Negative Israel focus on BBC Radio 4
THIS WEEK: JJ looks at broadcast coverage of Israel on BBC Radio 4.
PLUS: Read about the latest Israel-related comment piece in The Guardian, and a round-up of a number of stories concerning Israel-Vatican relations.
FOCUS: TWO BBC RADIO 4 STORIES
• On Wednesday, BBC Radio 4 's Thought for The Day slot in the Today Programme was filled by Oliver McTernan, the Director of ‘Forward Thinking', a UK organisation which aims - according to its website - to ‘fight the threats of discrimination, social exclusion and alienation' against British Muslims.
• Mr McTernan spoke about the global problem of religious conflict, including the recent troubles in the Israeli city of Acre. Whilst rioting by both Jews and Arabs was widely reported in the UK national press, Mr McTernan depicted the violence as ‘attacks by Jewish militants on Arab homes in Acre, in northern Israel'. To listen to his one-sided description of events, click here.
• 'The previous night's edition of BBC Radio 4 's The World Tonight included a report by Middle East correspondent Tim Franks, about Israel's decision to end immigration to Israel from Ethiopia. The series of interviews concentrated on accusations of racism relating to Ethiopian immigration.' To hear the full report, click here and scroll to 16min 30sec.
GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT IN THE GUARDIAN
• On Tuesday, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, author of ‘Yo Blair!: Tony Blair's Disastrous Premiership' and ‘The Controversy of Zion: Jewish Nationalism, the Jewish State, and the Unresolved Jewish Dilemma' contributed a comment piece to The Guardian about the global resurgence of religion.
• His opening paragraph talked about the major upheavals of the post 1945 world, such as ‘the economic miracle in postwar western Europe, the collapse of Communism, and now the latest boom and bust' before introducing the rise of religion as the most unforeseen change. Unsurprisingly, he immediately referred to Islam.
• However when elaborating, he made reference to Israel: ‘ A new ‘revolt of Islam' was quite unexpected 50 years ago, when secular Arab nationalism seemed the rising force, and when, for that matter, secular Israelis didn't guess that ‘religious Zionists' would one day make the running in their country.'
ISRAEL-VATICAN ROW
• This week, various corners of the UK media latched on to a few stories concerning Israel-Vatican relations. First, Vatican official Father Peter Gumpel, who is in charge of the canonisation process of wartime Pope Pius XII, stated that current Pope Benedict XVI would not visit Israel until the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem altered a plaque referring to Pius XII, as one of the ‘Unjust'.
• Both The Daily Telegraph and The Independent covered the diplomatic row. In a short article entitled ‘ Vatican headlines push for beatification of Pope Pius', The Daily Telegraph gave a brief outline of the arguments of both sides, concentrating on the political aspects of the story.
• The Independent, on the other hand, gave an in-depth review of the historical record of the Pope, regarding the persecution of Jews during the war, and giving considerable space to figures from both sides of the debate to argue their case.
• The story was also used as a springboard by several media outlets, such as The Times, to discuss the ongoing issue of Jewish-Catholic relations, in light of the Vatican official's comments. To listen to a discussion on BBC Radio 4's Sunday, click here and scroll to 16min.
• The row was given further mileage later in the week when it was reported that an image of current Pope Benedict XVI appeared with a superimposed swastika on an Israeli website that supports the Kadima party. Despite the fact that the image appeared on one unofficial website, and was swiftly removed at the request of Tzipi Livni, The Independent still covered it in a short article, provocatively entitled ‘Israeli swastika insult to Pope'. The BBC News website covered the story in more depth and was the only source to mention that the Vatican only recognised Israel in 1993.
BREACHES OF JOURNALISTIC PRINCIPLES
• Gaza tunnels become an industry, BBC News website, October 16, 2008 – MISREPRESENTATION OF FACTS
STORIES OF INTEREST
AA Gill attacks docu-dramas as ‘propaganda'
AA Gill of The Sunday Times reviewed the Channel 4 programme ‘The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall', opening with a strong attack on the genre of docu-dramas , and concluding that he ‘wouldn't use this programme as a reference for your geopolitical view of the Middle East'.
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