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Middle East Eye
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Western media enabling Gaza genocide and rewriting history, say experts
As Israel's war on Gaza intensifies and expands across the Middle East, media analysts and human rights advocates are raising concerns over the lack of international accountability and the role of Western news outlets in shaping public perception of the conflict. At a panel hosted by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) in London on Saturday, experts accused mainstream Western media of contributing to the denial and distortion of atrocities unfolding in Gaza. The Centre for Media Monitoring (CFMM) presented findings highlighting how often leading media organisations downplay or dismiss claims of genocide. Faisal Hanif, a media analyst at CFMM, said the BBC had shut down references to genocide in its Gaza coverage more than 100 times over the past year. Omar al-Ghazzi, Associate Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, called the trend 'a war on history.' He warned that the use of media narratives as future historical sources could shape how upcoming generations understand the events in Gaza. The panel also pointed to specific language patterns in coverage. Hanif noted that the term 'massacre' appeared 18 times more often when referring to Hamas attacks than to Israeli attacks on Palestinians. He said this imbalance reflected a wider rhetorical bias and an uncritical acceptance of Israeli government claims—particularly those targeting local journalists in Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters British-Israeli journalist Rachel Shabi said Israel has consistently framed its ban on international reporters entering Gaza as a safety measure, while accusing Palestinian journalists of links to Hamas. She criticised international media outlets for accepting these narratives without challenge. 'Israeli society has taken a genocidal turn,' says Daniel Levy. Speaking at the Genocide in Gaza conference in London, he warns that Israel's war on Gaza marks a new phase of settler colonial overreach, backed by Western complicity. — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 29, 2025 'They fall for the trap without calling it out,' Shabi told the audience. She added that even when Palestinian voices are included, their suffering is often discredited or doubted. 'The media has not only excluded Palestinian voices conveyed through local journalists' reports, but, at times when it has included them, it has effectively put Palestinian victims 'on trial,' portraying them as unreliable narrators of their own stories and suffering.' 'A new dark age' Historian Avi Shlaim described Israel's media strategy as an aggressive propaganda campaign designed to suppress criticism by labelling opponents as antisemitic. Professor Martin Shaw, a leading scholar on war and genocide, said such tactics amounted to a third form of genocide denial—'implicatory denial'—where actors acknowledge atrocities but take no meaningful action. 'The media is starting to shift, but it still lags behind the reality,' Shaw said. 'Even when governments and media recognise genocide is taking place in Gaza, they don't act to stop it.' He argued that the era of rhetorical devices such as 'responsibility to protect' and 'humanitarian intervention' had ended. 'The powerful do what they want without dressing it up,' he added. Al-Ghazzi agreed, saying the West continues to control language and historical narrative, positioning itself as the sole 'moral arbitrator.' Speaking to Middle East Eye at the panel 'Genocide in Gaza, War on Iran: What's Next for Palestine?' part of the Genocide in Gaza conference organised by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) in London, Wadah Khanfar, founder and executive director of the… — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 29, 2025 The panel also connected media complicity to broader geopolitical ambitions. Wadah Khanfar, president of Al-Sharq Forum and former director general of Al Jazeera, said the West remains determined to engineer a 'new Middle East' and marginalise Arab voices in shaping the region's future. He singled out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him 'truly arrogant' for believing he can design that future alone. The panel agreed that Israel's impunity could further destabilise the region. Khanfar warned that the ongoing war may plunge the world into 'a new dark age.' He cited Israel's strikes on Iran as an example of escalating risk, arguing they push the Middle East towards either a nuclear-free zone or widespread nuclear deterrence. Broad disillusionment in Israel Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, questioned the viability of Israel's long-term strategy, suggesting it may be driving the country toward collapse. 'Is this the third Jewish kingdom?' he asked. Channel 4 to show Gaza war crimes documentary rejected by BBC Read More » Speakers warned that Israel's actions were eroding the foundations of the international legal system. Tayab Ali, director of the ICJP, said international legal frameworks remain 'excellent in theory' but are selectively applied in practice. 'This selectivity reinforces Israel's belief that its rights will be protected—even in the face of violations targeting Palestinians,' Ali said. Levy criticised the Western defence narrative that assumes peace will follow Iran's elimination, calling it legally flawed and strategically naive. Ali added that Israel's strikes on Iran violate international law under the principle of self-defence. He said growing public scepticism—even within Israel—shows that official justifications for military actions are becoming harder to sustain. Levy pointed to a rising reluctance among Israelis to report for military reserve duty. 'There's a broader disillusionment,' he said. 'More and more Israelis see these campaigns as leading the country toward a place of no return.'
Middle East Eye
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
BBC coverage of Israel's war on Gaza 'systematically biased against Palestinians'
The BBC's coverage of Israel's war on Gaza is 'systematically biased against Palestinians', according to an analysis of over 35,000 pieces of content produced by the UK's public broadcaster. The study, conducted by the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring (CFMM), which monitors how the national media reports on Islam and Muslims, found that the BBC gives Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage than Palestinian ones. In an analysis of 3,873 articles and 32,092 broadcast segments from 7 October 2023 to 6 October 2024, the CFMM found that the BBC used emotive terms four times as much for Israeli victims and applied 'massacre' 18 times more to Israeli casualties than Palestinian ones. According to its authors, the report 'reveals a systematic omission of key historical and contemporary context that has acquired an institutional quality at the BBC', including the genocidal rhetoric used by Israeli leaders – notably Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog - and a failure to scrutinise Israeli claims and denials. While the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October were referenced in at least 40 percent of the BBC's online coverage, just 0.5 percent of articles mentioned Israel's decades-long occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters According to the analysis, the BBC pressed a total of 38 interviewees to condemn the 7 October attacks, but at no point applied the equivalent questioning to Israeli actions. BBC presenters have referred to 'Hamas-controlled Gaza', despite Israeli forces now controlling more than half of the devastated enclave. The study also found that the BBC had interviewed significantly more Israelis (2,350) than Palestinians (1,085) on TV and radio, while BBC presenters shared the Israeli perspective 11 times more frequently than the Palestinian perspective (2,340 v 217). Unrest at the BBC The report comes as the BBC continues to withhold the release of Gaza: Medics Under Fire, a documentary it commissioned that tells the story of Palestinian doctors working in Gaza. Despite being signed off by the British broadcaster's lawyers, the film has not been aired because of a furore that erupted over How to Survive a Warzone, another BBC documentary on children in Gaza. The film did not mention that the father of one of the child narrators was a technocrat in Gaza's Hamas-run government. 'There's just an absurd culture of fear here, as well as a desire to follow the state line' - BBC filmmaker A BBC spokesperson told Middle East Eye a review into Gaza: Medics Under Fire was still ongoing. The film has cleared all internal 'editorial policy' teams, sources at the BBC said. The same sources, who work across multiple BBC departments, said that director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the BBC's CEO, are unwilling to release the film, despite Turness telling editorial meetings that she wants the corporation to be 'on the right side of history'. During an AMA (ask me anything) session with BBC management last week, multiple employees asked about the fate of the film. According to two employees present, management 'ignored most of the Gaza questions'. Employees opposed to the broadcaster's coverage of the Gaza war have multiple WhatsApp groups to vent their frustrations in, including one called 'Middle East coverage'. BBC accused of 'political censorship' over failure to release Gaza medics documentary Read More » A member of the group told MEE that the CFFM analysis had been widely discussed and that it was 'so incredible to see it all laid out like that'. Multiple members of the group pointed out that the BBC has promised to conduct its own review into coverage of the Gaza war, 'and now they have been beaten to it'. 'This review is probably much better than anything the BBC would have done,' one BBC filmmaker told MEE. 'There's just an absurd culture of fear here, as well as a desire to follow the state line,' the source said. 'If Starmer was stronger I'm sure it'd make a difference.' The BBC is also still dealing with a furore surrounding Gary Lineker, who presented its flagship football programme Match of the Day for 25 years and recently left the broadcaster early after reposting a piece of content about Zionism that contained a rat emoji, historically used in antisemitic propaganda. Lineker apologised. In an interview with fellow BBC presenter Amol Rajan, which was conducted and broadcast prior to the episode that prompted his departure, the former footballer said that Israel's war on Gaza and the 'mass murder of thousands of children' was more important than what was happening internally at the broadcaster and was 'probably something we should have a little opinion on'. Lineker said the BBC needed to be 'factual' and that the broadcaster was 'not impartial about Ukraine and Russia'. The CFMM report compared the BBC's Gaza coverage to 7,748 articles on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, concluding that the broadcaster is 'more willing to cover the full facts in Ukraine than Gaza'. Report heralded by public figures The CFFM report was heralded by public figures including Sayeeda Warsi, former Conservative Party co-chair; journalist Owen Jones, who has also reported on alleged bias at the BBC; Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot; Middle East Eye columnist Peter Oborne; and Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications who also endorsed the report, said: 'All too often, on domestic issues, the BBC's response to criticism from the right is to accept rather than challenge it and adapt coverage accordingly. 'We see the same pattern in some of its approach to international issues too, notably Israel and Palestine. The Israelis and the right-wing media do a very good job of persuading people that the BBC is biased in favour of Palestinians. This report suggests otherwise.' 'All too often the BBC shapes its agenda according to the views of those who shout loudest and fight the hardest to have their narrative dominant' - Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street director of communications Campbell said that it 'remains a scandal that a BBC commissioned film on the Israeli destruction of Gaza health facilities has yet to be aired.' The former Labour adviser, who now presents The Rest is Politics podcast, told Middle East Eye that he was 'not at all worried about speaking out' on BBC bias on Gaza. 'The only thing that sometimes holds me back is that in criticising what seems to be an overall position I do not want to denigrate the considerable good journalism done by a number of people at the BBC,' Campbell said. 'But my central point stands - all too often the BBC shapes its agenda according to the views of those who shout loudest and fight the hardest to have their narrative dominant.' A BBC spokesperson said: 'We welcome scrutiny and reflect on all feedback. Throughout our impartial reporting on the conflict we have made clear the devastating human cost to civilians living in Gaza. We will continue to give careful thought to how we do this. 'We believe it is imperative that our journalists have access to Gaza, and we continue to call on the Israeli government to grant this. 'We agree that language is vitally important but we have some questions about what appears to be a reliance on AI to analyse it in this report, and we do not think due impartiality can be measured by counting words. We make our own, independent editorial decisions, and we reject any suggestion otherwise. 'However, we will consider the report carefully and study its findings in detail.' The CCFM report used AI to process the transcripts, label speakers, and structure the content.
