BBC Bias Alert: Justifying and Humanizing Terrorist Murderers
February 2, 2012 15:45 by Simon Plosker
When is murder not murder? According to the BBC, when Jews or Israelis are the victims.
In a feature on Palestinians prisoners released and exiled as part of the Gilad Shalit deal , the BBC states:
The releases were enormously controversial in Israel, where some of the prisoners were seen as mass murderers.
When terrorists deliberately kill innocent Israeli civilians, that’s murder. Period.
As for freed terrorist, Ibrahim Shammasina, profiled by the BBC, his involvement in the murders of teenagers Ronen Karamani and Lior Tubul, taxi driver Rafi Doron and IDF soldier Yehoshua Friedberg, warrants but one sentence in the BBC report, which even omits one of those murders:
“A minute of freedom is worth more than all the possessions in the world,” says Shammasina. “Prison, it’s a grave – as if you’re in a grave but still alive.”
Shammasina was sentenced to 23 years in jail for his role in the 1990 murder of three Israelis and a further 20 years for planning a kidnapping. Despite spending almost half his life in prison, he does not regret his actions.
“When there is an occupation, you’re forced to,” he says. “It’s your duty, the duty of every Palestinian, to resist the occupation. If I didn’t resist, I would just have surrendered.”
You may also like: Reuters Redefines Terrorist Attack
What the BBC didn’t tell you
While the murder of two teenagers didn’t even warrant more than a passing reference by the BBC, here’s what the LA Times reported on a terrorist outrage that shocked Israelis back in August 1990:
. . . the bodies of two Israeli youths, bound, beaten and stabbed, were found earlier in the day in a ravine just north of Jerusalem. . . .
The two youths, Ronen Karamani, 18, and Lior Tubul, 17, were last seen Saturday night at the close of the Jewish holy day when friends dropped them off on a main road leading north from Jerusalem. . . .
About 1:30 p.m. Monday, searchers found the bodies about 20 yards apart in a ravine off the road. One bore about 50 stab wounds, witnesses said, and the other’s skull had been bludgeoned.
“The way they were tied down, the way they were stabbed points definitely to a political murder,” Turner was quoted as saying. “There was no reason to think that these two normal, good teen-agers were murdered for any criminal reason.”
Continued on Page 2
lennybilljerry
12:35 pm
Feb 03, 2012
The BBC is known in our home as ‘The Ministry of Truth’
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Ric
1:57 pm
Feb 03, 2012
Denis and Albert, you are both right! There is both anti-Zionism bordering on anitisemitism and support for Israel throughout British society, as there is in the USA (though massively supportive) and France (much more anti). The real problem is two-fold: the good guys amongst the Gentiles (like Denis) who speak out are little more than a handful, and they are almost cancelled out by the minority of vociferous British Jews who attack Israel. Albert: keep your powder dry, and do not let the best be the enemy of the good!
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Albert Reingewirtz
3:16 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I am old enough to remember that the whole world was revulsed by Britain preparing the death chamber in Acre to hang Dov Gruner. Everybody that was anybody was begging the British crown not to hang this totally invalid men. With their stiff godamn upper lips they ended lifting this little painful remaining bit of humanity to hang him. Later on Israel a high percentage of it’s population lost their life trying to save Jerusalem from the British savagery. Shahar Haguy on the way to Jerusalem remained littered with home made burned hulks of iron clad trucks. The Exodus, the White Papers, Bevin, Joun Glub are in good company with today’s Britain. It is all the same garbage. As for the Jews who vote for such anti- Semites such as Obam they aren’t Jews, they are a sickness that would not move a finger if their mother was attacked while living in Judea. I vomit them!
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steve mann
3:41 pm
Feb 03, 2012
Albert you have a hate which appears irreconcilable and that is a great pity-
I too am old enough to remember- all those people- I have been involved in fighting the National Front in the UK and I mean physically.
I was involved in the Suez campaign- not in the British or French side.
Those people are dead and buried.
To this day I am involved in fighting Israel cause- Whilst sure there are those who for or reason or another – From the extreme Left Wing- from the extreme Right Wing- from the Islamofacists -and from those orthodox Jews who side with Iran. Sure they are all here in the UK.
However I can assure you there are those who firmly support Israel- From the Ulster Unionists,
The Conservative, Labour and other parties “Friends of Israel organisations.
We have Christian church leaders who assist us at rallies and we have Muslims for Israel.
They to are all here in the UK.
Save your anger for Ha`aretz and the other Left Wing groups in Israel.
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Albert Reingewirtz
3:55 pm
Feb 03, 2012
You sound like a paying member of Jstreet. Why should I not be mad at Britain? Why should I be conciliatory toward the colonial power that cut and diced the Middle East for it’s own purposes and biases. You can’t name any place or nation that wasn’t affected negatively by Britain in the whole area. The Kurds to this day are waiting for their Kurdistan. Their history begin almost with human history yet Britain, mostly sides with the newly minted nation that did not exist before the 60′s, the so called Palestinians. I am not ashamed to be angry instead of acting like nothing happen as the guy who wipes off spit from his face and says that it must be raining. (By the way, I remained in Gaza from the first day to the very last day in 1956). Britain is like a kitten that needs to have his face rubbed into it’s misdeeds over and over again. Why always act as if it is a new day with no history, no blood, no siding with the enemy then and now? I am on the moral side and you try to forget the past encouraging lectures with the British claiming high ground while in fact they have parasited half the world living of the lands and labor of those they call “natives.”
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steve mann
5:04 pm
Feb 03, 2012
Simply because what is done is done-I do not ask you, or would I dream of asking you to forgive or forget those that wished “No Good” to us- But they have gone- Use the past as argument- Not with bile but to enhance your argument- Look to the present and the future. That you can have input to-
You can do nothing about the past-
But its your life- be well- and you must do and say what ever you see it.
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Albert Reingewirtz
6:44 pm
Feb 03, 2012
You are out of your mind to think I will present the other cheek. I am a Jew who learned the hard way surviving the Shoa. I hear the same drum beat today as was heard before the Shoa. I see it as my duty to remind the world of miscreants that pointed the fingers at us and Jews put their heads down walked in the shadows to make themselves less visible. Today is a new day indeed. We remind you of your past because we did not forget the horror of your discourses that lead to the extermination of fully one third of our nation and then the British carving of a chunk of the Jewish homeland siding with the invaders aiming to destroy Israel and almost succeeding in their effort thanks to the perfidy of Britain. Now is exactly the time to remind you. We are Jew, we remember the past and hold it to you as a mirror in order for you not to renew you alliance with the evil attempt to destroy the Jewish nation again this time by a nuclear Iran or it’s proxies with thousands of missiles aimed at Jews, again and again while the BBC chants it’s Hallelujah and it’s accusat0ry finger again in the wrong direction, the Jews. I know it is inconvenient that the Jews still exist talking at the past. I have an advise for the British “Elite” tell us to tone down. Stop supporting evil attempts against the Jews because if there is another next time other Jews will survive and hold a mirror to your faces, Britain people and will remind you of the new past again. You see, Jews never forget. We write things down. This is how you got the chance to mistranslate our Bible and call it The King James Bible. It’s in there! Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem the Jewish capital. Open it up! One thing I can guaranty you will not find in it is “The West Bank” because it was invented only in the 60′s of last century.
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Julinho Aisen
7:14 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I agree 100% with you Mr. Albert Reingewirtz. The British caused problems over all world! The colonialism in India and China (where they send opium to change for tea). About the Jews this british people was one of the first to expel them from Europe. Now again they have problems with the Malvinas (Faulkland). I have no simpaty for the britains!
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steve mann
7:18 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I Would be concerned more with Iran, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and all the other Muslim Brotherhood Groups-
However you wallow in the past and watch your blood pressure- Sincerely.
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Albert Reingewirtz
8:30 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I must have touched a raw nerve with Dunkirk! In fact armies fleeing with anything available including dingies is always called a route by anyone not involved. Of course the Brits call it heroic. Take for example Waterloo is called a defeat by the French and a victory by the Brits. History is written by the rulers of the country not others. Nevertheless a fleeing army running away as fast as it can is the exact description of a defeated army, a route. As for Eden he is a typical British ruler during the Shoa and after during the Suez affair when Britain tried to save it’s “ownership” of the Egyptian Suez canal. It is for the same reason the campaign for The Malvinas, North Ireland and all the rest why Brits go to war, preserving the misbegotten land grabs of theirs world wide. You have a misconception about my posts. I do not argue for anything. I accuse the guilty Britain over and over again. Trying to divert the subject from British world wide guilt to my danger getting high blood pressure and such psycho bable things. We are here, we will be here and will remember even if the Brits invent things.
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Denis MacEoin
9:33 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I don’t really want to continue this rancorous debate, Albert, but I need to say two things. The first is that I do a rather off form of hasbara: I find anti-Isarael and anti-Semitic material in comments (or videos) on YouTube. It’s a depressing task, because the commentators are almost always unbalanced, filled with rancid hate, bitterness and bile. Now, I never expected to find those qualities on the Honest Reporting site, and for them to come from a Jew who defends Israel (and maybe lives there). But that is what your posts look like. I am Irish and I regret what the English did to our country, but all that is past, we are an independent country, and even Sinn Féin has learned how to sit down to dine with the dreaded English.
In this latest post, you refer, not for the first time, to Dunkirk.If you ever choose to do hasbara in the UK, may I ask that you keep all reference to Dunkirk out of any conversation you may have. It would be one of the most disastrous things you could say. The thing that stands out in all our memories of that event is the little fleet of small boats that set out, risking their lives, to pick up soldiers from the beach, where they were being strafed and killed by the Germans, and to take them back to Dover. That action, as someone else has said, guaranteed the survival of the British army, enabled them to fight in North Africa and to go on fighting on several fronts, and finally to win the war and liberate the concentration camps. We also remember the Spitfire squadrons that fought the Luftwaffe at a terrible cost in young lives (a pilot’s life was measured at around 6 weeks. We also remember the British submariners who went out to protect merchant shipping in the Atlantic, facing the German U-boats. And the sailors on board the merchant ships showed extraordinary courage, since the toll exacted by the U-boats was incredibly high. All over this country we have war memorials, almost all of them for the Second World War. British soldiers, sailors and airmen faced a heavily-armed German when the rest of Europe had surrendered and before the Americans came in. The Special Operations Executive sent out large numbers of agents into France, like Violette Szabo and Pakistani Noor Inayat Khan, and about 1 million across the world. Many were arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and executed. That Germany was finally defeated is due in large part to the heroism of people like these, and it will win you no friends in Britain if you trash their memory.
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steve mann
9:47 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I dont know , Albert where you are coming from or where you are going to-
Of course yo are there- and look around who you share with- Peoples of all colours and faiths.
75% Jews the rest are not- All Israelis- So what do you want- Hate the British- OK Hate us.
How about the Americans- in 1948 they too put an embargo on arms to Israel.- you going to hate them as well.? It was Stalin who forced Hungry and Czechoslovakia to supply Israel with arms against the 6 Arab nations- Then you saw how Stalin treated the Jews afterwards when they would not be another USSR satellite. Do you want to love or hate them.
You talk of the “Malvinos” as though the people living there are all Argentinians- They are British, I think one Argie among the lot..
You talk of N.Ireland as though they are all republicans -they are not- And recall it was the IRA who assisted Hamas with snipers- who trained in Libya- Not the UK citizens of N.Ireland.
You come over as a doppelganger of a Jihadi Islamist-
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Albert Reingewirtz
9:54 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I do not do Hasbara nor any kind of propaganda. I simply state the truth about Britain. That later British soldiers fought bravely is not denied at all. Dunkirk was a rout by any definition even if the British people chose to call it a victory over a situation. I really do not give a rat’s ass about it. I am sorry I mentioned it because it distract from what is important: British ingrained anti- Semitism, colonialism world wide based on nothing else but pure racism keeping in mind that colonialism is possible only and only if the colonizers consider themselves to the colonized as in the case of British vue of others as “The natives.” Interesting to see that you are familiar with special operations during world war II and of course do not mention Jews of Palestine fighting within the British army and behind the lines parachuted where nobody else would have been insane enough to go and executed after terrible torture.
By the way I do not need friends in Britain. What I need is for British people to learn their history, their misdeed worldwide and particularly against my people the Jews. Maybe then they will stop siding with Arab terror day in day out. Maybe even the BBC will start not distorting the truth when it comes to the Jewish nation of Israel. Is this too much to ask?
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Albert Reingewirtz
10:02 pm
Feb 03, 2012
How true! Israel in 1948 was alone fighting to survive. Thank you so much for mentioning it. Does this justify the active crimes of Britain against the Jewish nation and there extension today with the BBC, it’s newspapers, it’s universities spreading lies and trying to embargo Israeli Universities from connecting with other universities? Yes it’s true British people live in The Malvinas and in Gibraltar. Does this make it right? Does this make it OK for Britain to point finger at Israel building in it’s eternal capital that by the way was never anyone else’s capital not even when Arab control this holy city to the Jews for centuries. First clean up your own house before looking at other people and nations
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steve mann
10:10 pm
Feb 03, 2012
No country is perfect- Each should put its citizens first- Britain no worse than any other- All over the world the Pro Arab propaganda was fermenting this problem whilst Israel sat back and let it happen- It was the Jews of the West who put their head above the parrapit and started shouting.
And after the US it was us in the UK who were up front in combating the lies an twisted half truths of the BBC etc-
And dont tell me that Israel can do every thing without outside help- I have listened to to many Israeli ambassadors and other visiting politicians to know otherwise.
Why the hell do you think they come to visit and lecture here and listen to us. And it is not to make Aliha!
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Albert Reingewirtz
10:30 pm
Feb 03, 2012
I never said that Britain is the only country of anti- Semites and Jews voting them in. The same exist in the USA. 80% of US Jews voted for anti- Semite Obama knowing full well who he was. Really Israel depends on outside help to exist? How many states have send soldiers to defend Israel from it’s enemies? The answer is very short: None ever. Why do British politician think that they are possible go between after British politicians and military created most of the problems plaguing Israel with it’s neighbors? Israel needs above anything else is Europeans and the US not siding with it’s enemies while missiles almost daily rain on it’s citizens. At least if they said nothing at all it would be almost fair. Brits always claim that they are good sportsmen that they play fair. It is time to show this imaginary sportsmanship of the British people usually exemplified by it’s hooligans during football games. If they do not have anything good to say about Israel maybe they should remain silent.
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Ric
1:25 am
Feb 04, 2012
Albert, while you come on too strong in some posts, your comment at 6:44pm (“You are out of your mind…”) is a masterpiece of heartfelt polemic! It is just the sort of thing to put backbone into waverers, and deserves wider circulation.
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steve mann
1:32 am
Feb 04, 2012
Albert, why do you miss the point- Israel surely has shown she can defend herself without the military of other countries- Tell me how long could she have held out in 1971 without the US sending in large transporters with hardware? So dont talk rot.
The Jews in the diaspora have been- time and time again – a support- In 67 my mother in law even gave her silver candle sticks to the war effort.
You overlook the the propaganda war -which Israel did nothing to combat- We Jews in the West have been the front runners in combating that- Dont say thanks- stay stubbornly arrogant.
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Albert Reingewirtz
1:38 am
Feb 04, 2012
Thank you! Be my guest, circulate if you can.
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Albert Reingewirtz
1:48 am
Feb 04, 2012
Yes, right! I will say thanks for US Jews who voted for Roosevelt who closed the doors to part of my family that ended up on Hitler’s ovens. Their descendants voted for the well known anti- Semite Obama for President who wants Israel to return to what someone dubbed The Auschwitz border of 8 miles wide to the sea where Arab states and the “moderate” Abbas wants to put the Jews. Your mother in law was a real Jew. The 80% of US Jews who voted for Obama aren’t. All they are concerned about is their country clubs commonly called Jewish centers. How can a Jew vote for a known anti- Semite? How can a Jew work for a known anti- Semite to further his career? Israel can’t depend for anything from US Jews. Can you even fathom that some are part of the BDS movement to deligitimize Israel?
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Josephine Bacon
10:11 am
Feb 04, 2012
An important programme is being broadcast on the BBC Television World Service, here are the details: I am curious to know how biased it will be:
Mixed Up In The Middle East will be shown on BBC World News at 01:10 and 15:10 (GMT) on Saturday 4th February and at 09:10 and 21:10 (GMT) on Sunday 5th February.
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Josephine Bacon
10:13 am
Feb 04, 2012
England was not “one of the first” countries to expel the Jews, it was THE FIRST.
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Josephine Bacon
10:22 am
Feb 04, 2012
Of course Dunkirk was a defeat, Albert, and the British never call it anything else. My mother, who was then living on the South Coast, saw the wounded soldiers being packed into trains with the window blinds drawn down so no one would see them, and as a Jewish woman she expected the Nazis to turn up any minute and throw her into concentration camp. But the way you explain it, anyone would think you wanted the Nazis to win! Not only were they defeated in the end, but defeated more heavily and decisively than almost any other losing side in history! No wonder the Germans were so keen to repudiate Nazism after the war, the truth about Fascism of all kinds is that it can never win!
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