The BBC’s selective portrayal of ‘Palestinian reactions’ to UNSC vote

As was noted here in an earlier post, while BBC coverage of the UN Security Council’s adoption of resolution 2334 included reactions from “the Palestinian leadership”, none of the numerous reports informed audiences of the fact that the resolution was quickly hailed by the terror organisations Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with praise later added by Khaled Masha’al

BBC audiences were told that:

“The Palestinian leadership welcomed the UN resolution, which was passed by 14 votes to zero, with one abstention.” (source)

“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman said the resolution was a “big blow to Israeli policy”. […]

A spokesman for Mr Abbas said: “The Security Council resolution is a big blow to Israeli policy, a unanimous international condemnation of settlements and a strong support for the two-state solution.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour said: “The Council’s action, while long overdue, is timely, necessary and important.”” (source)

That second report included video of a statement made by Saeb Erekat, as did the one which followed it, together with repetition of the above statements from “a spokesman for Mr Abbas” and Riyad Mansour.

erekat-vid

Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat are of course senior members of Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, of which Riyad Mansour is a longtime member.

While the BBC was busy promoting Saeb Erekat’s English language messaging that the UNSC resolution marked “a day of peace” to audiences on multiple platforms, Erekat’s own party was once again promoting a decidedly different message to its supporters in Arabic, as PMW documented.

pmw-fatah-cartoons

“Three days ago Fatah’s official Facebook page posted a drawing of its map of “Palestine,” which includes all of Israel and painted like the Palestinian flag, being used to stab the word “settlement.” The text above the image: “#Palestine will defeat the settlement ” (Above left)

Yesterday in response to the UN Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal, Fatah republished the identical image but added a pool of blood at the bottom, and the words “Thank You” above the image, and the names of the 14 countries that voted in favor of the UN resolution. (Above right)”

Were the BBC truly committed to fulfilling its public purpose of building “understanding of international issues”, its audiences would of course have been informed of such additional Palestinian reactions to the UNSC vote too.

 

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