Since the kidnapping and subsequent killing of three teenage Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank on 12 June, the Israeli Army have launched a mass, indiscriminate campaign of abductions, home invasions, shellings and aerial bombing – ‘Operation Brother’s Keeper’- against the Palestinian people across the West Bank and Gaza to brutalise and provoke the Palestinians, and destabilise their political system.
Throughout this episode the mainstream media, including the BBC are being held accountable for biased news coverage. Since the killing of the Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, the focus has been predominantly on the Israeli teens. Many have accused broadcasting companies such as the BBC of ignoring the disproportionate violence faced by Palestinians. Shortly after last weeks events concerning the West Bank, the Guardian published a cartoon by Steve Bell which showed the emphasis put on the loss of Israeli lives.
Protests by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, London Palestine Action, British Muslim Initiative, Palestinian Forum in Britain and the CND were called after 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and killed on 2nd July by Israeli settlers. Protests took place in various cities around the UK such as Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield and Portsmouth and London. Friends of Al Aqsa stated that over a 1000 people joined the emergency protest outside the Israeli embassy on Saturday afternoon. Shamiul Joarder from Friends of Al-Aqsa said:
Protestors also performed a demonstration ‘die in’ on the road in front of the Israeli embassy to represent the killings of the innocent Palestinians. Rabbi’s were also part of this protest who had walked for three hours to join in on the protest against zionism outside the embassy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5z9eCQYdyI
The recent media coverage concerning Palestinians has only just been brought up due to the American citizenship of the fifteen-year-old American citizen Tareq Abu Khieder. Khieder was beaten and detained by Israeli border police. The BBC has allowed their journalists to refer to ‘Jerusalem’ as an Israeli city. This has also caught the eye of Palestinian campaigners which are taking action by taking this matter to the judge of the First-Tier Tribunal. There the decision will be made concerning whether the BBC have been misreporting on the status of Jerusalem to influence audiences towards the Israeli position of the conflict or not.
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