By Trevor Asserson and Deena Pinson (bbcwatch)
2nd part of 2
VI: ISRAEL DEMONISED
The 2006 War started when Hizbullah invaded Israeli territory, attacked an army convoy killing some Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two others. Israel responded with a massive bombardment of Hizbullah positions and economic targets in South Lebanon, being the area controlled by Hizbullah. This was followed by an invasion in the last days of the war. Hizbullah rained thousands of medium range missiles on Israeli civilian areas.
There were civilian and military deaths and destruction on both sides, although all agree that the Lebanese suffered more deaths and greater destruction. There were massive population evacuations in both Israel and Lebanon from the affected areas. Israel was criticized internationally for overreacting to the initial aggression. After the war Amnesty International accused both sides of carrying out indiscriminate attacks against civilians.23
The BBC Arabic gives little indication of the destruction, the evacuations and the deaths (often of Israeli Arabs), caused by the thousands of Hizbullah rockets fired into Israel. By contrast some of the language used to describe Israel is hysterical in tone and the translated transcript reads like an Islamist extremist tract. Here are some examples:
Facing the "Israeli aggression"24
Israel is said to have "evil objectives. this way of twisting things and the aggressive attitude"25
".the Israeli military machine.works to a great extent based on hatred"26
"Israelis, who are violating all international law"27
".breaching all of the international laws"28
"The crimes that they are committing.a real crime, which contradicts all of the laws"29
".barbaric Israeli attack"30
".the barbaric Israeli army"31
Lebanon is facing "a barbaric war"32
They are "destroying villages completely"; they are "racist barbaric"33
"We are facing a monster who does not care about the law or about morals.a killer monster"34
".Israel is the deadly monster.a destructive monster"35
"They are committing massacres"36
". the atrocities in Lebanon that we have seen so far from Israel, including all of their massacres"37
There is a need for an "assurance against further [Israeli] massacres"38
They refer to "a month of killing our children"39
There is reference to "this ugly crime against the Lebanese and the Palestinian people"40 (notwithstanding that Israelis including Israeli Arabs were in fact being killed by Hizbullah rockets at the time.)
".this is collective punishment, Nazi punishment"41
VII: ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF THE WAR
Almost all commentators at the time agree that the initial Hizbullah incursion and kidnap of two Israeli soldiers caused the war. Without it there would have been no war. One obtains a very different view from listening to BBC Arabic:
".the kidnapping of the two soldiers was just an excuse"42
"I believe that the reason for this attack is not the two soldiers"43
".we all know that this attack over the last three weeks has nothing to do with the release of the Israeli detainees.Israel wanted to destroy the infrastructure of Lebanon and this is part of historical revenge against the Lebanese people"44
"Olmert took.the kidnap of the Israeli soldiers as an excuse to invade, destroy and kill innocent people"45
".I don't see any relationship between Israel's attacks on Lebanon and the existence of Hizbullah"46
VIII: ABSURD COMMENTS
There are some comments made by program guests which are so shrill and absurd that they should disqualify these guests from being given air time by any serious broadcaster. The BBC Arabic brings us the following gems:
"Israel is a country that wants to expand and they have a plan to force on to the regions of Palestine, Lebanon or even Egypt".47 (In fact, Israel has voluntarily withdrawn from territory in Gaza (Palestine), Lebanon and Egypt.)
".barbaric Israeli attack, which kills everybody everywhere"48
"We faced Israel in 1967 and won militarily".49 Israel would doubtless be happy to suffer a repeat of its military defeat of 1967.
"These are crimes unprecedented historically"50 (referring to the Israeli bombing of electricity stations).
"Israel is extensively targeting every part of Lebanon".51 In fact, Israel was targeting Hizbullah controlled South Lebanon. In Beirut people were sunbathing on the beach.
".it became apparent that Israel is targeting the entire Lebanon, its people, and infrastructure"52
".all the massacres committed by Israel, like no one in history has seen something similar. It is even worse than what Germany committed"53
IX: DANGEROUS COMMENTS
UK and indeed Western foreign policy is presently pre-occupied with a belligerent Iran which is issuing blood curdling threats against the West, supporting terrorists who threaten the West - including Hizbullah - and is building a nuclear capability.
One would like to imagine that the BBC would be supportive of the intellectual battle which the West is fighting. At the very least, one would hope that the BBC would be balanced in its coverage of the issue. In fact the BBC appears to be lending support and providing a platform to those who legitimize Iranian aims and deprecate those of the West.
"I hope that Iran has something to scare Israel, as an Arab citizen from the Middle East. I wish that all Arab countries would have nuclear weapons"54
"Iran's opinion is rooted in morals and rules, legal and logical"55
".claims of Iranian instigation are untrue"56
Europe and America "have considered Hizbullah a terrorist group, which is of course wrong"57
The Hizbullah soldiers are referred to as "martyrs.the honor resistance which does the utmost that any group can do.to defend their country".58
Calling the Lebanese who died in the conflict "martyrs [whose] blood is still fresh".59
"Hizbullah was clear that their operation.targeted military objectives, not civilians, as did Israel"60
"I will ask Iran, and every Arab country who can, to have nuclear weapons"61
X: CONCLUSION
The BBC Arabic radio appears to be out of control. It is providing a platform for a wide range of anti Western and in particular anti American ideologues to express their nasty, at times absurd and sometimes dangerous views in a forum that is almost invisible to most Westerners. The often unchallenged broadcast of such views by the BBC gives those views a veneer of legitimacy and truthfulness.
Overall, in the 25 programs analyzed, there emerges an unmistakable identification with parties with whom Israel is in conflict. While most programs provided a forum for the _expression of a variety of positions, the blatant disproportion, both quantitatively and qualitatively, in the voice afforded to the respective views points to an unequivocally biased program to the detriment of the Israeli position. Frequently, program hosts make no pretence at objectivity, and even when the questions posed by the host were relatively neutral, they were often tainted by clear animosity toward Israel and the West, while generally no attempts were made to challenge the virulently anti-Israel and anti-West views expressed.
The relative lack of Arabic speakers amongst those who pay for the BBC means that the BBC does not benefit from the criticisms of the general listening public as it does for its English speaking programs. The corrective influence which those complainants normally provide is necessarily absent.
Having rejected the Independent Panel's recommendation to appoint a "guiding hand" to monitor its Middle East output, the BBC has no systems in place to know what its own journalists think. We are not aware of any systematic method it has for monitoring program content. It seems that the BBC has less control of its Arabic programs than of any others, because it appears that relatively few of its senior staff speak Arabic.
We are left with the disturbing fear that the most powerful media organization in the world has left the fox guarding the hen house.
Trevor Asserson and Deena Pinson
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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The footnotes and schedules to this report, referred to above, are available in the pdf version of the report which can be downloaded here (sixth report): www.bbcwatch.co.uk/reports.html.
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