“On BBC World Service’s Newshour today [August 2nd, 2013], correspondent Lyse Doucet interviewed Israeli President Shimon Peres. 
During the interview, a soft-spoken Doucet peppered Peres with questions clearly meant to cast Israel as disinterested in peace. In the process, the interviewer also misled readers with an erroneous claim about the Israeli Prime Minister.
After asking Peres whether he believes Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is a partner for peace and listening to Peres reply in the affirmative, Doucet asserted: “And yet we’ve never heard Mr. Netanyahu describe him as a partner for peace.” “
Read the rest of this post by Gilead Ini here.
Also on August 2nd, viewers of BBC television news saw a filmed interview with Shimon Peres conducted by Doucet.
In that report Doucet promotes the standard BBC mantras of “time running out” for peace and “illegal settlements”, stating that:
“Settlements are still a major obstacle. Building on occupied land in the West Bank is regarded as illegal under international law.”
She also claims:
“But recent Israeli government figures show construction is now at a seven-year high.”
As readers will no doubt remember, that throw-away claim is based on a June 2013 press release from the politically motivated NGO ‘Peace Now’ which the BBC showcased at the time. As BBC Watch showed at the time, that claim is based on a very partisan interpretation of partial statistics.
So, as we see, even items ostensibly about Israel’s nonagenarian president becomes a vehicle for the quotidian promotion of the BBC’s politically motivated narrative.
