Radio 4 Today programme 7 October 2024
The BBC should not give space to Israeli spokesman Tzipi Hotoveli, the Israeli Ambassador to the UK to promote her case for endless violence in the Middle East. To draw attention to Israeli suffering and fears is fair enough so long as there is a balance. Ms Hotoveli mentioned twelve Israeli boys killed in a rocket attack. For the interviewer, Justin Webb to counter with “many civilians in Gaza have died” is an outrageous understatement of the case when it would be fair to lay the blame on those responsible and say Israeli forces have killed over 40,000 people mainly civilians in Gaza.
When challenged with the question, “What are we supposed to do?” The answer might be to ask “What are the Palestinians supposed to do?”
The 100 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas is an outrage but so is the 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, virtual hostages. How often mentioned by the BBC?
The BBC constantly gives space to Israeli spokesmen to portray Israel as the victim and to claim that the violence started on October 7th last year, both being gross distortions of the facts.
