BBC’s Davies continues to promote the Palestinian narrative on E1

The BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Wyre Davies is apparently bored by the Israeli elections.

“Whether you support him or not, agree or disagree with his controversial opinions, you might be tempted to utter the words: “Thank goodness for Naftali Bennett.”

He is young, wealthy and is taking this Israeli election by storm as leader of the Jewish Home party.

He has breathed life into what was otherwise becoming a boring and predictable process.”

So bored, it seems, that he cannot even be bothered to get the name of the party predicted to win the most votes right:

'Yisreal'

In his January 19th article – supposedly about Naftali Bennett – which appeared in the Middle East section of the BBC News website, Davies has little to say that goes beyond the standard clichés used by the media to depict the Israeli political scene. 

Davies Bennett article

However, Davies does seize the opportunity to slip in a loaded description of the anti-terrorist fence: [emphasis added]

“Alongside the huge and controversial separation barrier, which divides Israel from the West Bank, I met David Newman, a professor in politics at Ben Gurion University.”

The location of Davies’ meeting with Newman has no relevance whatsoever to the content of this article. Hence, Davies’ description is not only gratuitous, but its lack of context – and not least the failure to point out that the fence is considerably less “controversial” in the eyes of those whom it protects from suicide bombings – makes it partial.  

Davies also does not pass up the chance to resurrect the BBC’s repeated promotion of the Palestinian narrative according to which the construction of houses in the area known as E1 would spell the end of a Palestinian state – even re-using the BBC’s much touted map which contributes nothing to audiences’ understanding of the issue.  

“With dozens of Jewish settlements already in the area, Palestinians say that if Israel develops E1 it would cut off East Jerusalem and other parts of Palestinian land from each other – denying the possibility of an unbroken future Palestinian state.”

Davies article E1

As BBC Watch has pointed out in previous articles on the subject, a contiguous Palestinian state would not be prevented from coming into being were building to go ahead on the four square miles in E1. 

map E1 camera

Other mainstream media organisations which previously also unquestioningly reproduced the E1 myth have long since corrected that error. It is notable that the BBC continues to be among the few still promoting that falsehood at any and every opportunity.  

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