Al-Aqsa raid: How BBC coverage is enabling Israeli violence
JVL Introduction
Jonathan Cook looks at how, under the guise of neutrality, the BBC fosters a biased and distorted narrative as it reports on the violence in Al Aqsa Mosque.
In just six words, “Clashes erupt at contested holy site”, the BBC crams “three bogusly ‘neutral” words’.
These weren’t “clashes” but a heavily armed, out of control Israeli force which provided the only “eruption” by bursting into the Mosque at Ramadan; and the status of the Mosque is only “contested” by fundamentalist Jewish Taliban who are determined to undermine the long-recognised rights of Muslims to control their holy site, Al Aqsa.
The BBC could simply have reported what happened, that a heavily armed Israeli force invaded the Al Aqsa mosque at Ramadan using tear gas and rubber bullets and kidnapped – for that is what it was – over 400 Palestinians.
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Thanks to Middle East Eye for permission to repost this article.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Thu 6 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Al-Aqsa raid: How BBC coverage is enabling Israeli violence
Once again, the British state broadcaster is using a bogus ‘neutrality’ to trick its audience into siding with Israeli state oppression
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Jonathan Cook is truly a giant!
Cutting through the BS, as always.
I absolutely agree that the site is in no way contested – it has been a mosque for a long time and Israeli law enforces the ban on other religions trying to pray there.
This report though is also dishonest as the police were first attacked in the street with flares and stones and the attackers took refuge in the mosque. This was in fact after prayers had finished for the day. No-one was supposed to remain in the mosque once services were done for the day and those present refused to give up the hooligans/terrorists and obstructed the police trying to arrest them and themselves refused to leave.
I cannot comment on the appropriateness of the police action and their actual behaviour as I, like everyone, have only seen a heavily edited phone video clip.
The AlAqsa is not a contested site. It is illegally occupied by Israel. Any conflict is the consequence of Israeli occupation, without which there would be no violence. The BBC should not present “illegal military occupation” as “contested”.
Jonathan Cook is right except for one point. He should not use the term ‘Jewish supremacism’ when he means ‘Israeli supremacism. It is a vital distinction.
BTW, what were those three “British Israelis” doing on land ever more occupied by Zionist settlers? BBC coverage of the mourning etc here in UK is equally partisan? Just continuing General Bernard Montgomery’s 1930’s policy of imprisoning and murdering the Palestinians en masse. The UK state, including the BBC, is about the most DIShonest broker one could imagine.