BBC Olympic Coverage Declares East Jerusalem as Palestinian Capital
July 19, 2012 13:34 by Simon PloskerThe 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
Dan
9:16 pm
Jul 20, 2012
Israel’s survival and Jewish sovereignty are anathema to many whose religious dogma is challenged by these modern facts. One has to ask, in the absence of rational explanations, whether the Church of England and its royal titular head are parties to this psychotic negation of realty.
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BBC Gives Jerusalem to the Arabs | Freedom Report
10:25 pm
Jul 20, 2012
[...] BBC, ever mindful of British obligations to their swelling Muslim population, decided on its BBC Sport website to name the capital of every country participating in the London Olympic [...]
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Ant Aloy
10:27 pm
Jul 20, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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David
11:42 am
Jul 21, 2012
Your assertions are so full of air headed, out of context, factually ignorant, politically correct, “Aging Hippie” Kumbaya noxious nonsense that it is not worth the time and energy to shred your claims and assertions one by one.
As for the Unmitigated Nonsense bodies, and especially, the rubber stamp, oil owned General Assembly – when it can do something about Assad using tanks, helicopters, and heavy artillery on his own civilian population; or prevent massacres and rapes (many by its own contingents and forces!), from the time of Pol Pot to Robert Mugabe, etc, ad nauseum, we”ll have something to talk about.
Learn some facts, history, and context of what you are writiing about
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Dan
10:51 pm
Jul 20, 2012
Most Embassies? Who cares? Why not indicate President’s Residence? Or, Most Jewish Holy Places? Oldest Continually Occupied Jewish Neighborhoods Since Biblical Times, or Mount Of Olives – Oldest Two Milena, Continually Used Jewish Cemetery. The BBC omits the Temple Mount built by the Jewish King Solomon – identifiable from the Bible describing the very stones and timber and manpower used. The Jewish Jerusalem Temple Mount stands where it was built, despite continual desecration by Romans, Muslims and Christians, in the center of the eternal Jewish Capital of Jerusalem to this day. The BBC, eminent representative of a nation yet to be born when Jews built Jerusalem, should show some grace and try to recover its lost dignity.
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Sarina Levy
11:59 pm
Jul 20, 2012
JERUSALEM HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CAPITAL OF THE JEWS AND NOW OF ISRAEL. IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE COUNTRY TO NOMINATE ITS CAPITAL. and not by where foreign governments choose to locate their Embassies.
The Palestinians REFUSED Statehood because it meant recognising ISRAEL .. THE ONLY TRUE DEMOCRATIC STATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Therefore logically speaking if it is not a State it cannot have a capital … ISRAEL IS A STATE AND HAS A CAPITAL JERUSALEM.
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Dan
12:23 am
Jul 21, 2012
This is how the BBC, the national broadcaster of a host nation, treats its country’s guests. This is a gross insult, not only to the intended target, the Israelis, but also to those Britons with self respect who would never stoop so low in their personal lives.
On one of the very few occasions available for an open show of international friendship and the dissolving, even temporarily of ingrained hatreds, the BBC rejects this opportunity. The BBC stoops to this cowardly back-stabbing insult to an ancient people in their ancient capital.
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Rafi
12:31 am
Jul 21, 2012
This is an assault on Israel, plain and simple. Israel must deny accreditation to any journalist not willing to sign, upon entering Israel, a declaration recognizing Jerusalem as its capital.
It is intolerable that BBC journalists sit in their offices on Jaffa Rd. in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, under the protection of its rule of law, its democracy, its health care system, and its total freedom of speech – and have the unbridled malice in refusing to acknowledge the very capital that provides these facilities and freedoms. No more. The freedoms available to Israel’s citizens and visitors need not be extended to hostile foreign organizations.
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BBC Olympic Coverage Declares East Jerusalem as Palestinian Capital | The Conservative Papers
12:37 am
Jul 21, 2012
[...] UPDATE ON PAGE 2: BBC RESPONDS AND AMENDS ITS WEBSITE [...]
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PAthena
6:34 am
Jul 21, 2012
The BBC shows its bias against Jews and Israel, as well as ignorance. It does not notice that the name “Palestine” has been synonymous with “land of the Jews,” and “Palestinian” with “Jew” from the time that the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of Judea to “Palestina” in 135 A.D., after having defeated that Jewish rebellion under Bar Kochba, to eradicate all memory of Judea. (He also outlawed Judaism and changed the name of Jerusalem to “Aelia Capitolina,” “Aelius” being his gens name.) That is why Great Britain, after World War I, was given the “Palestine Mandate” to be the “homeland of the Jews.” The BBC is ignorant even of this British history.
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PAthena
6:36 am
Jul 21, 2012
(Continuing) Jerusalem was made the capital of Judea and Israel by King David, after he conquered it, 3000 years ago. But the BBC is ignorant of that as well.
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Limor Dolev
8:06 am
Jul 21, 2012
Had you published the date of the BBC website “error”, I would have visited their complaint site.
Respectfully,
Limor Dolev,
Gibton village,
Israel
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Sylvie Schapira
2:42 pm
Jul 21, 2012
I did complain to the BBC (the PBC as it should be now called, since it is so pro-Palestinian) and only received a general comment as a response – the ‘we-endeavour-to-be-impartial’ response that is a complete waste of time. They knew very well what they were doing when they printed the East Jerusalem capital of Palestine, and omitted any capital for Israel.
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Abe Bid
3:22 pm
Jul 21, 2012
The BBC (named PBC) is not honest and reporting the truth. Why are you so astonished?
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Anthony Rusonik
3:33 pm
Jul 21, 2012
It is sad to think that the country that once ruled the world and gave us Churchill, the Beatles, and Margaret Thatcher is now reduced to sanctimonious, feeble, judgmental hypocrisy. This is most evident in the most archaic institution’s devolution into an echo for the Left-Wing entitlement culture that has eroded England’s creativity and competitive spirit, and sapped its will to manage immigration for fear of the “racist” epithet hurled from potential Muslim voters…and BBC audiences. In short, England and the BBC just pander to the audience, with little strength or will to in fact influence events and re-order the world to the imagine they have envisioned for it. The more feeble and ignored, the more strident the message.
This is most evident in BBC’s recent “oversight” to leave Israel without a Capitol and, for added benefit, to list Jerusalem as Palestine’s Capitol.
Now, even those of us who subscribe to a two-state solution must admit the objective fact that “Palestine” does not yet exist as a state (where of course the nation exists) and –whether one likes it or not — Jerusalem is Israel’s Capitol.
The BBC in all its superior wisdom accepted the wave of protests for corrections with an arrogant and reluctant assertion that Jerusalem is “the seat of power” for Israel’s government and the “intended” (by whom ?) Capital for Palestine.
I may intend that Belfast is the Capitol of Ireland ( I don’t’) or that Buenos Aries is Capitol of the Falklands (I don’t) but that is pretend more than intend. And that is what the BBC and British Foreign policy have been reduced to: pretend appeasement of immigrant Muslim voters, the kind that have promoted Ken Livingston’s noxious career, and the fool –George Galloway — who salivated all over Bashar Assad’s human rights triumphs in the midst to the Syrian Butcher’s bloodbath.
That’s the beauty of the fantasy: while all the anti-Israel fools retain it…..Israel retains “Facts on the Ground”
Jerusalem remains here eternal undivided Capital, as it her entitlement, her victory, and 3,000 years of Jewish history. Can this be shared at some future point with the Palestinians ? Certainly, as a result of direct bilateral negotiations that ensure Israel’s recognition and security…. even as the BBC and Pink Floyd fulminate into the void.
Anthony Rusonik
4 Vista Beach Court,
Whitby, ON
anthonyrusonik@yahoo.ca
905-665-7925
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Sylvie Schapira
6:17 pm
Jul 21, 2012
The PBC is demonstrating a dhimmitude mentality. This means that they will appease Muslims, never criticize them, and carry out Islamic policies to placate them. That is only one aspect of dhimmitude, but it is already clearly beginning in Gt. Britain and devloping. This mentality is seeping into everything – the media, academia, trades unions, business, supermarkets, religions, etc, Polarising Israel in order to delegitimize her is another aspect. When Muslims are a sizeable minority in this country, with more power, we will see how the dhimmitude mentality spreads throughout the country. The Muslims want to bring back this terrible racist ideology, and the Leftists are falling over to help
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todd tomasella
8:25 pm
Jul 21, 2012
God bless each of His people to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” He promises to bless those who love her! PS 122:6 safeguardyoursoul.com
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Bob Costas to “Call Out” IOC Over Minute of Silence | Blogs about Israel aggregation
11:48 pm
Jul 21, 2012
[...] as the capital of Palestine, while refusing to identify any capital city for Israel. An HonestReporting critique gives the Beeb a gold medal for delegitimizing Jewish ties to [...]
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Christine Silverman
3:08 am
Jul 22, 2012
This is officially “BBC Policy” and I quote verbatim their email to me, below.
“The Olympics page on the BBC Sport website provides extensive information on the London 2012 games, including the profiles of all the teams taking part.
Due to an error which was made at the time the information was added onto the website, incorrect details and mistakes appeared on the Israeli and Palestinian team pages. This has since been rectified in line with BBC policy.
The BBC as an impartial broadcaster remains committed to accuracy and we regret if anyone was offended by this.”
This was received yesterday at 12:35 pm CET. Yet their website tonight still says “Seat of Government”.
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mira375
6:24 am
Jul 22, 2012
Thank you for this alert. I just wanted to let HR know that I have tried several times to make this complaint on the BBC website to no avail. The first two times I went through the whole form (PITA!) and I got an error message saying no information had been transferred. Now I can’t get through even to that form. At first I thought perhaps their website was overloaded due to your alert but obviously the BBC is not all that concerned with negative feedback.
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Reeva Helman
7:52 am
Jul 22, 2012
disgusting! shame on you -if thats how you think lets dropp BBC from our cable networks. Its about time we insisted that all the foreign embassies move to Jerusalem the capitol of Israel& if not withdraw your embassadors.
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Rafi
5:23 pm
Jul 22, 2012
Beersheba is the answer. Countries who have not recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should be denied for all time to have an embassy in the capital. They should be forced to have their embassies in Beersheba. There is much more room in that city. The economic benefits would boost the city. It would be inconvenient for any personnel personnel, including the ambassadors, to have meetings in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv – too bad.
Beersheba, was home of Abraham, the fist Jew. His tent was always open to strangers, travelers and emmissaries.
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