While the world anxiously awaited the release of Israeli hostages last week following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, the BBC’s Jon Donnison had other priorities — giving Palestinian prisoners a platform to justify the unspeakable atrocities of October 7, 2023.
Donnison, a familiar face who previously proved to be something of a liability for the BBC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza, is back on the Middle East newsdesk — at least for now. Unsurprisingly, his first order of business was to head to Ramallah, where he began churning out sympathetic stories about the hostage-prisoner exchange.
In the lead-up to the exchange, Donnison ventured just a few kilometers from his presumed base in Ramallah to Beitunia. There, he tracked down a family member of a Palestinian prisoner — many of whom were jailed for violent offenses or membership in terrorist organizations — and published a piece featuring their joyful anticipation of the prisoners’ early release, titled, “Palestinians in West Bank wait anxiously for prisoners to be released.”
And on Monday, Donnison’s roving reporting around the West Bank was rewarded. He was able to file a glowing piece about Bushra al-Tawil, a Hamas-linked “journalist” whose father, Sheikh Jamal al-Tawil, is not merely a “Hamas politician” (as Donnison euphemistically labels him) but a senior figure in the terrorist organization.
The headline of Donnison’s piece, “‘The hostages meant I got out’: Freed Palestinian prisoner welcomes Gaza deal,” is as revealing as it is appalling. A truly charming angle — the publicly funded BBC handing a platform to a woman with well-documented ties to Hamas, a UK-proscribed terrorist organization, to justify the kidnapping of innocent civilians on the grounds that it gave Hamas the leverage to secure the early release of Palestinians convicted of violent offenses.
Did @BBCNews just give a Hamas-linked “journalist” the stage to justify the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks?
Yes, they did. This appalling excuse for journalism should make the BBC ashamed. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/OrY6KB4WXQ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 22, 2025
The article generously indulges in the kind of sensational claims that Donnison appears to thrive on, with al-Tawil alleging she was frequently “badly beaten,” burned with cigarettes, stripped naked, and denied her headscarf.
To his credit, Donnison did manage to muster one tough question amid his otherwise soft-focus portrayal of al-Tawil: Does she support Hamas? Her refusal to answer was seemingly not followed up, and then it was straight back to giving her a publicly-funded platform to rationalize Hamas’ atrocities. After all, why shouldn’t British taxpayers be invited to look fondly on the release back into society of the likes of notorious mass murderer Zakaria Zubeidi? Or, as she put it, allowed to “go back home.” Truly heartwarming.
On Bushra al-Tawil’s father, Jamal al-Tawil, Donnison opts for a remarkably sanitized description, labeling him a “prominent Hamas politician.” A curiously neutral way to describe a man who has publicly declared that Palestine “from the river to the sea” is “united under the banner of the resistance and the Intifada.” In a 2021 speech honoring “martyrs,” broadcast on Palestine TV, Jamal al-Tawil proclaimed that Palestinians and their “martyrs” had “redrawn the map of Palestine,” with their blood blending together to achieve this goal. Hardly the kind of oration of a mere “politician.”
Donnison’s decision to frame al-Tawil this way is especially puzzling given that the UK — where the BBC is based — makes no distinction between Hamas’ so-called political and military wings. The entire organization is designated as a terrorist group.
We should hardly be surprised by Donnison’s reporting. After all, this is a journalist who, just weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, was widely criticized for suggesting the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza must have been caused by an Israeli airstrike. That claim, which conveniently aligned with Hamas’ narrative, was proven false by U.S. intelligence and video evidence, which showed the explosion was the result of a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket.
The BBC quietly reassigned Donnison away from the region shortly thereafter, placing him back in London. But, as is tradition at the BBC — where no editorial “mistake” involving Israel ever seems to carry meaningful career consequences — Donnison is back. And judging by his latest output, he’s already hard at work doing fresh damage to the corporation’s reputation.
But then again, why should the BBC care? This is the same organization whose coverage of the Israel-Hamas war was found to have breached its own editorial guidelines at least 1,500 times in an independent review. If Donnison wants to spend his time padding out his contacts book with every Hamas sympathizer and jihadi from Tulkarm to Timbuktu, who at the BBC is going to stop him?
Israel’s hot war with Hamas may have paused for now, but it appears the BBC has no plans to slow its relentless campaign against the Jewish state.
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