BBC must air the DEC appeal

The BBC have royally messed up with the farcicial decision not to broadcast the Disaster Emergency Committee's appeal for Gaza.

Thirteen of the UK's leading charities have come together to do a joint iniatiative for the region which was already a humanitarian catastrophe, even before the three week bombing by Israel. 80% of the people there were dependent on UN food because of the twenty month Israeli siege, with the UN running out of food in December.

Since then, 1300 dead, many more thousands injured, even more homeless. These agencies want to tackle this. For the BBC to question whether aid can be distributed, and in effect accuse the country's leading charities of lying about their abilities, is extraordinary.

The main reason the BBC have cited though is the impact this would have on their impartiality. I'm afraid that's totally shot to pieces now, but I don't think anyone can ever feasibly argue again that it's in favour of the Palestinians. It's bad enough they have contributed through their (lack of) reporting to a climate where they clearly have no recognition of the situation in Gaza. To now not just ignore the suffering, but to stop urgent assistance from being collected, is disgusting.

Anyone that would have complained to the BBC because they broadcasted the DEC appeal, would have been an inhuman voice not worth listening to. Pandering to the worst elements of society is an abdication of backbone and principles. Surely the BBC has better guidelines than that.

I urge everyone to complain urgently:
Phone: 03700 100 222
Web: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

UPDATE: Tony Benn has aired the DEC details in BBC interviews. Watch here. Love the way he gives not the phone number, not the url, but the snail mail address! Long live Tony Benn.

UPDATE 2: I've been sent this link from 2005 about BBC DG Mark Thompson's visit to Jerusalem on a pro-Israeli charm offensive with Ariel Sharon.

UPDATE 3: I hear that BBC Scotland's HQ has been occupied by Stop the War protesters who say they won't leave till the DEC appeal is aired

Comments

[qunfuz]

Osama - you write "The Israelis say they are responding to rockets. Some Palestinians are calling for a Third Intifada. Violence met by more violence. Al-Qaeda say they are motivated by Western atrocities. The US say they are in Afghanistan and Iraq because of 9/11. There is an ‘eye for an eye’ going on and it is making the whole world blind."

The Israeli claims about rockets are patently false. There was a ceasefire which Hamas observed and Israel broke. The rockets are an excuse. Your implicit suggestion that a third intifada is morally equivalent to the six-decade-old destruction of the Palestinian people, by ethnic cleansing, apartheid, starvation, and repeated massacres, is grotesque. The 'peace process' has been a pacification process, which thankfully has failed. At no point during the process did settlement building and land confiscation stop, not for one day. The Palestinians have a right to resistance. It's very disappointing indeed - but perhaps useful for your career - to see you fudging this.