UPDATE
The BBC responded to our complaint. The takeaway line:
For context, a clip and link to what the BDS movement had been included. Please note however that this is for background context. The article itself is not focused on the BDS and therefore doesn’t seek out various views and counter views concerning the movement in general.
The BBC just doesn’t get it.
A Texas law barring the state from entering a contract with any business unless it “does not boycott Israel” is making news after the clause was included in applications for Hurricane Harvey relief in the city of Dickinson.
The BBC‘s report includes a prominent video interview with pro-BDS activist Michael Deas.
Deas’s bio on the extreme anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website states:
Michael Deas is a Palestine solidarity organiser based in the UK.
He was formerly a campaigns officer with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the Palestinian civil society coalition that acts as the Palestinian reference of the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.
The BBC has given a platform for BDS to cynically present itself as a peaceful, non-violent, Palestinian-led initiative to boycott Israeli goods such as oranges and avocados, ignoring the real aim of the campaign, which is to see the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
In a blatant example of imbalanced reporting, the BBC does not include any video or commentary from a pro-Israel or Jewish source opposed to BDS. The presence of a hyperlink to another BBC story purporting to explain BDS in detail does not mitigate the absence of balance in the article in question.
HonestReporting has contacted the BBC asking for either the removal of the BDS video or the addition of a balancing viewpoint.
