PSC checks BBC article for facts, bias and legal omissions
BBC News reaches 81% of the UK every week via tv, radio and online articles. That is a huge number of people to be misinforming about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Because misinform is exactly what the BBC does.
The occupation is largely airbrushed from BBC reporting and its atrocities sanitised. Events are covered without context or background, and the unlawful nature of Israel’s actions are ignored.
But the reporting is so disingenuous that pinpointing exactly how it misinforms can sometimes be difficult. PSC’s ‘Deconstructing the BBC’ series will analyse BBC online articles and show in depth just how the UK’s supposedly impartial public broadcaster is hiding the truth of the occupation.
In the following analysis, we examine a BBC article about Israeli troops stopping the delivery of aid to Palestinian Bedouins. The article fails to mention that Israel’s actions were all violations of international law. In this way, the BBC hides Israel’s criminality and the scale of it. We expose this failure of reporting with our analysis:
Article date: 20th September 2013
Diplomats protest over West Bank clash with Israel troops (Link to article)
Article Text:
Diplomats from a number of European countries and the UN have reacted angrily after Israeli soldiers intervened to prevent them delivering aid to Bedouins in the West Bank. protest over West Bank clash with Israel troops.
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Law Check:
An occupying power has a duty to ensure that the people it occupies have sufficient food and medical supplies. If the people’s own resources aren’t adequate, then the occupying power must bring in the necessary supplies. (Geneva Convention; Article 55) More info
Article Text:
One French diplomat said she was forced to the ground from her vehicle.The aid was being delivered to Khirbet al-Makhul after homes there were demolished under a High Court order.
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Law Check:
If supplies, in particular of food, medical supplies and clothing, aren’t adequate for the people of an occupied territory, then the occupying power must agree to relief schemes and facilitate those schemes. All parties involved, including the occupying power, must allow the free passage of these supplies and guarantee their protection.
(4th Geneva Convention; Article 59) More info
Article Text:
An Israeli spokesman said it was reviewing whether the diplomats had abused their privileges. The homes in Khirbet al-Makhul were knocked down on Monday after Israel’s High Court ruled that they had been built without the correct permits.
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Law Check:
An occupying power is forbidden from destroying the personal property of private individuals, of public authorities, of cooperative organisations and of the state. The exception is where such destruction is made absolutely necessary by military operations. (4th Geneva Convention; Article 53) More info
Article Text:
BBC Middle East correspondent Kevin Connolly, in Jerusalem, says the Bedouin villagers of Khirbet al-Makhul have refused to leave the land where they say they have grazed sheep for generations.The diplomats said that as soon as they arrived, around a dozen Israeli army jeeps converged on them and ordered them not to unload their truck.
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Fact Check:
According to Reuters news agency, the aid comprised a truck full of tents and emergency aid and the group included representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and diplomats from France, Britain, Spain, Ireland, Australia and the European Union’s political office who, as soon as they arrived, were told not to unload their truck by Israeli army soldiers. More info
Article Text:
French diplomat Marion Fesneau-Castaing told Reuters news agency: “They dragged me out of the truck and forced me to the ground with no regard for my diplomatic immunity. This is how international law is being respected here.”
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Law Check:
The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.
(Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; Article 29) More info
Article Text:
[…]Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson told Agence France-Presse that Israel might lodge a complaint over Ms Fesneau-Castaing.”If she did participate then a formal complaint will be filed because that is not the way diplomats behave,” he said. The first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in three years were held in Jerusalem last month. The talks broke down in 2010 amid disagreement on the issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.▲
Law Check:
The policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
(UN Security Council Resolution 446) More info
Settlements are built on land taken from Palestinians. The theft of this land contravenes The Hague Convention, which states: “Family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. Private property cannot be confiscated.” More info
Article Text:
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war – the talks are aimed at reaching a permanent peace settlement with the Palestinians.