (Sky News skewed priorities too.) The Fogels were [...]
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Wanneer woorden tot moord leiden | Christenen voor Israël
7:39 am
Feb 05, 2013
[...] bleek dat internationale media waaronder de BBC de moord op een familie meenden te moeten omzetten in een verhaal over illegale nederzettingen en [...]
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