Comparing BBC coverage of fires in England and Israel

Fires have been raging in the UK for two weeks and in Israel for three months but one of those stories has received practically no BBC coverage.

Readers may recall that last month we documented the BBC News website’s first ‘reporting’ on the arson attacks upon agricultural land and nature reserves adjacent to the Gaza Strip which have been going on since April.

BBC News finally mentions Gaza arson attacks – in just sixteen words

“…sharp-eyed visitors to the BBC News website’s Middle East page on June 7th may have noticed that a photograph captioned “Flaming kites sent from Gaza during the protests have burnt 2,250 acres of land in Israel” was included in a report titled “Israel blames Iran for Gaza border violence“.”

The only additional reference to that terrorism that visitors to the BBC News website have seen since then came in a report published on June 20th in which readers were initially told that:

“The military said Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted seven rockets fired by militants. Kites carrying containers of burning fuel were also sent into Israel, the military said.” [emphasis added]

Several hours later the following information was added to the report:

photo credit: KKL

“The escalation came hours after Israel bombed three sites in retaliation for the launching of incendiary kites and balloons over the Gaza border.

Israeli officials say the crude devices have sparked more than 450 fires in recent weeks, burning 2,800 hectares of land and causing $2m (£1.5m) of damage.

Palestinians began launching kites and balloons carrying containers of burning fuel and explosive devices during mass protests at which Gaza health officials say more than 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since 30 March.”

In other words, BBC News website users have seen no dedicated coverage whatsoever of the countless Hamas organised daily arson attacks that have destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land, crops, nature reserves and woodland – as well as wildlife – in southern Israel throughout the past three months.

Since they began in April, not one BBC Jerusalem bureau reporter has found the time to travel to the border district to report on how the attacks are affecting the people living there.

In contrast, a series of wildfires in the United Kingdom which broke out in late June have been given their own tag – “England Moor fires” – on the BBC News website. There, BBC News website users can find dozens of written and filmed reports on the topic, including interviews with the local people affected by the fires, aerial footage of the devastation and reports on the fires’ effects on health, environment and wildlife.

While obviously the UK fires are a domestic story which would naturally be covered by Britain’s national broadcaster in depth, one would have thought that the corporation could have mustered at least one item of serious reporting on the issue of fires in southern Israel caused not by exceptionally hot weather, negligent picnickers or arson but by three months of deliberate non-stop terrorism.  

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