BBC Erases Jews from Ancient Israel

UPDATE 2

The BBC has further corrected the inaccurate reference to “Roman Palestine.” The text now refers to Caesarea as “the capital of the Roman province of Judea.” The original Editors’ Note now reads:

UPDATE

Responding to our complaints, the BBC has issued a correction and added the following at the end of the story:

The story still, however, references “Roman Palestine.”

We will continue to push for a further correction.

An initially positive feature on the BBC Travel website focuses on the Israel city of Caesarea, specifically the discovery of 2,000 gold coins on the ocean floor, the largest stash ever found in the region.

The author of the piece covers Caesarea’s fascinating ancient history, referring to Phoenicians and Greeks and eventually the Romans:

By 6AD, Caesarea was the capital of the Roman province of Judea and was not known as “Roman Palestine” or “Palestine.” It was only later, following the suppression of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in the year 135AD that the Romans changed the name of the province to Syria Palaestina.

And who were the “native people” who revolted against Roman rule between 66 and 70AD? 

They are the one people who are not mentioned by name in the BBC Travel article – THE JEWS.

Is it really so difficult for the BBC to acknowledge who the native people of the region were and still are?

Did the journalist responsible take her information from a Palestinian Authority history textbook?

Whether deliberate or not, this is an outrageous erasure of the Jewish people from the history of ancient Israel and feeds into the false historical revisionism that seeks to undermine Jewish links to the land.

We’ve sent a complaint to the BBC. Watch this space.

Featured image: CC BY zeevveez;