StatCounter

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Reporting on Israel and Syria

From watching or listening to the BBC you would think that Israel was conducting a genoicidal war on the Palestinians.

Here's some facts:
  • The total number of Arabs killed by Israel since 1948, including in three major wars (1948, 1967 & 1973) as well as the two Lebanese wars (1982 & 2006) amount to some 85,00 people.
  • If you exclude these wars then the number killed is around 15,000. 
  • If you exclude the 1956 Sinai campaign and the ongoing war of attrition betyween 1967 and 1970 then the total reduces to just around 7,000.
  • The total number of Syrians killed in the current Syrian civil war alone (some 21 months) is over 50,000.

To the BBC & the other anti-Israel media outlets, transnational organisations such as the United Nations and many world governments it seems that genoicide is 15,000 people killed over 68 years (approx 235 a year), but 50,000 over 21 months (approx 28,500 a year) is hardly worthy of mention.

Why the disparity in news coverage? Is the BBC really institutionally anti-Israel? If only an in-depth investigation into the BBC's Middle East coverage had been carried out... Release the Balen Report, or are its findings that damning?

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