The BBC’s coverage of the counterterrorism raid in Jenin represents an abject failure in journalism.
In sticking to its mission to report the facts accurately and impartially, the broadcaster has gone so far off course that it is disturbing to witness.
Across the publicly-funded outlet’s news sites and channels, there have been numerous examples of poor reporting relating to the large-scale operation designed to take out terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the West Bank city.
Here are some of the worst:
BBC News Television Coverage
Among the guests invited onto BBC News to give their view on the raid was Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative Party (al-Mubadara), who was given a platform in front of millions of viewers in the UK upon which to spew countless lies.
For example, in response to being asked about his claim that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians, Barghouti responded to say that “for Israelis, we are all terrorists. All Palestinians are terrorists, regardless of how peaceful we are.”
Of course, the Israeli military does not indiscriminately target Palestinians and, in fact, the IDF has among the strictest rules of engagement in the world to avoid unnecessarily hurting innocent civilians.
In addition, the fact that almost all of the casualties of the Jenin raid have been claimed by terrorist organizations is further proof that the IDF only targets terror operatives.
The absolute lunacy of Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative Party saying that Israelis view “all Palestinians are terrorists.”
Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike are all victims of Palestinian terrorism and its Iranian backers.
Get a grip. pic.twitter.com/AS2nffSTW0
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 4, 2023
Later in the interview, Barghouti was allowed to sidestep a question asking him to acknowledge the fact that armed terror groups are operating inside Jenin, with Barghouti describing heavily-armed terrorists as “young people who have lost hope in the so-called peace process, which has failed in the last 30 years because of Israeli obstruction.”
Yet, the BBC interviewer failed to challenge this fallacious assertion, such as by pointing out that Jenin terrorists are well organized and funded by Iran, in addition to the fact that Palestinians have repeatedly rejected comprehensive peace deals that would have seen the two-state solution actualized.
Finally, Barghouti repeated the libel that Israel perpetrated a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002.
Reviving the 2002 “Jenin Massacre” lie spread by the Palestinians, NGOs & foreign media, Mustafa Barghouti on @BBCNews:
“If Israel is allowed to continue these military actions against the civilian population… this can become a very big massacre like what happened in 2002.” pic.twitter.com/p58SVgDq5r
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 3, 2023
BBC Newsnight interviewed Husam Zomlot, the PLO representative to the UK, who claimed the term “terrorism has been used elastically for the past 75 years,” in what constitutes an open denial that Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have murdered countless Israeli civilians, are actually terrorists.
While anchor Victoria Derbyshire did a commendable job disputing Zomlot’s despicable claim, including pointing out that such groups have been proscribed by the Western world, one must ask why Zomlot was invited on the show in the first place when he has a known track record for excusing terrorism and lying about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Meanwhile, in the general news coverage of the Jenin raid, the BBC aired footage of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s incendiary claim that Israel was seeking to erase the city entirely but failed to correct the patently false assertion nor even explain it to viewers.
The Palestinian Authority is peddling the lie that the @IDF is destroying Jenin or “erasing” it. @BBCNews has people on the ground and can see this statement is factually false but does nothing to contextualize or explain this. pic.twitter.com/toupoYeNUe
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 3, 2023
However, the most appalling example of the BBC’s coverage occurred as the operation ended and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was invited onto the BBC News program to discuss Jenin.
In the interview, BBC presenter Anjana Gadgil promoted a modern-day blood libel when she claimed that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children” in a remark that prompted forceful pushback from Bennett.
(See “BBC Anchor Utters Blood Libel During Live Interview With Ex-Israel PM Naftali Bennett” for the full story.)
BBC News Print Coverage
The BBC’s reporting on Jenin as published on its website was no less problematic than its broadcast output.
One of the most disgraceful examples is a short piece written by the organization’s diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, who attempts to explain a bit about the background of the Jenin Battalion.
Explaining the group’s motivations, Adams writes:
What these people are targeting is the occupation – and that includes the Israeli army, but also Jewish settlements. That’s why Israeli civilians living there, in contravention of international law, are often targeted by these gunmen. Israel disputes that Jewish settlements, established since it conquered the West Bank in 1967, are illegal.”
Apart from Adams’ implicit suggestion that Israeli civilians living in Jewish settlements are legitimate targets because they are “in contravention of international law,” the claim that terrorist groups like the Jenin Battalion, which is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, only target the so-called “occupation” is absurd. The fact is, these groups’ goal is the sworn destruction of Israel and innocent civilians in Israel proper.
Jenin Brigades are not targeting “the occupation” — they are targeting Israelis & Jews. Look at the attack in Tel Aviv today.
They are an offshoot of Palestinian Islamic Jihad committed to destroying Israel.
Stop victim blaming. Do better, @BBCNews.https://t.co/kw66zgpAqB pic.twitter.com/uiD4guxUp2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 4, 2023
Numerous BBC articles have also failed to note that the majority of people killed in Jenin during the raid have been claimed by terrorist organizations, with pictures of them toting automatic weapons circulating widely on social media.
Indeed, one article even confirms that the BBC has “received a list of the 10 people killed in Israel’s military operation in Jenin from the Palestinian health ministry,” and goes on to say that it is “striking” that four of them are aged under 18.
Sadly, the BBC does not inform its readers that children are frequently recruited by Palestinian terrorist organizations both as lookouts and as combatants.
Mustafa Barghouti was also quoted prominently in the BBC’s breaking news updates without the outlet either contextualizing or offering facts that would have balanced his unhinged hyperbole, which included his claim that all 20,000 people inside the Jenin refugee camp were displaced by Israel.
Headline by @BBCNews avoids scope of IDF op in Jenin.
Quotes Palestinian Health Ministry’s unverifiable figures & avoids labeling dead Palestinians terrorists.
“Masked Palestinians” reveals nothing about who they are – active combatants.https://t.co/vwIlxMnkIO pic.twitter.com/rZhwR5wLDu
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 3, 2023
As the Jenin operation drew to a close, the BBC covered in great detail the funerals of the deceased Palestinians, while also casting doubt on the fact they were terrorists by presenting it as mere “claims” by the Israeli military.
Indeed, the BBC reports how “mourners have filled the streets of Jenin” and how “some in the crowd of mainly men and boys are carrying Palestinians flags ready to wave.” Despite including several pictures of their bodies being carried through the streets, the corporation fails to actually identify that at least one of the terrorists was wrapped in a Hamas flag.
Reporting the damage in Jenin following the operation, the BBC again casts doubt on the very nature of the operation as designed to take out terrorist bases and weapons stores by placing inverted commas around the words “terrorist infrastructure” and implying Israel may have targeted civilian infrastructure:
Some homes are simply uninhabitable and livelihoods have been ruined. Israel said it was targeting ‘terrorist infrastructure’ here, but already it is clear that civilian infrastructure, including water and electricity supplies, have been badly damaged too.”
Sadly, as the BBC’s rolling coverage of Jenin and the aftermath of the operation continues, it is clear that the aforementioned examples may turn out to be just the tip of a very large iceberg.
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Photo credit: Nasser Ishtayeh via Flash90
