Free Republic

Even wars have rules. They don't stop soldiers killing each other but they're intended to make sure that civilians caught up in the fighting are treated humanely and protected from as much danger as possible. The rules apply equally to all sides. If one side has suffered a brutal surprise attack that killed hundreds of civilians, as Israel did on 7 October 2023, it does not get an exemption from the law. The protection of civilians is a legal requirement in a battle plan. That, at least, is the theory behind the Geneva Conventions. The latest version, the fourth, was...

UK Lawyers for Israel says use of inaccurate data, inconsistent methodology, potential bias led to false assertions that were utilized by ICC when charging Netanyahu with war (sic) crimes. A review conducted by the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) organization into allegations by international famine review bodies that famine and severe malnutrition were widespread and prevalent in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas has found that famine did not break out in the territory according to the figures of the very organizations making the claims. The report noted severe problems with the reports these organizations issued, due to...

UK lawmaker calls for inquiry into national broadcaster over contentious documentary featuring senior Hamas official's son

Study of coverage of the first 4 months of the war finds serious bias against Israel in BBC reporting, Hamas called a terrorist organization just 3.2% of time. A damning new report accuses the BBC of violating its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the first four months of the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization, the Telegraph reported. The report, which was led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, “deeply worrying pattern of bias" against the Jewish State during that period immediately following the massacre of 1,200 people by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Among...

Israelophobia: While a global bigoted media Al Jazeera talks about so called "Zionist control", here are some of more of such Goliath Arab/Islamic Media control "Qatar-Run Outlet Warns Of Zionist-Controlled Media. The dire consequences of a foreign country setting the editorial and content agenda. [preoccupiedterritory.com/qatar-run-outlet-warns-of-zionist-controlled-media/)... ___ Now let's talk about media controlling Israelophobia. Before we go on into a list of rabid anti-Israel bigots like Patrick Kingsley of NYT or Jeremy Bowen of BBC, or Christiane Amanpour at CNN & PBS, three distorters, among many, or entire media outlets dedicated for anti-Israel when it comes to the M.E., like The...

As the deaths of Gazan children in Jabalia on Aug 6, 2022 was shown to be a result of, yet, another Islamic Jihad failed rocket, one should remember the wider deadly problem in that circle.The BBC's Jeremy Bowen, reporting from Gaza on May 21, 2021, (amidst Guardian of Walls against Hamas barrage of rockets) showed a Gazan in the crowd screaming in ecstatic: "We sacrifice everything for Jerusalem. I'm sacrificing my wife my child for Jerusalem." While cheers can be heard. And this is how he reported it on BBC live TV. Then it was edited and the part of...

BBC edited clip, removed Arab in cheering crowd: "I'm sacrificing my wife my child for Jerusalem" ___ May 21, 2021 'Clashes in Jerusalem hours after Israel-Palestinian cesaefire - BBC News [Jeremy Bowen reporting]. https://youtu.be/hnC8kaHJ0Jc https://youtu.be/hnC8kaHJ0Jc&t=52s In the original broadcast, the Arab interviewed by Jeremy Bowen screams in front of cheering crowd: "We sacrifice everything for Jerusalem. I'm sacrificing my wife my child for a Jerusalem." And this is how he reported it on BBC live TV. Yet, when it came to saving it on YouTube, they edited it, omitted those words and just quoted the part when he says 'we...

A ‘Palestinian Specialist’ for the BBC has been revealed to have said that “Hitler was right” and compared the Jewish state of Israel to Nazi Germany. The BBC has launched an investigation after one of its digital journalists, Tala Halawa, was reported to have posted on her social media in 2014 that “Israel is more Nazi than Hitler! Oh, #HitlerWasRight – IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) go to hell #PrayForGaza.” The post was uncovered by Honest Reporting, an NGO which claimes to seek to counteract media bias against Israel. The report also revealed that Halawa also said that “Zionists can’t get...

BBC edited clip, removed Arab in cheering crowd: "im sacrificing my wife my child for Jerusalem"___May 21, 2021'Clashes in Jerusalem hours after Israel-Palestinian cesaefire - BBC News [Jeremy Bowen reporting].https://youtu.be/hnC8kaHJ0Jchttps://youtu.be/hnC8kaHJ0Jc&t=52sIn the original broadcast, the Arab interviewed by Jeremy Bowen screams in front of cheering crowd:"We sacrifice everything for Jerusalem. I'm sacrificing my wife my child for a Jerusalem." And this is how he reported it on BBC live TV.Yet, when it came to saving it on YouTube, they edited it, omitted those words and just quoted the part when he says 'we sacrifice evything...'___Conclusion:1. The Arab Muslim masses on the...

Journalists and media organisations have warned that the jailing of three correspondents for Al-Jazeera English by the Cairo regime was intended to intimidate others from reporting freely on events in Egypt. The jail terms of between seven and ten years for Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were met with outrage from veteran correspondents who have reported on the Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, said the verdicts and sentencing were a blow to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. "This is also at least partly designed to intimidate other journalists, and...

The pigheaded refusal to acknowledge that sometimes the ends justify the means reflects Europe's moral impoverishment. Dahu Khalfan Tamim now has a world-class reputation for detective work. The head of the Dubai police swiftly determined that Hamas’s Mahmoud Mabhouh did not die of natural causes at the five-star Bustan Rotana Hotel on Jan. 20. He was assassinated. Let’s for the sake of argument grant that Israel did away with Mabhouh; that he was not killed by Iran or over some intra-Palestinian dispute, and that clues pointing to Israeli culpability are genuine. Mabhouh certainly deserved to be assassinated by Israel. Hamas...

The UK is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of twelve cloned British passports in a Dubai murder, the BBC has learned. Foreign Secretary David Miliband will make a statement to Parliament later. Israel has said there is no proof that its agents were behind the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in January. Diplomatic sources stressed the British government has stopped short of accusing Israel of the murder. However Mr Miliband had demanded that Israel co-operate fully with the investigation into how the passports were obtained. The foreign secretary is to make the statement...

Watching the horrible video of Alan Johnston of the BBC broadcasting Palestinian propaganda under orders from his kidnappers, I found myself asking what it would have been like had he been kidnapped by Israelis, and made to do the same thing the other way round. The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself significant. But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did...

A BBC mole has sent me this briefing for BBC staff from the BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, on what lies ahead this year. It’s all too predictable. The "fragmentation" of Palestinian society has, in Mr Bowen’s view, nothing to do with the Palestinians and everything to do with Israel (“the death of hope, caused by a cocktail of Israel's military activities, land expropriation and settlement building – and the financial sanctions imposed on the Hamas led government”). Indeed, Israel is to blame for almost everything. The Palestinians are not responsible for anything; Israel is the culpable party. He...

Those of us who follow mideast coverage closely have long observed that the BBC has one of the worst records when it comes to balance and objectivity. (See, for example, here, or here: Revealed: UNRWA spokesman who lied about Israel’s shelling of a school was previously a senior producer at the BBC.) Last week, the independent BBC Trust (which oversees complaints to the British state broadcaster) finally admitted that BBC’s veteran Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, had been biased against Israel.

Israel has warned residents of southern Lebanon that it will escalate operations there as it continues its campaign against Hezbollah militants. In leaflets dropped by Israeli planes, it says its forces will destroy moving vehicles in an area south of the Litani river, 30km (18 miles) from the border. Israel launched about 80 air strikes against Lebanon overnight. Hezbollah fired more than 140 rockets on Israel. Diplomats at the UN are discussing a draft resolution to end fighting. An Arab League delegation is expected to push amendments to the draft, including Lebanon's demand for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. The current...

Last night’s BBC TV News at Ten featured a highly partisan report about Gaza by Jeremy Bowen. Making no mention of the direct hit yesterday by a Hamas rocket on a kindergarten in Ashdod (which was empty for fear of precisely such an occurrence) Bowen concentrated heavily on the growing civilian casualty toll among Palestinians, making no acknowledgement of any Hamas operatives among these figures. The piece de resistance of this item was a report from Gaza’s Shifa hospital by a Gazan BBC producer, Rushdi abu Alouf. He claimed that ‘hundreds of kids, women and children’ had been brought to...

It's that time of year again. Summer is here, the temperature outside is rising, and Israel's irresponsible critics are busy turning up the heat. Deploying a potent mix of selective amnesia combined with some good ol' fashioned obfuscation, these "amnesiacs," as I call them, would have us all believe that nothing good ever came from the 1967 Six Day War. Seizing upon this month's 40th anniversary of that heroic triumph, they are trying to rewrite the historical narrative, injecting as much gloom and doom as possible in order to push Israel into making still more concessions to the Arabs. Occupation,...

Tough Lessons For Obama On Mid-East Peace The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen considers how the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taught US President Barack Obama hard and humiliating lessons. Nearly 500,000 Jewish people live in settlements built on occupied territory. The land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has great sunsets. One the other day turned the sky from deep blue to pink, then angry orange, and flaming red. The fading light glowed on the roofs of the expanding and illegal Jewish settlements that run, like little fortresses, along the mountain spine of the West...

More than 100 MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win, local press reports say. All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night but 105 did not turn up, the reports say. A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls. Meanwhile, Mr Ahmadinejad has told the US not to interfere in Iranian politics, the Fars news agency reports. "I hope you [US President Barack Obama] will avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express regret in...