BBC News silent on Abbas’ rejection of Jewish state

Last week the Fatah Revolutionary Council held a meeting in Ramallah titled “Session of the Martyrs of Jerusalem Call and the Popular Uprising”.Fatah meeting 2 3

At that meeting the PA president, PLO chairman and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas stated that the “Palestinian leadership categorically rejects the idea of a Jewish Israel” –i.e. it will not recognise Israel as the Jewish state.

Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh reported on March 9th that a Palestinian Authority official had made a similar statement.

“Our position remains as clear as ever: there will be no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and no compromise on the right of return, which must be solved according to UN resolution 194.”

The subject of recognition of Israel as the Jewish state came up during the talks between Israel and the PLO in 2013/14 and the BBC failed to accurately inform its audiences of the significance of that issue at the time.

“…the issue of Palestinian (and wider Arab) recognition of Israel as the Jewish state is an important one in itself and not only in connection with the subject of refugees. A lasting peace agreement cannot of course be brought about without recognition and acceptance of Israel’s existence in the region as an expression of the national rights of the Jewish people, along with an end to the kind of all too prevalent officially sanctioned incitement which encourages Palestinians (and others in the wider region) to continue to view Israel as “Arab land”.”

In recent months the BBC has taken to dubiously ‘contextualising’ the current wave of terror against Israelis as the product of frustration at lack of progress on the diplomatic front.

“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.”

The BBC has of course not told its audiences about the above recent statement from Mahmoud Abbas and hence has not clarified to them that such an approach guarantees continued stagnation of the Middle East peace process. And it has not explained that resolution of the issue it promotes (in accordance with PLO media guidance) as being the root cause of Palestinian terrorists murdering Israelis in the streets is – as this example shows – at least as dependent upon the Palestinian side as it is upon the Israeli side.

In other words, the BBC has not fulfilled its obligation to “build a global understanding of international issues”.

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Why is the BBC’s failure to properly report the Jewish state issue important?

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