Previous network head chides BBC for demonstrable bias and anti-Israel agenda.
A former chairman of the BBC blasted the network for its biased coverage of a recent Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem.
In a speech before the House of Lords on Wednesday, Lord Michael Grade recalled that in its initial report of a lethal attack by three Palestinians on Israeli police officers in June, which resulted in the death of 23-year-old Israeli policewoman Hadas Malka, the BBC’s headline read, “Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem.”
Grade acknowledged that the network reacted to criticism by changing the headline to “Israeli policewoman stabbed to death in Jerusalem,” redirecting its focus to the victim of the attack, rather than its perpetrators. However, he said that the initial headline played a role in “the drip-drip effect of unqualified, un-contextualised singling out of Israel for criticism.”
“If the BBC can get this wrong,” Grade continued, “it is little wonder that Israel finds it so hard to put aside the idea that some critics are motivated by something more sinister than political commentary.”
The BBC apologized for the incident, claiming in was a mistake which was subsequently corrected.
In October 2015, Grade leveled a similar criticism against the BBC for highlighting the deaths of Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli security forces while carrying out attacks, but ignoring the effects of those assaults on Israelis. “An emotional interview is conducted with the father of a dead Palestinian youth who had been killed committing a fatal terror attack,” Grade observed at the time. “However, the report failed to show the emotional distress caused to Israelis by any of these recent attacks. This is inexcusable.”
Grade also criticized the network for reporting that the Palestinian youth was unaffiliated with any terror group, “before immediately showing footage of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) banners” in his family’s house.
A parliamentary inquiry into the rise of anti-Semitism in Britain during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas found that “the media, and in particular the BBC, had a role to play in whipping up anger through emotive content in the news and analysis that was broadcast.”
The BBC has been criticized on multiple occasions for its anti-Israel and even false reporting on events in Israel.
By: The Tower and United with Israel Staff
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