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January 28, 2008
To BBC, Israeli Cities are "Settlements"
In the BBC mindset, terrorists rocketing civilians in the southern Israeli city of Sderot are simply "militants targeting settlements." That is how BBC explains the situation.
A Jan. 28th article on BBC's Web site, "Fresh efforts to seal Gaza border" explained Israel's blockade on Gaza as follows:
Israel began tightening its blockade of the Gaza Strip after an increase in rocket attacks by militants targeting its settlements near the border.
Israel withdrew its military and civilian settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Sderot--the prime target of Palestinian rocket and mortar fire--is a city in the western Negev, well within Israel's pre-1967 borders. Yet it is still a "settlement" to BBC journalists who consistently label Israeli settlements "illegal under international law". Does this mean that BBC now considers all of Israel to be "illegal under international law"?
Posted by RH at January 28, 2008 03:17 PM
Comments
"Does this mean that BBC now considers all of Israel to be 'illegal under international law'?"
Umm, DUH!!!
Don't forget, what is now Israel was part of the "British Mandate". My guess is they still resent that the "uppity Jews" actually have their own country, as opposed to being a "province" of an Arab country, or still in existence at all.
Posted by: ben at January 29, 2008 09:46 AM
What? I'm British and most of the British HATE their old empire days. There's a huge feeling of resentment towards any ideas of imperialism in Britian. The BBC calls them "settlements" because the BBC is an anti-Zionist a.k.a anti-Semitic organisation that has promoted the values of Fatah and Hamas for YEARS.
Posted by: Sam W at January 29, 2008 02:25 PM
Contact the BBC about this!! The BBC has now become the mouthpiece for Hamas/the PA!
Posted by: TeachESL at January 29, 2008 02:36 PM
If Sedrot is a settlement then I suppose we could refer to the settlements of London,Margate, etc.
Posted by: Sydney Davis at January 30, 2008 03:29 AM
The BBC still hates the Jews in Israel for hanging two British sergeants after the Brits hanged 3 Irgun men, for engaging in self-defense against the Arabs while the Mandate forces had their 4 o'clock tea. Maybe if their local Muslims blow up a few more trains and buses will the BBC begin to be a bit more even-handed. In any event, the definition of an anti-Semite is one who hates Jews more than is necessary. To paraphrase a British ambassador, the UK is just "a shitty little country."
Posted by: Rafi at January 31, 2008 06:00 PM
The British press make a mockery of being even handed. Why not come out and say what they believe , The Jews can do no right , the Arabs can do no wrong
Posted by: phil at January 31, 2008 06:40 PM
Is the BBC still pissed that an handfull of Jews threw the mighty Brittish Army out of Palestine?
If this is true, than I can understand why they are so anti-semitic,disguised as anti-zionist-Israel.
Posted by: Jerry G Meents at January 31, 2008 06:43 PM
Not to worry about the Britts or the BBC, there journalists are pig headed anyway. As I see it London and most of England have amost 65 percent of Muslems living there soon to become another Islamic State. Britts grovelling to appease the Arabs is a sign of weakness. If Britian continues this way, we may soon see another Londonstan and non Muslems converting by force to Islam.
Posted by: Rodney at January 31, 2008 08:26 PM
The British are to blame for the present Arab-Israel conflict which began nearly 100 years ago.
First, they promised to create a Jewish National Homeland in 1917. Then, three years later, they chop off 78% of the promised Jewish Homeland and gave it to King Faisal's brother as a consolation prize for not getting Iraq. That became the independent Palestinian state of Jordan.
Then, beginning in the 1920's, they looked the other way while Arabs carried out pogrom after pogram against the indigenous Jewish populations.
Then, because the wimps couldn't handle all the unrest, they decide to restrict Jewish immigration, first to a trickle, then to nothing at all while allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented Arabs to enter into Mandated Palestine and build settlements on all the Jewish land left behind by the Jews they murdered in 1929, and 1936 to 1939, as well as in and around ancient Jewish cities. Land that was purchased for Jews was summarily stolen by the British and given to all their Arab buddies.
Let's not forget the tens of thousands of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany turned away by the British who were in cahoots with Arabs, who just happenede to also be friends of Goebbels and Hitler.
Finally, after getting bored with watching the bloodshed between Arabs and Jews, they left in 1947, and left it up to the new "United Nations" who just happen to be an outgrowth of the League of Nations.
The UN was mandated to continue all of the policies and agreements of the League of Nations, but they conveniently ignored the fact that the League of Nations also mandated that the Jewish National Homeland should to be established in, well, Mandated Palestine. That is why they called it MANDATED!
And the rest is history...revisionist...but history nevertheless.
Posted by: DrRJP at January 31, 2008 11:40 PM
What infuriates me is the public funding of the BBC. We are extorted £150 a year to promote blatant "militant" propaganda. They used over £500k of taxpayer’s money keeping the Balen report, a report on the bias of the BBC coverage of the Middle East, confidential... There must be accountability! If you were to rely solely on information provided by the BBC for your analysis of the events in Israel you would have a completely different view of reality.
Posted by: Charles Matheus at February 1, 2008 05:39 AM
Israel began tightening its blockade of the Gaza Strip after an increase in rocket attacks by militants targeting its settlements near the border.
This what was reprted by BBC --Well Sederot in Southern Israel certainly is not a settlement
This is just another indciation of the anti-I srael bias on the part of BBC
Posted by: Linds Nash at February 1, 2008 08:12 AM
It troubles me that the British government, and of course, the British people support and pay for a news outlet that is so out of touch with reality. Is this what Freedom of the Press is all about? Why is Britain paying for a prejudiced news outlet as the BBC which ignores the threat of Muslims currently in England, but concentrates on villifying Israel? Since London is over 15 % Muslim, why isn't the BBC highlighting the danger that England might face a more severe Islamic threat within another 15 or 20 years? The Brits are suckers for supporting a news outlet that is anti-west and anti-Israel.
Posted by: warren mann at February 1, 2008 06:46 PM
I think most of these comments and even the rhetorical question at the end of the piece are missing the point.
BBC would obviously recognize and regret its error. This would be a good opportunity to review BBC's term usage policy, and point out the difference between what people think when they hear "settlement" (probably a few tents and an Uzi-toting militant) and what BBC laconically means (any Jewish presence beyond the green line). THis gives them the opportunity to take advantage of their readership's misunderstanding, and besmirch Maale Adumim, Ariel, even Kdumim, and frankly, most all Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.
Posted by: Gidon Ariel at February 3, 2008 01:39 AM
"BBC would obviously recognize and regret its error." 100% wrong! BBC was indeed notified and neither "recognized" nor "regretted" its error...
Posted by: rh at February 4, 2008 10:49 AM
the bbc is so far liberal that most truth searching americans only consider it entertainment.it seems that facts are no longer more important than someones view this is why the brits are loosing all there ind.rights and do nothing to fight about it.if the bbc was like it is now in the ww2 years the brits would have given up.
Posted by: tim bourgeois at March 31, 2008 02:12 PM
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