The BBC is not providing a public service over Gaza

JVL Introduction

We’ve all been grateful to the BBC for some critical comment or other in its coverage of the war on Gaza.

Don’t be, says Des Freedman. Such moments are the exceptions that prove the rule.

The reality is that Israeli perspectives are constantly privileged.

We see this in the language used by journalists to describe the fate of Israelis and Palestinians.

We see this in its steadfast refusal to raise the issue as to whether what is happening is a genocide (taken as unproblematically so in its coverage of Ukraine).

What has influenced it is the increasing discomfort on the part of Western foreign policy elites embarrassed at the sheer human scale of Israel’s murderous assault on the civilian population of Gaza – and worried about the scale of the street protests this has generated.

But there are constant attempts to delegitimise that with a relentless focus on the violent and the spectacular – the occasional green headband, the lone swastika – and the ever-present accusation that these are antisemitic hate marches.

As Freedman says: “Mainstream media like the BBC will not represent this movement nor hold to account those governments who are complicit in the destruction of Gaza because they are overwhelmingly tied to an imperial world view.”

But by our protest we can help crack open the elite consensus which has dominated for so long and is now fraying at the edges.

The mass of the population, worldwide, is on the side of the Palestinians. Don’t let the elites forget it.

RK

This article was originally published by Declassified UK on Mon 27 Nov 2023. Read the original here.