The BBC reporting Israel, Hamas and Fatah - a quick comparison

The BBC have some guides to the Middle East Peace Talks up on the ir news site so I had a quick peruse. Here's a few extracts that show the anti-Israel bias endemic at the BBC:
From a page on Gilad Shalit:

'Israel is a highly-militarised society that views itself as surrounded by hostile nations, where most parents send their sons and daughters as conscripts and continue to serve as reservists in later life.'

I have yet to see the BBC describe Hamas run Gaza as a militarised society although it seems that way to me.

'the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits prisoners of war worldwide, has consistently been refused access to ascertain Sgt Shalit's condition or to deliver letters.'

A fact that if Israel were guilty of would be shouted regularly by the BBC is hidden away on this lang page.

From the page on Fatah comes this

'In late October 2004, Arafat was taken ill and flown to France for emergency treatment. He died of a mysterious blood disorder on 11 November.'

It seems that the BBC are willing to believe the Fatah line that Yasser Arafat was poisoned by Israel, or at least are willing to spread it.


From the page devoted to Hamas:

'The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.'

True, but what about Hamas's long term aims as expressed in their Charter?

'It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.

The founding document of Hamas commits the organisation to the destruction of Israel. '

So just the founding document? How about the regular calls for the killing of all Israelis and indeed all Jews by Hamas clerics and leaders? Are they not worth mentioning?

'Hamas resisted all efforts to get it to sign up to previous agreements with Israel, as well as to recognise Israel's legitimacy and to give up the armed struggle.

It has remained steadfast to its pledge never to sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.

It did, however, offer a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

But it has not relinquished its assertion that Palestinian refugees from 1948 should be allowed to return to homes in what has become Israel - a move that threatens Israel's very existence as a Jewish state. '

All true but rarely explained by the BBC when usually referring to Hamas's aims? However again no mention of Hamas's desire to kill all Jews.

'The paraplegic and visually impaired Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile attack on 22 March 2004. '

Poor Sheikh Yassin, no mention of his past so are we to assume that Israel killed a random 'paraplegic and visually impaired' person? Here's some background on Sheikh Yassin that the BBC seem fit not to relay:

'In 1984 he and others were jailed for secretly stockpiling weapons, but in 1985 he was released as part of the Jibril Agreement... Yassin opposed the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis. He supported armed resistance against Israel, and was very outspoken in his views. He asserted that Palestine is an Islamic land "consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day" and that no Arab leader had the right to give up any part of this territory. Yassin's rhetoric did not distinguish between Israelis and Jews, at one point stating that "Reconciliation with the Jews is a crime... he opined that Israel "must disappear from the map".
In 1989, Yassin was arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1997 Yassin was released by Israel in exchange for two Mossad agents who had been arrested by Jordanian authorities, on the condition that he refrain from continuing to call for suicide bombings against Israel. Following his release, Yassin resumed his leadership of Hamas. He immediately resumed his calls for attacks on Israel, using tactics including suicide bombings, thus violating the condition of his release. Yassin criticized the outcome of the 2003 Aqaba summit. His group initially declared a temporary truce with Israel. However, in July 2003, the truce unravelled after a Palestinian suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus left 21 people dead. Yassin was the dominant authority of the Hamas leadership, which was directly involved in planning, orchestrating and launching terror attacks carried out by the organization. In this capacity, Yassin personally gave his approval for the launching of Qassam rockets against Israeli cities, as well as for the numerous Hamas terrorist bombings and suicide operations. In his public appearances and interviews, Yassin called repeatedly for a continuation of the 'armed struggle' against Israel, and for an intensification of the terrorist campaign against its citizens.'

We also get this value-judgement

'Aside from its much-vaunted incorruptibility, Hamas campaigned forcefully on its claim that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 was a victory for its commitment to armed conflict with the Israelis.'

'much-vaunted incorruptibility' - says who and why is this even in this article. Would the BBC ever refer to Israel with such a positive line?

'Hamas security control made Gaza a more calm and orderly place than it had been for months.'

How about the Fatah men thrown form the tops of buildings, did they appreciate the calm and order? What about the wedding party shot at for daring to play music; did they feel the benefit of Hamas order?


And of course whilst the BBC genuflect towards the terrorists of Hamas, they still have a link on the main Middle East news page to Rabbi calls for Abbas to 'vanish' a story that I covered here and here and have yet to receive an answer about from the BBC.