Not for the first time has the BBC come under fire for reporting that carries an anti-Israel bias. Recently, a group of eminent British lawyers wrote a letter of complaint to BBC television executive Lord Michael Grade about its practice of referring to Hamas terrorists as “militants”.
An even more vehement blast has come from President Isaac Herzog, who in an exclusive interview with The Daily Mail condemned the BBC for “its atrocious refusal to brand Hamas as a terrorist group.”
Herzog reiterated his disgust with the BBC in interviews with other media outlets.
In the interview given to the Daily Mail’s Natalie Lisbona, Herzog said, “Israeli families had been “wiped off the face of the Earth” and asked what else the BBC needed “in order for them to admit that we are dealing with the worst terrorist organization in the world.”
In the interview, Herzog referred to the booklet of instructions that Hamas terrorists received before entering Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, ordering them to kill as many civilians as possible. The president called Hamas “an empire of evil.”
In the interview with Herzog, The Daily Mail also published a statement from the BBC board after its monthly meeting, in which it appeared to defend itself.
According to the statement “No one who has watched or listened to harrowing reports over the last 10 days can be left in any doubt about the horror brought about by Hamas’s attack on defenseless civilians in Israel.
“As this war continues with so many deaths of civilians in both Israel and Gaza, the BBC will no doubt continue to come under scrutiny about the way in which we cover it – that is to be expected and also welcomed. The BBC is listening.”
Complaints from both sides
The BBC also said that it has received complaints from both sides about its coverage.
The BBC is not the only media outlet whose coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, and the present war against Hamas in particular, have been widely criticized by Israeli representatives, and Jewish community leaders. Others include CNN and The New York Times.
To its credit, the BBC this week launched an urgent probe into journalists working for its Arabic service in the Middle East, following their support off Hamas on social media platforms.
The question of BBC bias and its refusal to name Hamas as a terrorist organization also came up on Thursday in the meeting between Herzog and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The BBC is a statutory corporation, independent from direct government intervention. However, the British government does recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization. Since November 2021, Hamas members or supporters who are identified as such in Britain, can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.