BBC slams Israel

Reading the article, it's hard to avoid the clear feeling that the BBC are pissing-their-pants with joy at being able to put so much anti-Israeli sentiment in a single article.

Posted by: at May 26, 2005 11:45:37 AM

There is something far more disturbing with the BBC headline. Yes, it does single out Israel alone. But the problem is not that they don't mention the Palestinians human rights abuses in the headline, the major problem is that it is very unbalanced in general. A better headline would be "Amnesty slams middle-east human rights" or something of that nature. By using the headline "Amnesty slams Israel war crimes", the BBC is giving a wrong impression of the situation in the middle-east and ultimately bring out their bias.

Posted by: Jonathan at May 26, 2005 8:09:25 PM

Exactly! Why does Israel get special mention? The report talked about human rights problems in ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE countries! And yet the two that got BBC site headlines devoted to them were Israel and the US. Forget China, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, the whole of Africa, Asia and South America, the BBC picks out Israel and the US to ehadline with. Any further evidence needed of the anti-Israel, anti-US BBC bias? I thought not.

Posted by: at May 26, 2005 9:36:21 PM

I think one reason behind the headline is that the fact that the PA has human rights abuses is expected and not a surprise. However, human rights abuses from Israel are a surprise.

BTW, the report also criticized the US for alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay.

Israel has denied the charges, and plans to come out with a complete response after looking into the report.

I suspect that Amnesty International relies on less than reliable sources for their information. The Palestinian Arabs have been claiming human rights abuses for a while. Of course, many of their claims have been proven to be false or at least taken out of context.
Although, it may very well be that there have been human rights abuses by individuals as was reported today in Ha'aretz about IDF soldiers who entered a Palestinian home to watch a soccer game.
But the important difference between Israeli abuses and others (and I hope there are no exceptions to this) is that in Israel the individuals who perpetrated the abuses are punished (as it is America), but in other countries accused of abuses the abuses are condoned by the government.

Posted by: Dan at May 27, 2005 6:16:15 PM

Amnesty International released a report which accuses Israelis and Palestinians of crimes against humanity. The article talks devotes more attention to Israeli crimes then Palestinians but nevertheless BOTH sides were accused of war crime:

The article states, "Certain abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes...".

And it says, "The deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed groups constituted crimes against humanity."

Now, let's look at some media headlines which is the part of any story which has the biggest impact:

==============
GOOD BALANCE BY REPORTING THAT BOTH WERE ACCUSED:
==============

* "BreakingNews.ie: Israelis and Palestinians accused of crimes ..."
http://www.breaking.tcm.ie/2005/05/25/story204154.html

* "Amnesty accuses Israel, Palestinian groups of committing crimes against humanity"
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/05-25-2005/e0e100108b3bcf41.html

* "Amnesty International report faults Israel and the Palestinians"
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=3390043

* "Palestine and Israel 'guilty of war crimes'"
http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/Full_Story/did-sgRjrq2oiyOD2sgHuTLc4nqWo2.asp

* "Israelis and Palestinians Accused of Crimes Against Humanity"
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4601126

=================
SINGELING OUT ISRAEL:
=================

* Amnesty slams Israel 'war crimes'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4580139.stm

* "Amnesty Slams Israel 'War Crimes'"
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=11177

* "Amnesty International: Israeli army committed war crimes"
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/26/2005&Cat=4&Num=015

* "AMNESTY: Israel Perpetrated War Crimes Against Palestinians"
http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_new/english/details.asp?name4907

* "Israel accused of war crimes against Palestinians"
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8292

* "Amnesty accuses Israel of committing war crimes against Palestinians"
www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/ middle_east_full_story.asp?service_ID=8292

* "Amnesty Reports Israeli War Crimes"
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20050527075554545

*"Amnesty International: Israeli army committed war crimes"
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-235/0505250778140432.htm

=======================================
How do you think Israel/Jewish media reports it? Perhaps report only that Palestians were accused and hide that Israel was accused? NOPE!
=======================================

* Amnesty Int'l: IDF committed war crimes
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagenameJPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1116901693930

"Amnesty int'l accuses IDF of war crimes, crimes against humanity"
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/580293.html

* " Also Wednesday, Amnesty International accused Israeli soldiers operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including unlawful killings, torture, destruction of property, obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel. The human rights group also said in its annual report released Wednesday that the deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed groups constituted crimes against humanity."
http://www.jewishtoronto.com/content_display.html?ArticleID=153785

(Note: There are articles in the Israeli media where people are saying the report is biased. But they don't HIDE the accusation. An Israeli MP has called the Israeli Parliment to discuss the findings!!)

So we have some good and balanced media. And we see some terrible one-sided reporting by the BBC (no surprise there) and most Pro-Palestinian sites. (no surpirse there.)

In Israel we have no hiding the fact that their country has been accused. More good reporting!

In America's media, I could not find a SINGLE example of a headline which accused ONLY the Palestinians!!! Don't Jews run all of America's media? What happened??

Who's really biased and manipulating the media??

Posted by: Unknown at May 27, 2005 10:25:10 PM