On Friday (1 March), BBC News published the latest findings from their ‘fact-checking’ flagship ‘BBC Verify’ – looking at the 100+ deaths that occurred during the chaos surrounding the aid convoy in Gaza.
BBC launched BBC Verify last year – a unit comprising of 60 journalists to help fact-check, verify video, and counter disinformation. Intended to be a gold standard in the age of fake news, BBC Verify has just ended up being another obsessive anti-Israel propaganda outfit.
While BBC Verify do not actually come to any conclusions over the aid convoy deaths, the piece is heavily slanted to blame the Israeli army for the deaths.
This latest ‘fact checking’ story rested heavily on one key eyewitness – a Palestinian journalist called Mahmoud Awadeyah. This is what he told the BBC:
This eyewitness account provides the backdrop for BBC Verify to imply that ‘Israel did it’. BBC News then rely on one other witness – the interim hospital manager at al-Awda hospital, to drive home the claim.
But there is a larger problem. BBC Verify don’t actually verify anything here. They just take these people at their word and publish these statements without question.
Anyone who follows my work knows that I always check Journalists where I can. Research has shown that 50% of the journos in Gaza appear to work directly for Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Who exactly is Mahmoud Awadeyah that the BBC relied on to create their BBC Verify headline?
The BBC’s source – Mahmoud (Al) Awadeyah
Mahmoud Al Awadeyah posted an account on his FB from the scene. He has an IG account as well and uses both Awadia and Al Awadia on his social media.
He works for Al Quds Today and the Tasnim News Agency. Tasnim is an Iranian news agency set up and controlled by the IRGC.
Perhaps the pro-IRGC affiliation explains why his likes on the ‘X’ platform include a post about Hamas honouring the IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani.
But the problem goes way beyond liking posts. On 27 January 2023, as seven Israelis lay dead following a terror attack outside of a synagogue – Awadeyah posted these celebrations on Facebook:
In summer of 2023 Awadeyah stood in front of a mural that celebrated the murder of 82-year-old Inga Avramyan who was killed by an Islamic Jihad rocket when it hit her apartment in Rehovot. Awadeyah celebrated the killing, and promised more:
His timelines across social media are full of pro-terrorist imagery and support for violence:
There were also several posts on his FB that mourned for ‘Abu Hadi’ or Khalil Al Bahtini – a leader of the milItary wing of Islamic Jihad. Al Bahtini was killed in a targeted strike by Israel in May 2023:
And here they are together in this photo, with Awadeyah posting about how close they were:
This is the BBC’s key source for the BBC Verify article.
How can the BBC possibly consider this man’s evidence as reliable? He dances when Jewish civilians are murdered, and sits and breaks bread with the leaders of proscribed terrorist groups. Is there a sane person alive who believes this terrorist supporter would not lie for his cause?
Did nobody at ‘BBC Verify’ bother to look at his social media account?
The answer of course is no, of course they didn’t. BBC Verify consists of amateurish hacks, who have a supremacist attitude, and who don’t even bother to do the most basic of checks. This is not journalism – it is activism – driven by a bunch of privileged nobodies with limited intelligence and grossly inflated egos. Angry? You bet I am. The BBC anti-Israel drumbeat helps to spread antisemitism and it is all funded by the taxpayer. This is absolutely disgraceful.
But then this is just what BBC News do all the time.
Tuesday 27 Feb – the ‘special’ day of coverage
On Tuesday 27 February, BBC News ran live coverage so Gazans could ‘share their daily lives’ with the world. It turned out to be another day of relentless anti-Israel propaganda dutifully funded by the British taxpayer.
Have no doubt, the BBC has mobilised against Israel and are using almost every dirty trick in the book to demonise the Jewish state. There is no attempt at balance, there is no quality to the output, and there is no truth in the final picture. BBC News coverage of the war is akin to a civil service version of Electronic Intifada.
Still don’t believe me? Just carry on reading.
Almost every day the BBC front page news covers an aspect of the war in an attempt to demonise Israel. The piece is always on the front page – and invariably negative. A simple browse through the BBC headlines captured in the wayback machine easily highlights this.
On 27 February the BBC decided to run a whole day with updates from Gazans telling everyone about the lives they are leading now. For example, one of the first out of the block at 7:40am was Dr Haya Hijazi. We are told she is living in a tent and the headline tells us she starts each day with a search for clean water:
Except this does not seem to be true. Haya Hijazi is a social media propagandist who runs constant campaigns for donations. She is quite successful and has 576,000 followers on Instagram. It is impossible to know how much money she receives, but her IG is full of videos of herself handing out produce. She clearly has no shortage herself. In fact, just before she told BBC she needed to ‘search for water’, she was busy filming herself handing out cash. This post from her own Instagram account on Monday:
Not your average Gazan then.
And so it went on. The first entry of the day was from – who used to live in the exclusive Al-Zahra neighbourhood. The next was from Samira Noorallah who used to live in a house ‘of 300 square meters’. These are not your average Gazans either. Then came this one – a ‘journalist’ called Aseel Mousa:
In simply referring to Mousa as a journalist, the BBC neglect to inform readers that Aseel Mousa writes for hate magazines like Electronic Intifada. She openly saluted Oct 7 on her X account. This is a celebratory post from Mousa on January 27 2023 at 19:07 – as seven Israelis were slaughtered in a terrorist attack:
These are the people BBC is giving voice to. Does nobody check anything? Or do they just not care?
BBC News and subtle brainwashing
A BBC News headline the following day was more subtle. It was about Biden’s primary victory in Michigan
This is the problem with bias – it often works like a magician’s assistant – most people look the wrong way, and if they do catch on, they end up down a rabbit hole arguing over semantics. But the real bias is not contained in the words – it is contained in the intent, design and process – it is institutional.
This is no surprise because the BBC’s pool of journalists is turning into a sewer full of anti-Zionist and/or woke activists. The journalist behind last Wednesday’s piece on Biden is Brandon Denon. Before taking up this position with the BBC he was the ‘Daliyah Assil (Dalyah Shaheera Drenon on FB), a ‘Syrian Palestinian’.
Assil’s family is active, and her sister Reem Assil has the ‘honour’ of having her own page on the Canary Mission website. She is listed for her glorification of terrorism and her pro BDS activities:
No, Brandon is not responsible for the pro-terrorist sympathies of his sister-in-law, or the ‘free Palestine’ posts of his wife. But anyone who thinks that a racial justice and equity reporter who is married into a Palestinian Syrian activist family is going to write impartial articles about Israel is simply deluded. But this is the reality of the BBC employee pool these days – more fit for Novara media or the Canary, than the British public service broadcaster.
And the BBC anti-Israel propaganda coverage is relentless. It is not just a few skewed headlines or dodgy journalists – it is as if the BBC turned its entire arsenal on the Jewish state.
More on BBC Unverified
Take a recent BBC Verify video featuring journalist Merlyn Thomas on the events in Nasser Hospital in Gaza.
The piece is all speculation, and Thomas does not actually verify anything at all in this ‘BBC Verify’ video. Worse still, she pushes statements such as “Doctors say a number of people there have been killed by Israeli snipers in recent days” – which is surely exactly the type of unverified propaganda rubbish that BBC Verify was created to address.
This is the result of nothing more than a few obsessives at the BBC finding another excuse to demonise Israel. Check Thomas’ social media. It is all one way traffic.
There are plenty of such examples from BBC Verify. Jake Horton & Daniele Palumbo looked at work taking place in Egypt near the Gaza border. Their speculation relied on an anonymous conspiratorial suggestion from an ‘aid worker’, and a quote from Andreas Krieg ‘an academic at KCL’. Andreas Krieg literally worked with the Qatari military (Qatar hosts key elements of the Hamas leadership). How can BBC Verify not mention this in an article related to Israel?
And Andreas Krieg seems to be a BBC Verify favourite – as Merlyn Thomas and co used him again just a few days ago when they tried to support Hamas claims over the numbers of civilian dead (BBC Verify’s attempts to pretend they can address this in the middle of a conflict just underlines how amateurish this all is).
But the bottom line is this: BBC Verify only engage in verifying things that try to undermine Israeli actions and statements. Could you imagine them addressing the fake narrative of the Gazan journalists? They never would – nor do they ever address anything that undermines the Palestinian propaganda campaign.
It is ALL one way traffic. That’s the bias.
BBC News – the unaccountable elite
And they know there is nothing we can do. The BBC is untouchable and the BBC Journalists truly believe they are of a superior breed.
To test the ground, I recently raised three official complaints with the BBC. Important note: I didn’t complain about bias because that can lead to an argument of subjectivity. I researched and found three items produced by the BBC that contained serious ethical failings.
- The first was a fake news article put together with the help of a terrorist supporter in Gaza.
- The second was an article that didn’t bother to do background research into the Hamas ties of the victims.
- The third was an article in which the BBC’s Gazan based journalist appears to interview his own wife as if she were a random stranger.
I submitted complaints against all three. In all three cases I had to wait several weeks before receiving the same dismissive response.
They do not care – and we cannot touch them. I did refer the three cases to OFCOM as instructed in those BBC emails – but I am not hopeful there either. The BBC Journalists are unaccountable. The more I dig into the BBC’s institutional hatred of Israel, the more I come to the obvious conclusion that no fair minded person should be helping to fund them. They all help to spread antisemitism.
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“Institutional hatred of the west” – hysterical thing to say, in both senses of the word ‘hysterical’.
Gabby – I am letting this through against my better judgement because we both know you are not really here in good faith. But writing independently is a difficult thing at times and it only gets thoroughly editorially vetted after publication (normally by my critics). I edited out ‘of the west’. Thank you for your input.
David, I am not commenting here until you permanently block these dregs.
Who are you referring too?
When the utter disaster that was the government of Boris Johnson comes to be written they will ask what he did with his 80 seat majority that could have saved the country and the Conservative Party and they will say that at the very least he should have stopped the taxpayer funding the institutionalised cultural Marxist centre of world media , the BBC (read: 2030: Your Children’s Future in Islamic Britain). The BBC and its repellent Islamist employees presided over by its wet rag chairman Tim Davie and their handmaiden Ofcom, will dance on the graves of all of us who dare speak out for free speech, democratic accountability or unbiased reporting. Thanks Boris, for nothing.
BBC’s news reports are about as balanced and as coherent as a pantomime drunk
🥴
They used to be a well respected and reliable new source but sadly they are an absolute joke now….and a very unfunny one at that….
😑
Does anyone even watch BBC news anymore ??
🤪
Just look at the viewing/listening figures: unfortunately, huge numbers in the UK do still watch BBC news and a majority of them trust its veracity. It would be good, indeed it would not be difficult, if alternative news outlets exposed the BBC in the way that Collier does because that could easily undermine the misplaced trust eg. think how easy it would be to show the BBC coverage of the supposed victims described here, then show their social media warrior postings, then ask viewers/listeners what the contrast says about the standard of BBC reporting. But there’s no outlet for such journalism as yet.
Why do you think the BBC are doing this clear anti Israel agenda? How can we get it noticed and what can be done?
Too complex for a simple response. I think it is important to understand they think they’re right. There is an institutional issue – similar to that suffered by NGOs such as Amnesty – in which the only people who can get employed are ideological clones. This in turn creates internal echo chambers and an inevitable slide down the slippery slope. When attacked this just reinforces their beliefs. Be interested to hear what people feel can actually be done – because I am fighting on the hill – but am extremely pessimistic about how things will play out.
There is also an old grudge of 1947 being forced yo leave- deeply entrenched in subconscious.
An excellent piece about a ‘past its sell by date’ organisation that survives on the indirect taxation (licence fee) demanded by law of the British public.
I stopped watching BBC output years ago because of their partisan and one sided journalism and self-opinionated reporting. The most common way the BBC lies about the news seems to be by omission and/or commission; they will favorably highlight and emphasize one side of their preferred story while ignoring or highlighting the negative on the other side. Orna Geurin (spelling??), she of the mournful tragic voice, was a specialist in selective one-sided emotive reporting/ranting
I also stopped watching and listen years ago.
Their October 7th Pogrom reportage was the final straw and on the 8th CANCELLED the TV licence.
I will never pay it and should it go to court I will insist on attending and stating why as a Jew I refuse to effectively pay to be slandered, vilified and put in actual danger by this mouthpiece for real genocide. Pimps4Palestine
The media (read “The Trusted News Network” cartel) lie through omission.
After years of openly bias against Israel. Especially by guys lie Jeremy Bowen – one of his lasting vicious lies are atill “enshrined” by Israelophobes on Wikipedia that he once stared that he (suppose) did “not” see human shield usage by Hamas…
What has gotten worse in this genocidal-Hamas led war is:
1.Now the BBC resorts to [Hamas provided] graphic images – Al Jihadzeera style. To inflame. Not just the incubators- where Hanas used it so cynically
2.When they have on someone on the Israeli side they keep interrupting.
3.The “journalists” add emotions Hollywood style.
I wrote to the BBC’s complaints department several times regarding Israel/Arab/Palestinian issues. All with regards to unbalanced presentations, omissions and what I consider deliberate misrepresentations. The answers are always predictable amounting to excuses. I believe that the BBC is heavily influenced by the Foreign Office which us staffed by Arabists and diplomats who hold deep prejudice against the Jewish Nation.
You are correct. The BBC in fact was always used to follow and reinforce FO policy, especially against Israel.
And horrifically many other broadcaster in other counties take their cue from the BBC, and so the bent stuff gets spread round the world. Finland‘s YLE appears to be one of them and so does the largest distribution daily Helsingin Sanomat. The Guardian is another source favoured for views instead of news in my land of birth.
An incredible piece of research the results of which are deeply disturbing. David, why don’t you submit this to The Sunday Times’s Investigations team? Would be great if they did an exposé on this.
I watch the (probably Hamas provided) film reports from Gaza on BBC News. Lately they have been pushing the Famine narrative. But the voiceover words don’t match the pictures. All the faces they show are well fed – no evidence of malnutrition there.
You have objectively exposed the Anti Israel bias against the jewish state which influences the anti jewish hate debate in the UK. Tim Davie BBC controller has admitted that the BBC has shown lapses of prejudicial treatment in how it treats its own jewish employees. The unverified daily output from the main BBC news pages is a disgrace and is akin to Al Jazzera news output, totally without balance by extremist supporting journalists over the whole ME. BBC verify is a sham and the news output from the BBC amounts to 3rd rate propaganda by these unverified journos. Its about time this news output is questioned at the highest levels of government. The BBC complaints service has been shown to be an impediment and barrier to independent objective assessment of BBC news performance. It is incapable if addressing complaints on an individual basis and so is a complete waste of time.
That’s a monstrous slur on Al-Jazeera which is often more balanced than our “gold standard” Die-SturmBeeb
‘And they know there is nothing we can do’ – oh yes there is, if enough get together with the requisite equipment, materials and resolve. No amount of complaint and reasoned argument is going to stop this neo-Goebbels outfit in its tracks and get it to mend its ways – there’s only one way they’ll understand.
You wrote: “BBC’s pool of journalists is turning into a sewer full of anti-Zionist”
For clarification I want to add: ant-Zionists are not just antisemites, they are genocidal antisemites.
Jew of Conscience, also known as the fake rabbi and Holocaust revisionist and denigrator
I know you never answer questions, but could you give me a few examples of this so-called Israeli apartheid in your own words. Don’t wiggle your w–ly and quote the anti-Jewish Antisemitic NGO’s, just your own words. Because if you can’t give some examples of this so-called Israeli apartheid, then you don’t know what you are talking about. Which would be par for the course
Not just fighting are turned by Pallywood into fake massacres, but flowery al jihadzeera converts a stampede tragedy into a fake one too – as other bigots use its propaganda cheerfully dancing on blood..
Apparently AOC isn’t anti-Israel enough for the two crazy Pallyweid [Pally Weid] demanding she just “says” the G word
AOC has a long record of anti-Israel outbursts and activities.
But she has some idea how Gaza death regime uses its own people and how the Oct 7 war started.
Yet, even this radical liberal’s stand isn’t enough. But they shout: say the G word. Say it.
__
Anti-Israel protestors accost AOC outside theater, demand she accuse Israel of (so-called) genocide[sic] despite her anti-Israel record.
Gary Willig, Mar 5, 2024, 4:00 PM
[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386273]
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez harassed by anti-Israel protestors.
The activists approached AOC and her partner at a Brooklyn movie theater demanding she accuse the State of Israel of ‘genocide[sic]’.
i24NEWS
March 05, 2024. [https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/1709650319-congresswoman-ocasio-cortez-harassed-by-anti-israel-protestors]
Is Aarabization OK now?
Arab racism, Arab supremacy decries – see the language :
Saudi Arabia slams Israel for trying to ‘Judaize’ West Bank with thousands of new settlement homes.
By Jacob Magid
06 Mar, 2024, 10:42 pm
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/saudi-arabia-slams-israel-for-trying-to-judaize-west-bank-with-thousands-of-new-settlement-homes/
Just correct their headline: “Saudi Arabia slams Israel for trying to ‘Judaize’ West Bank”
Should be: “Saudi Arabia slams Israel for trying to ‘Judaize’ Judea.”
WHY ‘MEIN KAMPF’ INSPIRED (pedophile) Y. SINWAR – IS VITAL TO UNDERSTAND GENOCIDAL HAMAS
The untold story of Sinwar: the competition – who kills more Jews.
Already about 30 years ago: this is how Sinwar planned the invasion and the massacre.
Maariv, Mar 7, 2024.
In the United States, they may try to pressure Hamas even more through Egypt and Qatar, and are debating whether to order the government in Doha to expel Hamas representatives from the country if they fail to convince the organization’s senior officials in the Gaza Strip to release the abductees. This is what veteran commentator David Ignatius reported today (Thursday) in the “Washington Post”.
“This is the real devil, the new Nazi,” Kobi said at the beginning of the conversation. “Yahia Sinwar, whom I first met in 1989 when I interrogated him in the case of two kidnapped Israelis. He was associated with Ahmed Yassin in consulting, when he was his protégé and served as both his assistant and adviser, and also as the commander of the forces that murdered so-called collaborators. He also served as Hamas’ education commissioner. For example, he provided them with plastic knives and rubber knives so that they could compete among themselves as to who kills more Jews. Later, Sinwar provided them with guns to practice with, and then trained them with explosive belts.”
Micha Kobi, a former Shin Bet investigator who over the course of his career accumulated many hours in front of many murderers, revealed on 103FM a shocking detail: “He told me during the investigation that he was going to establish a unit that would enter the territories of Israel”
“Sinwar, from a very young age he was a fan of Ahmed Yassin. He visited the mosque almost every day, where he studied all the sermons and the Koran as Ahmed Yassin explained to him, that all the Jews should be eliminated. They sat together with several other so-called sages from Hamas, and wrote the Hamas charter. The first section talks about the destruction of the Jewish state. He was around 28, single, I asked him why he didn’t get married, he told me ‘My mother is Hamas, my father is Hamas, my wife is Hamas, everyone is Hamas.’ I have over 150 hours of Sinwar.
We are grinding water, he is simply trying to cause a conflict between the families and the government, and such and such personalities, etc.
This man stabs us with every word he utters, he is a liar, a crook. This is how Hamas behaves , there were never any promises made by Hamas that were kept. And if there were they were always changed.
It is clear that there is a rift between Hamas abroad and Hamas domestically, it has been almost forever, Yahya Sinwar sees himself as the commander of the military and civilian forces in the Gaza Strip.
Sinwar is not interested in any negotiations. He knows he is going to be the martyr. In his opinion, he has already succeeded, he carried out his plan as best as possible for him. He is considered the hero of Hamas, the hero of Islam and the hero of the people of Gaza, many of whom were swept away after him,” he added.
Kobi also stated that “he sees the October 7th as a victory, according to his opinion. He does not see it as a massacre Hamas under his authority denies that there was a massacre. His plan is survival – he thinks and is convinced that he will be able to subdue the State of Israel retreat to the borders of October-7th and then he will return to rebuild Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is the trend and this is the ambition, at the same time he is convinced that the State of Israel will persecute him and it is better for him to be a martyr than to flee to Egypt or leave with consent to Qatar.
We do not yet know for sure how many are around him, It is likely that there are several dozen abductees around him. At the same time, he is looking for survivors, that is why he does not want any negotiations, he has no interest in negotiations. This is the reason for the quarrel between him and Haniyeh and Sha’al, they hold meetings, take sentences out of their mouths that supposedly have So and so are abducted and you can make a deal of 40 for 400 – they don’t know how many abductees exist…”
“He was interested in the [terror] prisoners in the past, if we had withdrawn, he would have been interested in making a deal to release all the prisoners, but it really doesn’t interest him at the moment. He will give up everything in exchange for survival and pushing Israel to its October-7th border. I do not believe that the State of Israel, despite international pressure, no matter from which direction, we should not stop the war with Hamas until the destruction of Hamas’s capabilities, both military and civilian.
He [Sinwar].married after he was released [2011] and got a name of a pedophile, he wanted to erase this issue, he married someone by force in Gaza and had a son with her, who is now 8 years old. The children seen in the tunnel could be one of his children, one of his brother’s children, there were also two women there.
Sinwar is imbued with an abysmal hatred for Jews, and he wants to carry out, he was not ashamed to give me a version during the interrogation that he was going to form a unit that would enter the territories of Israel and destroy settlements “If he hadn’t been sentenced to life imprisonment, he would have carried out his plot even then, but he was sentenced to four life sentences, following which he was released in the [2011 Gilad] Shalit deal. I knew that if he was released, this man would carry out his plot, and fulfill his promise to establish the Nukhba,” he added .
At the end of his words, he emphasized that “Hamas has been resurrected at least three times that I know of. They re-establish each time, and if indeed we withdraw and there is no military pressure, he will form a new Hamas that will be much more brutal and extreme than now, he believes in this, he believes that the Jews must be exterminated now.
We found Hitler’s Mein Kampf at his house, from where they took the [Hamas] principles.”
https://www.maariv.co.il/news/military/Article-1081872
The more noise we make about it, the better. Remember, no media wants to to be THE subject.
On October 8th I cancelled our TV Licence. It will NEVER be reinstated and should I be fined, they will never be paid. I’d rather go to prison where I’ll be in far better and more moral company than the disgusting cockroaches infesting the BBC.
If proof was ever need that our “national broadcaster” will get into bed with our enemies and would’ve adapted and fitted in perfectly had Hitler invaded, this is it.
The BBC has been hollowed out and infiltrated by the institutionally anti-Semitic hard left for decades of the same ilk as the camel corps that infest the Foreign Orifice.
It’s now reached a pitch where I no longer feel same iny own bloody country, while idiots embrace those who’d kill them as soon as they’re no longer of use.
I will enjoy my remaining years, but I’m afraid that at the current accelerating rate, especially with the election of Arafat’s nephew-in-law in Rochdale and the boiling cancer simmering in the Labour party, waiting to burst out and ditch that moron Starmer if they gain power, the future doesn’t look good.
I fear that it may be too late and that the supine and decadent West l, who are more exercise with kneeling to extremists and inverting reality where they cannot even define what a woman is, I give it TEN YEARS.
The lunatics are on the rise.
SPEAKING OF BIASES:
WHO IS NEVE GORDON MAKING NOISE RECENTLY AT ANTI-ISRAEL SITE M.E.E?
Neve Gordon, who hugged Arafat at his compound in 2002 at the height of Arafat’s led terrorists massacring Israelis at intifada and claimed/lied he doesn’t know who is resposible for the bombings. In 2007 he castigated student who exposed his lie at his inciting class that there are separate roads supposedly Jews/Arabs when the facts is, roads are for all Israelis, Arab or Jew. Gordon has been accused of being an anti-Jewish racist (Sherman M. “The real racism: Expecting Jews to die meekly,” Jerusalem Post, October 28, 2011) as well as implying a support for old blood libel, through his 2018 article.
In Aug 2009 this Gordon called for boycotting Israel.
_
Studying with Prof. Neve Gordon at the University of Michigan, Jacob Shrybman, Israel Behind the News, August 25, 2009.
[https://israelbehindthenews.com/2009/08/25/studying-with-prof-neve-gordon-at-the-university-of-michigan/].
In a lecture on October 10th, 2007 which was supposed to be about the historical Suez Crisis, Gordon purposefully digressed at length to blame Israel for the current crisis with Iran. He explained to the class that Israel gained nuclear weapons as the outcome of a deal with France at the end of the crisis in 1956. He then stepped away from his podium to drive home his message, “You can not understand what is happening with Iran today if you don’t understand what happened with Israel in `56.” As this comment was charged with controversial anti-Israel bias, Gordon was delighted to open the class to questions. When a student, who prefaced his statement with the premise that he was Jewish, challenged Gordon’s ridiculous blame of Israel for Iran’s actions today, Gordon disregarded the Jewish student’s challenge by smirking and stating to the class, “Ben is always trying to bring us back to the present.” It was in fact Prof. Gordon who clearly brought the class discussion to that of present times. Gordon then welcomed a question from a student who claimed Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust was “not a big deal.” By first demonizing Israel, then not allowing any student objections to his anti-Israel statements, then welcoming an out rightly anti-Semitic comment in his lecture hall, Gordon was in no way teaching an unbiased historical course, as one would have expected in an institution of higher learning.
In a lecture on November 5th, 2007 Gordon continuously used the term “Jewish roads” to refer to Israeli roads in the West Bank and formerly in the Gaza Strip from which Arabs are excluded. An Israeli student in the large class raised his hand and told Gordon that he was offended by his phraseology and said Gordon was bordering on anti-Semitism by deeming these roads “Jewish roads.” The student described for the class the complete freedom of movement of Israeli Arabs (Arabs with Israeli citizenship) on Israeli roads inside Israel and inside the West Bank. Therefore by calling the roads “Jewish” and not Israeli Gordon was being anti-Semitic. Gordon again simply disregarded the challenge to his biased teaching and appeared irritated.
The same Israeli student that challenged Gordon received a terse email after class that same day from Gordon requesting that the student come see him at his office at an appointment two days later. The student arrived at Gordon’s office and was surprised to see his Graduate Student Instructor (who directly grades the student) present as well. The student cordially greeted Gordon in Hebrew but did not receive the same warm greeting in return.
Gordon then proceeded to berate the student for publicly embarrassing and offending him during class. He belittled the student by telling him that he (Gordon) had been teaching for longer than the student had been alive and that he had never been embarrassed and offended like that before. Behind closed doors, intimidated by his professor yelling at him, and in the presence of the person who decides his grade, the student quickly apologized and hoped the matter was put to rest. Much to the student’s dismay, in the next lecture Gordon attempted to clear his name and denounced the student’s challenging questions as unfair and unfounded, while publicly humiliating the student. Gordon’s Graduate Student Instructors further dissected the Israeli student’s challenge in the class discussion sections, and referred to the student by name without his consent.
Along with the history of scare-tactics used by Prof. Gordon in order to keep his classroom opposition quiet and disallowing any challenging of his anti-Israel positions, Gordon did not adhere to the tenet of an open environment within the structure of academic freedom. Before speaking in his class, Gordon directed students to state their name. In a large lecture hall this creates an uncomfortable environment for the students to express their own ideas. Gordon uses the students’ names in order to refute their statements or questions while referring back to each of their arguments. As a result, students were reluctant to speak up in the class.
_
Shlomo Saran, “Our Inner Scourge: The Catastrophe of Israel Academics”, Ariel Center for Policy Research Policy Paper No, 171. (Sep-2007 – Tishrei-5768).
[http://www.acpr.org.il/pp/pp171-sharanE.pdf]
Student Complaint about Ben Gurion University’s Neve Gordon.
The lecture began smoothly, with Neve Gordon giving a theoretical explanation of human rights (including the fundamental human right of free speech). It soon, however, turned very political. He presented a slideshow about the “Separation Wall” and the injustices it causes to the Palestinians. He made many mentions of land being “confiscated” by the Israelis and the “humiliation” caused to the Palestinians due to lack of movement throughout the territories. On his PowerPoint presentation, he mentioned that parts of the fence were electrified. However, I then corrected him that they were just electric monitors. He conceded on this point.
My fellow students and I challenged him on his accusations and he became frustrated and lashed back due to the questions. He said he was more Zionist then any of us on the basis that he lives in Israel (although some in the class, including myself, are currently making Aliya). He condescendingly remarked that we were just full of American propaganda. He then requested that we stop asking questions and try to learn something. I made a comment that Israel is in a war and fences and separation are necessary. He then made a comment about how during war millions of Jews were thrown in ovens. I asked him if he was comparing the situation in Israel to Nazi Germany and he did not answer. He then made another comparison of fenced in Palestinians and ghettos in Germany. He also claimed that when Jordan took control of the West Bank it was legal, but when the Israelis won the territory in war, it was illegal. At the end, I was able to approach him. I asked how he could possibly justify standing in solidarity with Arafat after the Passover Seder massacre. He became agitated and admitted that the picture has caused him troubles. I then asked how he could sue another professor (at the University of Haifa – SS) for exercising his right to freedom of speech. He responded that we as Americans don’t understand that in Israel it is acceptable to sue in such a case for libel and that in Israel his case is reasonable…
He left in a huff, seeming very frustrated, annoyed, and agitated.
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“Let Hagai Elad speak.” Neve Dromi, Haaretz, Jan 20, 2021.
This is what happened to me: The solid right-wing position I hold today was formed when I was a student of Prof. Niv [Neve] Gordon, an extreme leftist. The discussions with him made me realize that he represents a completely wrong position. B’Tselem is an organization that arouses disgust…
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E. Weiss, Ynet, Feb.3.2002.
[https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-1612028,00.html]
Niv [Neve] Gordon, in the photo with Arafat, tells Ynet: “I do not know who is responsible for the attacks…” Asked if he felt comfortable embracing the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, who is responsible for terrorism in Israel..
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Neve Gordon: Is He Anti-Israel? HNN, Mar 7, 2005.
[http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/10631.html]
Gordon was arrested for his illegal interference with IDf anti-terror operations. Prof. Alan Dershowitz last year described Gordon thus: “It is my opinion that Neve Gordon has gotten into bed with neo-Nazis, Holocaust justice deniers, and anti-Semites. He is a despicable example of a self-hating Jew and a self-hating Israeli.” Officials at Ben Gurion University have long backed Gordon’s anti-Israel and Solidarity-with-Terrorists activism.
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“The real racism: Expecting Jews to die meekly”, Martin Sherman, The Jerusalem Post, Oct 28, 2011.
[https://www.jpost.com/opinion/columnists/the-real-racism-expecting-jews-to-die-meekly]
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Prof. Niv [Neve] Gordon of Ben-Gurion University, wrote an article for the Al Jazeera network …
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210811113910/https://rotter.net/forum/scoops1/462844.shtml]
Liran Levy, 01/04/18.
Current affairs and news, political. The head of the policy department at the “If You Will” movement and a graduate of the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, Alon Schwartzer, responded to the publication, saying: “The use of the term ‘Passover massacre’ by Niv [Neve] Gordon is not accidental. Its purpose is to direct the world of connotations to the most horrific anti-Semitic blood libels against the Jews who have falsely held that Jews practice killing children on Passover to prepare matzah. “Thousands of Jews have been murdered for these lies over the generations and a professor belonging to the Israeli academy is now dancing for it. Gordon is also known for calling for a boycott of Israel. We call on outgoing university president Rebecca Carmi to make amends for her personal career. There is only one thing worse than anti-Semitism and that is the Jews who feed it.”
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Hypocrites at their worst, A. Roll, September 4, 2009.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210811113623/https://www.articles.co.il/mobile_article.php?id=48070]
The debates surrounding the wrongful act of a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University are not forgotten. Niv Gordon, a left-wing extremist from the fascist genre, infamous as the human shield of “The Man with the Hair on His Face” Yasser Arafat, in a Muqata in Ramallah during “Operation Defensive Shield”, did so again and published an article in the Los Angeles Times calling for a boycott.. This is not about academic freedom, as they call for a boycott of the State of Israel and the academic institutions in it, first and foremost, thus constraining the existence of the Israeli academy and the destruction of the academy and the freedom of speech in it as a result.
This action by Gordon joins the actions of (many) .. to exert dictatorial-fascist pressure on Israel because their arguments no longer stand up to public logic. For the past 20 years, hundreds and thousands of organizations have been working to fund anti-Semitic anti-Israelis overseas in order to bring the State of Israel to its knees and eliminate it as a sovereign, Jewish, independent entity.
Part II re Media bias:
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WHO IS ‘M.M.E.’?
Middle East Eye, a site that publishes among others.. an anti-Zionist blogger with a reputation for spreading anti-Israel stories and conspiracy theories with a complete disregard for fact-checking.
(‘Featured: Weaponizing Myanmar to Bash Israel.’ Simon Plosker, September 7, 2017.
(https://honestreporting.com/weaponizing-myanmar-to-bash-israel/%5D)
Qatari funded.
(‘The Middle East Eye: A Case of Manufacturing News..’ Ibrahim Alkhamis, Jul 2, 2019
[https://medium.com/@ibrahimalkhamis/the-middle-east-eye-a-case-of-manufacturing-news-6e068ccf012]).
The London-based publication’s editor David Hearst, who once expressed his fervent wish for “the end of Zionism,” not long ago penned an op-ed in MEE in which he raged against what he perceived as “Jewish supremacy” in Israel and ludicrously claimed the country was not a democracy.
(‘Featured: Israel-Hating Middle East Eye Blacklists Hitler Fan Palestinian Journo After Story Goes Viral On Twitter.’
Rachel O’Donoghue, October 20, 2022.
[https://honestreporting.com/israel-hating-middle-east-eye-blacklists-hitler-fan-palestinian-journo-after-story-goes-viral-on-twitter/])
Middle East Eye, an organization which has previously faced accusations of publishing editorials praising and defending the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as having exclusive access to Hamas.
(‘Tlaib Shares Anti-Israel Smear after B’Tselem Refuses to Retract Baseless Lie.’
Emanuel Miller, May 6, 2021
[https://honestreporting.com/tlaib-shares-anti-israel-smear-after-btselem-refuses-retract-baseless-lie/])
If one elevates the jihadi regime, ‘believes’ Gaza-Death-Ministry’s “numbers” then why not blame them for the whole thing?
If one ignores the lying routine https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-gaza-health-ministry-fakes-casualty-numbers by Hamas regime but chooses to respect their words, then why not put the blame on this entity on using its population to sacrifice Arabs’ lives in order to tarnish Israel and gain sympathy?
Of course Hamas/PIJ isn’t rushing to a ceasefire. Their devilish plan works so far.
Some at MSM didn’t learn from the Oct 17 Al-Ahli hospital where Islamic Jihad actually killed their people before the NYT isdued apology and revised.
Still, some take the Gaza Death Ministry’s words first, then offer the Israeli statement.
Interesting background on Arab “palestine” activism early years in the US.
^^^^^
ABOUT ‘FUAD SHATARA’ (Ramallah 1894 – NY 1941)
* Palestine – as part of Syria…1
*Appeared before the US Congress’ April 1922 hearing to oppose a Jewish State.2
* “Shatara scurried around, speaking before pro-Nazi organizations in the U. S.”3
* The infamous Nazi propaganda, Welt-Dienst – “The World Service”, in March, 1938 4 promoted his NAL National Arab League as well as the Bund Nazi groups in the US.5
* The NAL which he headed and Habeeb Katibeh as manager, who, later changed the name into “Institute of Arab American Affairs”.
* Just after the 1941 Rashid Ali pro Nazi coup he tried to excuse him and suggested, it was part of “Arab program for the complete independence of all Arab States and the creation of a United States of Arabia.”5
Mar 12, 2024
BBC just asked Mr. Miller of the US Govt. about a so-called “report” it concocted about Nasser Hospital. Typically, the BBC avoided mentioning that the hospital staff and manager are all under Hamas’ authority –
Speaking of credibility.
It even claimed that some were “beaten” in the heading of it’ls “report,” but no details of the “beating” were provided in the clip. Was Hamas still planting how to “say” it?
Through out its clip the BBC did not show the Hamas terrorists caught in medical wardrobe arrested at the time and pics shown in intl. Media.
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Related:
IDF says more than 20 terrorists who took part in Oct. 7 massacres arrested in Khan Younis hospital
16 Feb 2024, 12:02 pm.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-more-than-20-terrorists-who-took-part-in-oct-7-massacres-arrested-in-khan-younis-hospital/
what / who is Gaza “health” ministry” medical staff from h3ll which BBC relies on?
Former hostage, Judith Raanan, a Chicago-area resident who was kidnapped together with her daughter, Natalie, by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel, said her captors were greeted as heroes when she and her daughter arrived at a Gaza hospital. “The minute we came in, all the nurses were standing there and going like this [cheering]. They were all so happy that they came back with prey, with Israeli-Jewish prey.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386707
Former hostage, Itay Regev, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival together with his sister and a friend on the morning of October 7, described his Hamas captors as “very, very vicious.” How they encountered terrorists in a van who “sprayed” the fleeing vehicles with bullets “without any mercy.” Both Regev and his sister were shot in the legs.
He underwent the surgery without any form of anesthesia or painkillers. His captors warned that if he was not quiet during the procedure, they would kill him, and slapped him and spat on him during the operation.
His sister had to have her foot reattached as a result of her bullet wounds, but the foot was not reattached correctly and at an odd angle. She now requires extensive rehabilitation.
“We were very, very hungry. I didn’t have a shower for 54 days. My captors were very, very vicious. They didn’t care. I had wounds in my legs, big holes in my legs,” he said.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/386707
14 Marc 2024
Intolerant, twisted, untruthful Sari Bashi – ng
Continuing racist Omar Shakir’s work at HRW, longtime Israelophobe bashing-Sari-Bashi is just that. About bashing. But not the bad guys though.
Today, on BBC she couldn’t reply to the question about Hamas embedding itself with civilians in hospitals. All she did us a rant. But not on the bad guys.
Reminding also, at the beginning of the Oct 7 war, what she said in repsonse to saving Arab-plaestinans from getting hit, by IDF call for evacuation them. She called this “terrorism,” but she did not use the T word on Hamas, of course. She also lied. A lot.
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Human Rights Watch On MSNBC: Urging Civilians To Evacuate Is Terrorism.
By: David Litman October 16, 2023
When a Human Rights Watch (HRW) activist was given two chances on MSNBC to talk about the situation in Israel, she used the word “terrorism” only once. No, not in reference to the mass murder, rape, mutilation, torture, and burning alive of 1,400 Israeli men, women, and children at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Rather, she used it to describe the Israeli Defense Force’s urging of Gazans to evacuate northern Gaza where the IDF intends to strike hard against those Palestinian terrorists.
HRW’s Sari Bashi was given a chance to speak on Ali Velshi’s show, followed by the chance to publish an article on MSNBC.com. In both cases, Bashi displayed not just a shocking moral perversion, but an aversion to factual accuracy typical of her organization. In both cases, Bashi’s lies and deceptions were left entirely unchallenged by MSNBC.
Let’s begin with the moral perversion. Bashi didn’t use the word “terror” to describe the actions of Palestinian terrorist organizations, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence of their atrocities and their intention to specifically target civilians and even children. Grotesquely, she instead used it to describe the IDF’s efforts to get Gazan civilians out of harm’s way.
CAMERA/
THAT BLOODY ANTI-JEWISH GENOCIDAL ‘RED HAND’: NAZI-ARAB FAHOUD POGROM 1941 OR 2000 RAMALAH LYNCHING
* Noted Those who wore red pins—which bear an eerie resemblance to the bloody hands of a Palestinian Arab who had participated in the lynching of two Israelis at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000 in an iconic photograph of that awful moment—in support of an immediate ceasefire, was doing at the Oscars this year
* And: Bloody hands, bloody fools.
That symbol the Hollywood glitterati sported is rooted in the horrific lynching of two Israeli men by a Palestinian mob..
* Oct 7 ‘reliving the 1941 Baghdad massacre’ : The Arab marauders went door to door, targeting every Jewish home and business in Baghdad. (The Mufti had prepared for the massacre by ordering a red hamsa symbol painted on all Jewish properties.) For two terror-filled days of Shavuot, Arabs plundered and demolished hundreds of Jewish homes and businesses, while hundreds of Jews – men, women and children – were raped and slaughtered
* Syrian-Lebanese peace activist – video, highlights the dark association of the Red Hand print with the Farhud, as quoted in a BBC piece‘The violence continued through the night. A red hand sign or hamsa had been painted on Jewish homes to mark them out .”
Revelations from the British press about Hamas fan girls writing articles for the Beeb alleging IDF misconduct are now as normal as daily rockets from Gaza targeting our civilian population. But seriously, what can change?
As an observer from Israel, it seems that the UK along with Canada and several European countries reached its tipping point years ago and is now too far beyond it to change. In the UK, the Islamic communities are now so populous that it has become the easiest thing in the world for them to get 100,000 people onto the streets costumed and choreographed to express their pretend concerns for Arabs but very real hate for Jews whilst a few thousand police officers, outmanned and under resourced look on with impotence and incompetence. Politicians who call this out are summarily targeted by the mob or sacked by their party who are terrified of receiving the Black Spot of Islamophobia whilst the silent majority remains silent. There seems to be neither the political will to address this manifestation of intifada on UK streets nor the hard cash to support the police to uphold the law. Again, with this perfect storm of circumstances, what can change?
Economics and demographics are now the immovable objects that are dictating UK domestic policy with weak and indecisive leadership entirely paralyzed to effect change. Concurrently, foreign policy appears to play to the audience of hostiles with impromptu snipes at our government and the IDF regarding military strategy and vague shuttle diplomacy with Arab leaders who have long dismissed the UK as a relevant regional actor. With a Labour victory at the next elections seeming increasingly likely, are things going to change for the better?
I was a relatively happy Brit over a decade ago but made my choices and am now a very happy Israeli. I fear for British Jewry many of whom choose to be blissfully blinkered to the enemy at their gates and wonder what size of shovel needs to smack them in the face to make them see the growing risks to their way of life. I have no illusions of a mass Aliyah from the UK. In fact I suspect that many would prefer Florida, Melbourne or even Dubai over Israel but at least they will see that when we prevail in our mission to crush Islamic terror on our borders, the Jewish State will always be an option for them.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Hi Ian
Hope you are keeping well personally and coping with what is happening in Israel right now
In response to your comment I haven’t personally been bothered by any of the regular protests that seem to be happening in most of our cities every weekend
In truth I very rarely went into my local city centre anyway and now it’s a virtual no go zone on a Saturday so it’s best to just stay away and leave them to it
And besides I genuinely think that the underlying picture is rather different to what you might think
Re the BBC it’s interesting to note how dramatically their viewing figures have tumbled in recent years
Question Time regularly used to achieve a viewership of 8m+ but now they are lucky if they get 1m+
And Newsnight are having their budget slashed because they are only getting an audience of around 300k now
Yes the Muslim population is growing here but it’s still at only 6% and again mostly concentrated in and around the city centres which limits the number of MPs they can potentially control
Galloway’s win in Rochdale will only galvanise his opponents and lead to a much bigger backlash and I very much doubt he will still be an MP after the General Election
We diaspora Jews will always be grateful for the continued existence of Israel as a potential safety net for us should we ever need it
But my own personal alarm bells are not ringing just yet
Interesting and insightful perspectives Ken and obviously valuable for balance to someone like me who views things through a rather different lens.
There has definitely been a shift here in terms of the traditional tightrope that our politicians have needed to walk to appease our alleged allies and maintain the delicate status quo with our avowed enemies. Now there is clear and unambiguous resolution by our leaders to act in the national interest and speak with clarity and forthrightness about our mission. As the dad of a soldier, this clarity is important at a time when our only responsibility is to give the IDF our complete support. I am no fan of Mr. Netanyahu but he has been steadfast in the face of all the self serving toss from Biden, Cameron etc al.
Keep yourself out of bother mate and best wishes from the Jewish State.
Speaking of unreliable and hate. At last, the US denounces racist Francesca Albanese of UN and reject her PallyWeid accusations
Department Press Briefing – March 27, 2024 – United States Department of State.
MR MILLER: I did see the report. Let me say a couple things about it. First, we have long – for longstanding – for a longstanding period of time opposed the mandate of this special rapporteur, which we believe is not productive. And when it comes to the individual who holds that position, I can’t help but note a history of antisemitic comments that she has made that have been reported. And —
QUESTION: She has – she made antisemitic comments?
MR MILLER: And – she has. And comments she made in December that appeared to justify the attacks of October 7th, so I think it’s important to take that into account. But with respect to the report itself, we have made clear that we believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded. …
https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-march-27-2024/