“The barbarity and enormity of the attack by Hamas and its terrorist allies 9 days ago has opened eyes. Leaders of the British government and the opposition, as well as other senior politicians and lawyers of the greatest eminence, have spoken out against the BBC’s refusal to characterise Hamas attacks as terrorism”

The BBC’s failure to describe Hamas terrorists as terrorists is just the tip of an enormous iceberg of pervasive anti-Israel bias at the BBC, according to Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel.  He was speaking at a rally outside BBC headquarters in London on 16 October 2023, called to urge the BBC to describe Hamas as terrorists, not militants.

The rally, organised by the National Jewish Assembly and co-sponsored by UKLFI, CAA and EJA, attracted around 1500 people.

Turner explained, during his speech, that the BBC uses a variety of excuses for not describing terrorist attacks on Israelis as terrorist:

• They say that they just report the facts without using pejorative words, and let the audience make up its mind

  • But the BBC never misses an opportunity to say that Israeli actions are illegal

  • They are quite willing to use words critical of Israel, they just don’t use critical words to describe those murdering Israelis

• They say that the word terrorist means different things to different people and that they wouldn’t want to confuse anyone

  • But many attacks are plainly terrorist according to any normal use of the word, according to the definition in UK law in the Terrorism Act 2000, according to the definitions in the International Conventions for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and Terrorist Bombings (which have been adopted by the UN General Assembly and most States)

• They say it’s just a word, audiences can see what happened and decide whether it was terrorism or not

  • But the message conveyed is that Palestinian terrorism is equivalent to Israeli military action against terrorists. Each side kills the other.

  • The reality does not come across, that Israel uses its army to protects its civilians from terrorism, while Hamas uses civilians to shield its terrorists from the Israeli army

• And they say that the BBC has always avoided using the word “terrorism”. But the BBC has used it in relation to attacks in London, Stockholm, Barcelona, Nice, Berlin, Halle (Germany), Utoya (Norway), Tunisia, Algeria, Kuwait, and just now for the recent attack in Belgium on two Swedish football fans.

Turner said that the failure to describe terrorist attacks targeting Israel as what they are is only the tip of an enormous iceberg of pervasive anti-Israel bias at the BBC. 

One of many examples is that the BBC have stated and implied that Israel treacherously attacked a civilian convoy evacuating from the North of the Gaza Strip, then allowed Palestinian propagandists to repeat this allegation on air without challenge.  But the Israel Defence Forces have confirmed that they did not operate in the area at the time and experts have confirmed that it appears to be an explosion from ground level, not a bomb or missile from an aircraft.  It is likely that the explosion was part of Hamas’s attempt to persuade civilians to stay in place as human shields.

On a brighter note, Turner believes that perhaps we are at a hinge of history. He said, “The barbarity and enormity of the attack by Hamas and its terrorist allies 9 days ago has opened eyes. Leaders of the British government and the opposition, as well as other senior politicians and lawyers of the greatest eminence, (including UKLFI patrons Lord Pannick and Lord Grabiner) have spoken out against the BBC’s refusal to characterise Hamas attacks as terrorism. I thank them all. A chink has opened in a door that had been so firmly shut in our faces.”

He suggested that we can make complaints to the BBC about its failure to call Hamas terrorists as well as other anti-Israel bias, and appeal to OFCOM. He also urged people to write to MPs and Ministers, many of whom are sympathetic to Israel, and now see just how dangerous and immoral Hamas really is.

The full text of Turner’s speech is available HERE