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BBC Reporter Uses News Story to Promote Israeli ‘Apartheid’ Lie and Other Falsehoods
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
To write an entire article relating to the topic of the current war between Israel and Hamas without mentioning even once why it began and without referring to the 50 hostages still being held by the terrorist organization that started that conflict must take some doing.
The BBC’s Geneva correspondent nevertheless managed to do exactly that in a report published on the BBC News website, under the headline “UN expert calls for companies to stop doing business with Israel.”
Imogen Foulkes continues to portray Francesca Albanese, the controversial United Nations Special Rapporteur on the “occupied Palestinian territories,” as an “expert” in the body of her report, without defining her supposed “expertise”:
A United Nations expert has called on dozens of multinational companies to stop doing business with Israel, warning them they risk being complicit in war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. […]
UN experts, or special rapporteurs, are independent of the UN, but appointed by it to advise on human rights matters.
Moreover, she goes on to portray her protagonist as having legal qualifications: [emphasis added]
Ms Albanese is an international lawyer from Italy, and she is known for her bluntness; in previous reports she has suggested that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
On Thursday she repeated that claim, accusing Israel of “committing one of the cruellest genocides in modern history”. […]
“It’s unlikely the US administration will pay much more attention to the words of one international lawyer.”
Apparently, Imogen Foulkes does not read the Italian edition of Vanity Fair, and is hence unaware of the fact that in late May, Francesca Albanese herself stated in an interview with that magazine that she did not pass a legal bar examination and has not been licensed to practice law.
The reference to Albanese’s “previous reports” in which she “suggested that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza” serves as a reminder that in March 2024, Foulkes similarly promoted claims made by the same UN special rapporteur, without providing BBC audiences with any information about her record.
Foulkes refrains from telling her readers that Albanese’s latest report is titled “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” but does make a mention of the latter part of that title:
Francesca Albanese, presenting her report to the UN human rights council, described what she called “an economy of genocide” in which the conflict with Hamas provided a testing ground – with no accountability or oversight – for new weapons and technology.
Foulkes, of course, provides no factual evidence of that “testing ground” allegation. While she names some of the companies mentioned in Albanese’s report — arms manufacturers, tech firms, vehicle manufacturers, and financial institutions — she fails to note the inclusion of other types of companies.
As noted in UN Watch’s legal analysis of Albanese’s report:
The Report demonizes Israeli agribusinesses for “producing goods and technologies serving Israeli settler-colonial interests.” Notably, Israeli companies are responsible for groundbreaking innovations like drip irrigation, biological pest control, and foodtech (e.g., developing alternative proteins and milk substitutes). Albanese accuses dairy and foodtech innovator Tnuva of building “market dominance” by “exploit[ing]” the “captive Palestinian market” while charging drip irrigation leader Netafim with branding “itself as a sustainable innovator, while perpetrating age-old techniques of colonial exploitation.” (Para 61-64).
Foulkes goes on to promote an “apartheid” comparison:
Ms Albanese is, in targeting economic ties, trying to remind multinationals, and governments, of what happened with apartheid South Africa.
For a while many businesses made good money trading with South Africa, but the injustice of apartheid attracted global condemnation and UN sanctions which forced disinvestment and, eventually, helped to end the apartheid regime.
By listing companies which are household names, Ms Albanese is probably also hoping to provide millions of consumers worldwide with information they can use when choosing whether or not to buy something, as they did with South Africa.
Foulkes continues with another misrepresentation of Albanese’s qualifications:
But when Ms Albanese presented her report to UN member states, she received primarily praise and support.
African, Asian, and Arab states backed her call for disinvestment, many agreed that genocide was taking place, and some also warned Israel against vilifying international lawyers like Ms Albanese for doing their job.
Some observers have noted that Albanese’s report is basically calling for the economy of Israel to be dismantled, as she herself told reporters at a press briefing:
Albanese: “It’s a fiction that there is a line dividing, separating the ‘good’ Israel within Israel and the ‘bad’ Israel in the occupied territories. No! The economy is one. Israel’s economy is one and one only and my report exposes a system […] that there is no possibility to fix it and redress it. It is to be dismantled.”
Were Albanese really an “international lawyer” as claimed by Foulkes, she may perhaps have understood the implications of a call for Israel’s economy to be “dismantled” — but clearly neither she nor her BBC Geneva correspondent cheerleader do.
Once again, we see that the long-standing BBC policy of uncritically amplifying UN messaging — while exempting that organization and its various departments, agencies, and officials from any kind of critical reporting — remains firmly in place.
Hadar Sela is the co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders Calls on Democrats to Stop Accepting Money From AIPAC
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the media following a meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, US, July 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), took to X/Twitter on Monday to call on all Democrats to stop accepting political donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the influential pro‑Israel lobbying entity.
In his tweet, Sanders wrote that AIPAC has aided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in waging an “illegal and immoral war being waged against the Palestinian people.” Sanders continued, claiming that “NO Democrat should accept money from AIPAC” while asserting that the organization helped “deliver the presidency to Donald Trump.”
Sanders’s post came in response to comments by former Obama administration foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes, in which Rhodes urged Democrats to reject all future donations from AIPAC. Rhodes argued that AIPAC has influenced Democrats to take immoral stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“AIPAC is part of the constellation of forces that has delivered this country into the hands of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, and you cannot give them a carve out,” Rhodes said on an episode of the podcast Pod Save the World. “We need to have this fight as a party, because these are the wrong people to have under your tent.”
Tommy Vietor, another former Obama administration official and podcast co-host, agreed, accusing AIPAC of “funneling money to front organizations that primary progressive Democrats.”
AIPAC, the foremost pro-Israel lobbying firm in the US, has historically backed pro-Israel candidates from both parties. The organization does not specifically lobby against progressive candidates. AIPAC has aided the campaigns of pro-Israel progressives such as Ritchie Torres.
Sanders has long held an acrimonious relationship with AIPAC. In November 2023, he repudiated the group for supposedly having”supported dozens of GOP extremists who are undermining our democracy,” and urged his fellow Democrats to stand together in the fight for a world of peace, economic and social justice and climate sanity.”
Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser under President Obama, has emerged as a vocal critic of Israeli policy, particularly under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His skepticism is rooted in years of diplomatic frustration during the Obama administration, especially surrounding failed peace negotiations and Israel’s settlement expansions in the West Bank. Rhodes has often framed Israel’s hardline stance as a major obstacle to a two-state solution, and he has been critical of what he sees as unconditional U.S. support that enables right-wing Israeli policies. His stance reflects a broader shift among some American progressives who advocate for a more balanced U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sanders has long been a staunch critic of the Jewish state. Sanders has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “collective punishment” and “apartheid” against the Palestinian people. Although the senator initially condemned the Oct. 7 slaughters of roughly 1200 people throughout southern Israel by Hamas, he subsequently pushed for a “ceasefire” between the Jewish state and the terrorist group. Sanders also spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to implement a partial arms embargo on Israel in 2024.
In the 20 months following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, relations between the Democratic party and the Jewish state have deteriorated. Democratic lawmakers have grown more vocally critical of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, sometimes arguing that the Jewish state has recklessly endangered lives of Palestinian civilians. Moreover, polls indicate that Democratic voters have largely turned against Israel, intensifying pressure on liberal lawmakers to shift their tone regarding the war in Gaza.
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Iranian National Charged in Plot to Subvert US Sanctions Against Islamic Republic
Iranians participating in a memorial ceremony for IRGC commanders and nuclear scientists in downtown Tehran, Iran, on July 2, 2025. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters Connect.
Federal law enforcement officials have arrested an Iranian national after uncovering his alleged conspiracy to export US technology to Tehran in violation of a slew of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, the US Department of Justice announced on Friday.
For May 2018 to July 2025, Bahram Mohammad Ostovari, 66, allegedly amassed “railway signaling and telecommunications systems” for transport to the Iranian government by using “two front companies” located in the United Arab Emirates. After filing fake orders for them with US vendors at Ostovari’s direction, the companies shipped the materials — which included “sophisticated computer processors” — to Tehran, having duped the US businesses into believing that they “were the end users.”
The Justice Department continued, “After he became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in May 2020, Ostovari continued to export, sell, and supply electronics and electrical components to [his company] in Iran,” noting that the technology became components of infrastructure projects commissioned by the Islamic Republic.
Ostovari has been charged with four criminal counts for allegedly violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR), under which conducting business with Iran is proscribed due to the country’s human rights abuses, material support for terrorism, and efforts to build a larger-scale nuclear program in violation of international non-proliferation obligations. Each count carries a 20-year maximum sentence in federal prison.
Ostovari is one of several Iranian nationals to become the subject of criminal proceedings involving crimes against the US this year.
In April, a resident of Great Falls, Virginia — Abouzar Rahmati, 42 — pleaded guilty to collecting intelligence on US infrastructure and providing it to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“From at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian government officials and intelligence operatives to act on their behalf in the United States, including by meeting with Iranian intelligence officers and government officials using a cover story to hide his conduct,” the Justice Department said at the time, noting that Rahmati even infiltrated a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that possesses “sensitive non-public information about the US aviation sector.”
Throughout the duration of his cover, Rahmati amassed “open-source and non-public materials about the US solar energy industry,” which he delivered to “Iranian intelligence officers.”
The government found that the operation began in August 2017, after Rahmati “offered his services” to a high-ranking Iranian government official who had once been employed by the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, according to the Justice Department. Months later, he traveled to Iran, where Iranian agents assigned to him the espionage activity to which he pleaded guilty to perpetrating.
“Rahmati sent additional material relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, US airports, and US air traffic control towers to his brother, who lived in Iran, so that he would provide those files to Iranian intelligence on Rahmati’s behalf,” the Justice Department continued. Rahmati also, it said, delivered 172 gigabytes worth of information related to the National Aerospace System (NAS) — which monitors US airspace, ensuring its safety for aircraft — and NAS Airport Surveillance to Iran during a trip he took there.
Rahmati faces up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced in August.
In November, three Iranian intelligence assets were charged with contriving a conspiracy to assassinate critics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as then US President-elect Donald Trump.
According to the Justice Department, Farhad Shakeri, 51; Carlisle Rivera, 49; and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, acted at the direction of and with help from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an internationally designated terrorist organization, to plot to murder a US citizen of Iranian origin in New York. Shakeri, who remains at large and is believed to reside in Iran, was allegedly the principal agent who managed the two other men, both residents of New York City who appeared in court.
Their broader purpose, prosecutors said, was to target nationals of the United States and its allies for attacks, including “assaults, kidnapping, and murder, both to repress and silence critical dissidents” and to exact revenge for the 2020 killing of then-IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq. Trump was president of the US at the time of the operation.
All three men are now charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering. Shakeri faces additional charges, including violating sanctions against Iran, providing support to a terrorist organization, and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Powers Act, offenses for which he could serve up to six decades in federal prison.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Kosher Israeli Restaurant Vandalized in Athens Amid Surge in Antisemitic Attacks Across Europe
A man waves a Palestinian flag as pro-Hamas demonstrators protest next to the Greek parliament, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Athens, Greece, May 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
An Israeli restaurant in Athens, Greece, was vandalized on Saturday night in one of the latest incidents amid a surge of antisemitic attacks across Europe, prompting a police investigation into the suspected hate crime.
In a video shared on social media, a group of six individuals can be seen entering King David Burger — a local kosher restaurant that opened just a month ago — scattering pamphlets and spraying black paint across walls, tables, and other surfaces throughout the establishment.
Restaurante israelí en Atenas atacado po pro-palestinos
Otro caso de acoso a una empresa israelí, esta vez en Atenas. El restaurante King David Burger de la capital griega, propiedad de un israelí, fue atacado anoche.
Un grupo de activistas propalestinos llegó al restaurante y,… pic.twitter.com/YGiqLBRNAF
— ITON GADOL es Israel y las comunidades judias (@Itongadol) July 13, 2025
The group of pro-Palestinian activists shouted antisemitic slurs and vandalized the establishment with graffiti, including slogans such as “No Zionist is safe here.”
The attackers also posted a sign on one of the restaurant’s windows that read, “All IDF soldiers are war criminals — we don’t want you here,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
According to local reports, many Israelis in Athens gathered outside the restaurant after the attack, with some singing “Am Israel Chai” (“The People of Israel Live”) as a show of solidarity.
The restaurant owner urged local authorities in Athens to take swift action and hold the perpetrators accountable.
“It would be a shame for the Israelis to leave Athens,” Zvika Levinson, the restaurant’s owner, told Israel Hayom. “But if authorities don’t act, the situation will not be good.”
Police reportedly told the owner that without clear identification of the individuals in the video, they are unable to make any arrests.
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents have surged to alarming levels across Europe. This recent attack is just one of the latest in a wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes that Greece and other countries have witnessed in recent months.
Last month, an Israeli tourist was attacked by a group of pro-Palestinian activists after they overheard him using Google Maps in Hebrew while navigating through Athens.
When the attackers realized the victim was speaking Hebrew, they began physically assaulting him while shouting antisemitic slurs.
Although local police arrived promptly, a large crowd had already gathered outside the restaurant where the victim had sought shelter.
At first, authorities mistakenly arrested the victim, accusing him of the attack. However, after video footage clarified the situation, they apologized and took him to the nearest hospital.
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