Celeb wedding makes front page BBC news but terror doesn’t

Throughout the past week Israeli citizens have continued to be plagued by terror attacks. On September 21st a missile fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in the Hof Ashkelon region.

‘“The rocket landed in the center of the greenhouse, and damaged the crops and equipment. It was a great miracle, because employees usually come during these hours to work,” Eran Dotan, the greenhouse owner, told the Hebrew-language news website Ynet. He said it is the second time that a rocket fired from Gaza has struck his greenhouses.’

On the same morning an IDF soldier was injured near Joseph’s Tomb.

“Dozens of Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and rolled burning tires downhill at the soldiers, inflicting light to moderate injuries on the soldier.

The soldiers were guarding Jewish worshipers who came to pray at the tomb, believed to contain the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph.”

Israeli motorists continued to be targeted in stoning attacks and firebomb attacks.

“On Route 443 northwest of Jerusalem, Palestinians threw stones at passing motorists, damaging three cars.

Stones were also thrown at Israeli drivers on Route 60 near the Beit Anun intersection near Hebron, in the southern West Bank.

Egged bus No. 149 was pelted with rocks and paint between Hizma and Anatot north of Jerusalem, but no injuries or physical damage to the bus were reported.”

On September 24th a Palestinian man carrying explosives was apprehended in the Jordan Valley, firebombs were thrown at the community of Psagot and several cases of arson were reported.

“Fire caused damage to the balcony and garden of a home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor overnight on Wednesday. An investigation by the fire department found that it was caused by a Molotov cocktail thrown at the adjacent building.

A brush fire also broke out near Moshe Dayan Boulevard in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. The fire was suspected to have been deliberately started.

Another brush fire started near Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, south of the city, and was also suspected of being arson. And there was a fire started on Kassuto Street, in Bayit Vagan, down the road from a synagogue, Ynet reported.”

On September 24th it was reported that sulfuric acid bound for the Gaza Strip had been intercepted after passing through the Nitzana crossing.

“The acrid smell of the shipment, which was recorded officially as 30 tons of paint thinner, aroused the suspicion of Shin Bet and customs officials at the Nitzana border crossing with Egypt. At least half of the shipment, it turned out, was sulfuric acid.

Sulfuric acid is banned from import to the Gaza Strip through Israel. It is a key component in producing explosives such as nitroglycerin and TNT.

According to Channel 2, the quantities seized were sufficient to produce three tons of explosives.”

None of the above was reported on the BBC News website. The only terror-related incident (although not defined as such to BBC audiences) which did receive coverage during the same week involved a Palestinian woman who was shot after trying to stab a soldier in Hebron.

On the other hand, visitors to the BBC News website on September 25th did find a vacuous written report about Bar Rafaeli’s wedding on the site’s main homepage, on its ‘World’ page and on its Middle East page.  In addition, a filmed report on the same topic appeared on the website’s Middle East and ‘Video’ pages. 

BR 25 9

Yes – a supermodel’s nuptials really were deemed more newsworthy by the self-styled “standard-setter of international journalism” than missile attacks, stoning attacks and firebomb attacks on civilians or attempts to smuggle bomb-making materials into a terrorist-run enclave.

Related Articles:

Two missile attacks on southern Israel get nineteen words of coverage from BBC News

How many firebomb attacks on a Jewish home does it take for the UK media to notice?  (UK Media Watch) 

 

 

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