The BBC Sport website’s coverage of the forthcoming London Olympic games features country profiles of all of the competing nations. Every other country profile includes a listed capital city. All except for Israel. This even includes “Palestine” where the BBC takes enormous liberties with its list of facts.
UPDATE ON PAGE 2: BBC RESPONDS AND AMENDS ITS WEBSITE
According to the BBC, “East Jerusalem” is the capital of Palestine.
So if the BBC were to be consistent, it would presumably state (also inaccurately) that Israel’s capital is “West Jerusalem”. Wrong.
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The BBC’s Olympic country profile for Israel simply fails at all to include a listed capital city. This despite the inclusion of Jerusalem on the map of Israel. While the only partially-recognized entity of “Palestine” has a listed capital that isn’t even under its sovereign control, the very real and recognized state of Israel has no capital despite being sovereign over the entire city of Jerusalem.
“Palestine” has been recognized as a member of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) since 1986, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 1995. That the BBC features Palestine is therefore legitimate within this context. However, while the BBC could argue that Jerusalem is not recognized as Israel’s capital by many in the international community, there is simply no excuse for distorting reality and appointing part of Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital city. Or is this just further evidence that the BBC shares the dreams of the Palestinians?
The omission of Israel’s capital has irked the Israeli government, prompting Mark Regev, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman, to write the following letter to the BBC’s Jerusalem bureau:
Read the Israeli letter and the rest of this article on Page 2
