Blockade Busting Buffs Blast the Beeb
August 17, 2010 10:36 by BackSpin EditorLast night, BBC's Panorama profiled the commandos who intercepted the Mavi Marmara. I haven't watched it yet, but judging from the comments posted by unhappy flotillista fans, the Beeb must have done something right.
UPDATE: HonestReporting UK weighs in: BBC Panorama Shocker: Balanced Review of Gaza Flotilla Incident
Jerusalem Mite
4:27 pm
Aug 17, 2010
The reactions of the Hate Israel mob to this program speaks worlds.
And the actual humanitarian and ‘peace’ activists on board have freely participated in an act which puts a completely different interpretation on the expression ‘humanitarian and peace activists’.
Thank you Panorama.
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ASF
5:39 pm
Aug 17, 2010
If I were the BBC and saw the headline in your email (“BBC Panorama Shocker: Balanced Review…”), I’d say, “to heck with them. Why should we bother”
Give credit where credit is due. Curb your sarcasm. Don’t you know the first rule of bullying? The wronged party has to be squeaky-clean.
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Lisa
8:41 pm
Aug 17, 2010
Yes i saw it and appart from ignoring the clear legal implications of the issue, i thought that it was incredibly balanced(for once) and was planning on sending it around.
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Serendipity
10:15 pm
Aug 17, 2010
I was amazed that the often biased BBC came good and so resoundingly.
The extent of the delusions of the IHH thugs is plain to see – eg one joker evidently equates “peaceful resistance” to throwing people off ships.
ASF, please don’t wag the finger. It is very unattractive and makes you look ignorant of the BBC’s anti-Israel bias, so well-documented here hitherto. For myself, I am glad that the Beeb finally got something right.
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Roy Lasris
5:51 pm
Aug 18, 2010
I want to echo ASF’s comments and implore you to change the headline to something more befitting your organization. It’s okay to blast when blasting is warranted, but when the object of your blasting does something correct and credible, applaud it. “Wow, they finally did something right!” is not an appropriate headline (or response). “Panorama provides fair and balanced report on the Flotilla Incident” is.
As a donor, I am shocked at your insensitivity to such an obvious approach to media relations.
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Stan Lee
6:25 pm
Aug 18, 2010
When I saw this report was by BBC,my first reaction was that it would be biased as usual to Arabs. But,upon viewing, I must state that BBC did a bang-up job of impartiality. Is BBC’s reporting changing to strictly the facts, hopefully I look forward to that.
The organization’s transition (in this story’s case) from the “Baghdad Broadcasting Corp.” to this report’s scrupulously impartial news organization is like a breath of fresh air.
For me, the question remains, what did those so-called “peaceful protestors” expect for the planned militancy against a sovereign nation’s blockade?”
And, in the end, inspection of the warehoused “medical supplies” was very revealing of the Marmara gang’s real intention.
The Muslims involved here were part of a staged propaganda event, that’s all it was, and the lives lost became the martyrs the propagandists were seeking. The American ex-Marine is a disgrace. Who is he kidding and what does he really do for a living?
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G. Ben Benyamin
6:32 pm
Aug 18, 2010
The BBC is an integral part of the U.K. and its people. The U.K. has for centuries practiced well-documented vicious/pernicious JewHate—also a well-documented determination that JewHate is a contageous behavior disturbance of the individual and of the group. That drives all the drivel, fraud, lies, hatred, fake statements/photos, blood libels, humiliations, injuries, destruction, death upon the Jewish People. Recall that this U.K. and Germany while locked in a life/death WWII struggle managed to cooperate to the bitter end to solve THE FINAL SOLUTION OF THE JEWISH QUESTION. How sick!
That said, I thus consider the FAIR AND BALANCED flotilla account BBC presented as a fluke, an error soon to be corrected, a temporary editorial lapse in their 100% hatred toward the Jews and our Jewish State of Israel. Remember, Jews in Israel and worldwide are, to much of the world–JEWS.
JewHate, while an incurable disease, can and is to be constantly protected against, much as one would do with sick patients trying to stab or shoot one.
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JimUUSA
9:29 pm
Aug 18, 2010
International law on the subject of blockades is contained in the San Remo Convention. Here are the relevant clauses:
“…Conditions of exemption
48. Vessels listed in paragraph 47 are exempt from attack only if they:
(a) are innocently employed in their normal role;
(b) submit to identification and inspection when required; and
(c) do not intentionally hamper the movement of combatants and obey orders to stop or move out of the way when required.
67. Merchant vessels flying the flag of neutral States may not be attacked unless they:
(a) are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, and after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture;
Section II : Methods of warfare
Blockade
96. The force maintaining the blockade may be stationed at a distance determined by military requirements.(Note that this clause anticipates extension of the blockade to international waters)
98. Merchant vessels believed on reasonable grounds to be breaching a blockade may be captured. Merchant vessels which, after prior warning, clearly resist capture may be attacked.(note)
102. The declaration or establishment of a blockade is prohibited if:
(a) it has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival; or
(b) the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.
103. If the civilian population of the blockaded territory is inadequately provided with food and other objects essential for its survival, the blockading party must provide for free passage of such foodstuffs and other essential supplies, subject to:
(a) the right to prescribe the technical arrangements, including search, under which such passage is permitted; and
(b) the condition that the distribution of such supplies shall be made under the local supervision of a Protecting Power or a humanitarian organization which offers guarantees of impartiality, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross…..”
In other words, the blockade is legal, and there is no “right of resistance” by the ships’ crews.
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