BBC Interview Treats Hamas Leader With Kid Gloves

The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen interviews Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

By Simon Plosker April 01, 2015

Is this the BBC’s idea of an April Fool’s Day joke? Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen interviews Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and gives the terror chief a free platform to make some laughable statements that go virtually unchallenged.

 

 

A couple of nuggets:

Netanyahu is the most extreme leader. And the one who likes to shed blood the most. That is why we are expecting difficult times. It is the responsibility of the international community to put a stop to his stubbornness, and Israeli extremism. …

 

Israel with its extremist leadership has killed the peace process, the two-state solution and every opportunity for a political solution for the Palestinian cause. …

 

The Palestinian people are in a movement for national liberation. It is a just cause and it is certainly not terrorism. Quite the opposite; the Palestinians have been the victims of Israeli terrorism for decades. I condemn any side that is practicing extremism and killing based on identity or affiliation. 

 

We are an active resistance with a just cause battling the occupier. We have a moderate ideology and an open mind. Others practice violence under the name of jihad, which we condemn.

Meshaal even has the gall to compare his “resistance” to that of Nelson Mandela, George Washington and Charles de Gaulle fighting Nazi occupation in World War Two.

If Bowen really wants to get to the heart of what Hamas, a genocidal and anti-Semitic terrorist organization, stands for, perhaps he might consider asking Meshaal about the Hamas Charter, which indicates that Hamas has anything but a “moderate ideology.”

Instead, Jeremy Bowen and the BBC have allowed themselves to become nothing more than a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda, which Bowen’s so-called accompanying analysis does little to dispel.

 

[sc:bottomsignup ]

© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Simon Plosker

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020.

Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias.

Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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