On October 2nd two reports – one filmed (also broadcast on BBC television news) and one written – by the BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Yolande Knell appeared on the Middle East page of the BBC News website. Both relate to the same subject – an Arab-Israeli from Musheirifa in Wadi ‘Ara who was recently killed whilst fighting with an Al Qaeda-linked militia in Syria.
In the written report, the BBC seems to have had a spot of bother deciding how to spell Mueid Juma’a Agbariya’s name, and so has apparently opted to include several versions.
“The more hardline branch of the conservative Islamic Movement in Israel has a strong following in the north and officially supports the Syrian opposition.
However, its leaders have said they are focused on the Palestinian struggle for independence.
“It’s true that we support the Syrian revolution, but we believe the Syrian people can handle this responsibility alone,” the Islamic Movement’s deputy leader, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, said recently on Nazareth-based Radio al-Shams.
Knell’s unsourced, generalised assertion that the residents of the Umm el Fahm municipal district – of which Musheirifa is part – are “mostly observant Muslims” of course does not necessarily support the linkage with political opinions that she implies. In the last elections, the United Arab List – on which the southern branch of the Islamic movement runs (the northern branch rejects participation in the political process) – received 24% of the vote in Umm el Fahm whilst the far Left secular ‘Hadash’ party got 50%.
Knell’s efforts to persuade readers that the northern Islamic branch has a policy of confining itself to “the struggle for Palestinian independence at home” also seem distinctly bizarre in the context of the recent demonstrations the movement held in support of its parent movement in Egypt.
“More than 2,000 people affiliated with the Israeli branch of the Islamic Movement held a pro-Morsi demonstration in the Arab town of Kafr Kanna on Saturday.
But it is Knell’s euphemistic description of the Islamic Movement as “conservative” and her failure to inform readers of its ideology, its activities and its Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood links which stand out most in this article. Her ‘makeover’ actively prevents BBC audiences from gaining any information or insight which might “[e]nhance UK audiences’ awareness and understanding of international issues” as defined in the BBC’s ‘Public Purposes’ .
According to the BBC “conservative” when applied to Israeli politics = bad, when applied to Islamic movements “conservative” = good.