Protest to the BBC about Freedom Flotilla Panorama documentary

Ewa Jasiewicz, a freelance reporter who was on the Freedom Flotilla recently, has been incensed by last night's Panorama programme and has asked that her comments and those of the Iraqui journalist Kamil Mahdi are publicised and that people contact the BBC to complain. I am happy to carry both of their comments here. This is part of a long record of pro-Israeli bias from the BBC.

From Ewa:

Just got this below from Kamil Mahdi, a brilliant Iraqi academic and activist based in the UK. Briefly, anyone who missed the BBC Panorama documentary on the Freedom Flotilla attack tonight should catch it on the bbc website, its just 30mins.

Jane Corbin and her team reduced the Israeli navy's violent attack on six ships down to the attack on the Mavi Marmara. It was clearly the worst attacked, but by singling it out as an exception/provocation and ignoring the fact that each ship was extremely violently attacked by Israeli commandos who fired fired as they boarded and passengers from each ship put up resistance, served to split and isolate activists on the Marmara from the rest of the movement.

The Freedom Flotilla was reduced to a 'Turkish' one-boat show and an 'Islamist' one (the whole tone and framing is utterly islamophobic and racist and demonising of muslim activists) with IHH cast as a 'terrorist' group in tone and insinuation ignoring the facts about the organisation and that the whole flotilla that was made up of a coalition of groups and representative of a diverse and unapologetically political - solidarity
NOT charity focused - movement).

The BBC's 'scoop' is apparently that the flotilla was not a charity aid mission but a political action - obviously ignoring the whole politics of the solidarity movement which were clear from the start and opting, solidly, throughout, to tow the Israeli govt propaganda line.

Israeli propaganda including the 'go back to auschwitz' recordings which are clearly false - I heard everything myself in the wheelhouse of the challenger 1, we had every channel open - and which have been discredited were reported by the BBC as fact, along with claims that activists shot commandos.

New depths have been sunken to with this documentary, really people need to get out and complain about this appalling whitewash of Israeli crimes masquerading as 'journalism'.


This is from kamil:

If you have just watched Panorama on the Mavi Marmara, please complain in the strongest terms to the BBC about outrageous Israeli propaganda being passed as investigative journalism. Please also circulate this.

You can still watch the disgusting programme on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/
 
 Here are the BBC complaints contacts:


Make a complaint


Phone: 03700 100 222*


Textphone: 03700 100 212*


Email: https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/


Write: BBC Complaints


PO Box 1922


Darlington

 DL3 0UR

The programme gives none of the real Gaza background: the prison camp reality, the extent of the blockade, the humanitarian catastrophe, continuing incursions, the huge destruction of the last invasion, the fact of occupation of Palestinian land, etc. Instead, it says there is no shortage of food and medicine and shows contruction going, albeit with some difficulty and none of the rubble of Israeli destruction. It repeats the talk about Hamas not recognising Israel and thousands of rockets fired at apparently peaceful Israel.

The Israelis are given most of the programme time to tell their story and their claims are not challenged, while the people on the Mavi Marmara are subjected to an inquisition rather than asked for their story. Simple facts such as people being shot in the back and shot repeatedly are not given. The huge number of casualties is just reported and not questioned. Israel's alternatives in stopping the ships are not considered. Israeli surveillance and prior knowledge of readiness to obstruct the takeover are not considered, leaving the claims of Israeli spokepeople unchallenged and the premeditated nature of the massacre ignored. The illegality of the Israeli piracy is not even mentioned and the BBC simply claimed that Israel is co-operating with a UN
investigation, ignoring the fact that they have sought to prevent it for so long. Israeli allegations of "terrorism" coming from the ship and IHH's alleged terrorist links are given BBC credence (for what it is worth). The whole tone is also disgusting.

Please pass this on and ask all to complain.

Kamil