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BBC coverage of Ramadan terror ignores attacks in one country – in English
Of course in order to be able to name the ideology, people first need to be aware of what is happening and whilst Israelis are among those who have seen a sharp uptick in the already high number of terror attacks
since Ramadan commenced, most of the BBC’s worldwide audience remains unaware of that fact.
On June 19th a fatal terror attack took place near Dolev with Hamas later claiming responsibility. BBC English language services
did not report the incident but it was covered in Arabic.
On June 21st a Border Police officer was seriously injured in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem and another man was injured when a bus was firebombed later the same day. The BBC
did not report either of those incidents.
On June 23rd a missile fired from the Gaza Strip exploded near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. That
attack was not reported by the BBC’s English language services but the Israeli response to it did get coverage in Arabic.
On June 26th a
Palestinian gunman opened fire on soldiers at Beka’ot checkpoint in the Jordan Rift Valley. There were no BBC English language reports on that incident but it was mentioned briefly in
a later report in Arabic.
On June 27th an
ambulance traveling near Beit El was
attacked with live gunfire. There was no BBC coverage of that attack.
On the morning of June 29th a female soldier was
injured in a stabbing attack at a crossing near Bethlehem. Later in the evening of the same day,
four Israelis were wounded in
a shooting attack near
Shvut Rachel.
“The four had been driving back from a basketball game near Route 60, the main north-south artery running through the West Bank, when they were attacked. Security forces were initially unsure whether the four were shot at from a passing vehicle or a roadside ambush.”
Neither of those incidents was reported by the BBC’s English language services even after the most seriously wounded
victim of the second attack died but both the
earlier and
later attacks were reported in Arabic. According to Palestinian media outlets, Hamas claimed responsibility for the Shvut Rachel shooting.
As we can determine from the fact that at least some of the above incidents were reported on the BBC Arabic website, the corporation is obviously well aware of the fact that they took place. One question therefore arising is why – in a similar pattern to that
already established in relation to coverage of missile fire from the Gaza Strip – the attacks are not being reported in English. An additional and related point worthy of note is that BBC audiences have not been informed about
Hamas’ efforts to build up its terrorist infrastructure in Judea & Samaria.
BBC coverage of Ramadan terror ignores attacks in one country in English BBC Watch