Over the past five months the BBC News website has adopted a standard formula by means of which it ‘explains’ the ongoing wave of terror attacks against Israelis to its readers.
“The recent rise in violence is blamed by Palestinians on the continued occupation by Israel of the West Bank and the failure of the Middle East peace process.
Israel accuses Palestinian leaders and Islamist groups of inciting the violence.”
As has been noted here countless times in recent months, the BBC has refrained from providing its audiences with any serious reporting on the issue of the incitement and glorification of terrorism spread by Palestinian Authority officials and the PA president’s own party, Fatah. The only item directly relating to the issue of incitement which BBC audiences have seen during the last five months is a superficial and problematic backgrounder produced in October 2015 and titled “Is Palestinian-Israeli violence being driven by social media?”
There are of course many facets to the incitement and glorification of terrorism which underpins the current wave of terror, ranging from the production of ‘martyrdom’ posters and praise for terrorists on social media or elsewhere, through official portrayal of attackers as ‘martyrs‘ and heroes at events and ceremonies, to payments to their families and direct calls to action.
One aspect of the PA’s glorification of terrorism which BBC audiences have not been told about at all is its staging of state funerals with military honours for terrorists killed whilst attacking Israelis.
On February 23rd the two terrorists who carried out an attack at Damascus Gate on February 14th – one of whom was a member of the PA security forces – were buried with military honours, their bodies carried by PA policemen.
At the beginning of February another member of the PA security forces who carried out an attack near Beit El was also buried with military honours and with PA and Fatah officials in attendance.
The PA has not however confined its organisation of such official funerals to members of its security forces.
As was previously documented here, the practice of holding PA state funerals for terrorists has been going on since the end of October 2015.
As long as the BBC continues to conceal from its audience this and other manifestations of the Palestinian Authority’s glorification of terrorism and incitement, it cannot honestly claim to be reporting accurately and impartially.
