BBC Pounds Israel

In the hours after the terrible terrorist attack near Eilat that left 8 Israelis dead and many more wounded, what was the BBC’s headline story?

Once again, in true BBC style, the story is not about a terrorist attack on Israelis but on Israeli counter-measures, presented as aggressive actions.

And what did the BBC choose to focus on as over 100 rockets and mortars rained on Israel’s southern towns and cities over the weekend?

In the second item on the BBC News homepage, the BBC is concerned with Egyptian anger against Israel over the deaths of Egyptian policemen during the Thursday terror attack. Where is the dedicated coverage of the rocket attacks from Gaza?

And what of the terror attack itself? According to the BBC:

It happened on the Israeli-Egyptian border as Israeli troops pursued suspected militants who had fired shots into Israel, killing eight.

Let’s look at this sentence again:

• “Suspected militants”: Even putting aside the use of the term “militant” instead of terrorist, what exactly is “suspected” about the ? The terrorists had already engaged in a gun battle with Israeli forces after shooting at civilian buses and vehicles, including the use of a rocket propelled grenade on a family car. How could they still be “suspected”?
• “Fired shots into Israel”: The terrorists had, as outlined above, done far more than simply “firing shots”. In addition, the attacks took place on sovereign Israeli territory near the Egyptian border, something the BBC fails to acknowledge.

In addition the BBC, despite being a 24 hour rolling news service, was still quoting a figure of 20 rockets since Saturday night despite the fact that nearly five times as many rockets had fallen since the BBC last updated its story.

Yet again, the BBC has demonstrated its anti-Israel bias. Send your complaints through the BBC Complaints website – www.bbc.co.uk/complaints. For detailed instructions on how to navigate the BBC Complaints website, click here.