Summary of BBC News website portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians – April 2019

Our monthly summary of BBC News website reporting.

Throughout the month of April 2019, twenty-four items relating to Israel and/or the Palestinians appeared on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page, some of which also appeared on other pages and five of which were carried over from the previous month.

(dates indicate the time period during which the item was available on the ‘Middle East’ page)

Two reports carried over from the previous month related to security issues:

Gaza rocket: Seven hurt as Israeli home is destroyed (25/3/19 to 3/4/19)

Gaza violence: Crossings reopen after negotiated ‘calm’  (31/3/19 to 4/4/19)

Another report first published in March related to additional aspects of the ‘Great Return March’ agitprop:

Gaza’s disability crisis Tom Bateman (29/3/19 to 8/4/19) discussed here

Two reports concerned Middle East related US foreign policy:

Trumplomacy on Golan Heights: What it all means  Barbara Plett Usher (25/3/19 to 2/4/19) discussed here and here

Trumplomacy: Where are things at with the Mideast peace plan?  Barbara Plett Usher (12/4/19 to 30/4/19) discussed here

Three items related to other political aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict: 

Airbnb reverses ban on West Bank settlement listings (10/4/19 to 14/4/19) discussed here

I will name a Golan town after Trump, says Israel’s Netanyahu (23/4/19 to 29/4/19) discussed here

How tech is bringing Israelis and Palestinians together Melissa Jun Rowley (30/4/19 to present) discussed here

One item related to internal Palestinian affairs:

Gaza zoo animals evacuated to Jordan by Four Paws group  (8/4/19 to 9/4/19) discussed here and here

Of fifteen reports concerning Israeli affairs, eight (discussed here and here) concerned the April 9th election:

Benny Gantz: The Israeli ex-military chief challenging Netanyahu (5/4/19 to 10/4/19) discussed here

Israel election: Who are the key candidates? (6/4/19 to 7/4/19)

Israel PM vows to annex West Bank settlements if re-elected (7/4/19 to 9/4/19)

Israel’s election: Five things to know Yolande Knell (8/4/19 to 10/4/19)

Israel election: How far will voters shift to the right? Tom Bateman (8/4/19 to 11/4/19) discussed here

Israel election: PM Netanyahu seeks record fifth term (9/4/19)

Israel election: Netanyahu set for record fifth term (10/4/19 to 16/4/19)

Israel election: ‘Bibi the magician’ pulls off another trick (Lyse Doucet 10/4/19 to 25/4/19)

One report had a historical theme:

Russia helped Israel recover remains of soldier missing since 1982 (3/4/19 to 5/4/19)

One report was about geography:

‘World’s longest salt cave’ discovered in Israel (28/3/19 to 1/4/19)

Three reports concerned science:

Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft crashes on Moon Rebecca Morelle (11/4/19 to 12/4/19)

Beresheet spacecraft: ‘Technical glitch’ led to Moon crash Rebecca Morelle (12/4/19 to 16/4/19)

Israeli scientists ‘print 3D heart using human tissue’ (16/4/19 to 2/5/19)

One item related to culture & art:

Madonna ‘to play two songs’ at Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv Mark Savage (9/4/19 to 10/4/19) discussed here

One report can be classified as miscellaneous:

Israeli, 73, breaks world’s oldest footballer record (6/4/19)

As we see, while BBC audiences saw 15 reports concerning Israel, the sole coverage relating to Palestinian affairs came in one report about the evacuation of zoo animals and even that managed to squeeze in a mention of “the Israeli and Egyptian blockades of Gaza”. Notably the only reporting on security issues was carried over from the previous month.

The BBC News website continues to report Israeli affairs far more extensively than it does internal Palestinian affairs with visitors having seen roughly six times more coverage of the former since the beginning of the year.

Related Articles:

Summary of BBC News website portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians – March 2019

Summary of BBC News website portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians – February 2019

Summary of BBC News website portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians – January 2019

Reviewing BBC News website portrayal of Israel and the Palestinians in Q4 2017 – part two

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