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The BBC Is Letting an Anti-Israel Journalist Report on Lebanon
Khiam, Lebanon, October 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
Back in July 2016, we discussed two items of BBC content — audio and written — which were produced by the Beirut-based BBC journalist Rami Ruhayem to mark the 10h anniversary of the Second Lebanon War.
As we noted at the time:
…if conflict between Israel and Hizballah did break out again, BBC audiences would obviously be seriously lacking the background information crucial to their understanding of that event because reports like these two from Rami Ruhayem fail to provide them with information concerning relevant issues such as the failure of UN SC resolution 1701 to achieve its aims, the rearming of Hizballah and its use of communities in southern Lebanon as human shields and Iran’s patronage of the terror organisation which the BBC refuses even to describe in accurate terminology.
Two and a half weeks after Hamas launched its October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel and perpetrated unprecedented atrocities, Rami Ruhayem wrote an email to the BBC Director General, Tim Davie, which opened as follows:
Dear Tim,
I am writing to raise the gravest possible concerns about the coverage of the BBC, especially on English outlets, of the current fighting between Israel and Palestinian factions.
It appears to me that information that is highly significant and relevant is either entirely missing or not being given due prominence in coverage.
This includes expert opinion that Israel’s actions could amount to genocide, evidence in support of that opinion, and historical context without which the public cannot form a basic understanding of the unfolding events.
There are also indications that the BBC is—implicitly at least—treating Israeli lives as more worthy than Palestinian lives, and reinforcing Israeli war propaganda.
As was reported at the time by the Jewish Chronicle:
A BBC correspondent has emailed staff across the corporation to argue that they should be using the terms “settler-colonialism” and “ethnic cleansing” in their coverage of Israel.
The letter, which has been shared widely with the broadcaster’s international staff, claims that the broadcaster may be “reinforcing Israeli propaganda meant to dehumanise the Palestinians” as the Jewish state commits “genocide”. […]
He wrote: “There is a lot more to be said, but these are the broad headlines. This is not about mistakes here and there, or even about systemic bias in favour of Israel. The question now is a question of complicity. It is a matter of public interest to rectify this with the utmost urgency.”
The corporation should use the terms “apartheid, ethnic cleansing and settler-colonialism” in its reporting, he added, and warned of a “flood of incitement” against Palestinians.
The theme of “complicity” also appears in Ruhayem’s pinned Tweet: a twelve-part post that he wrote just 10 days after the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians.
On May 1, 2024, Rami Ruhayem wrote a follow-up email to the BBC Director General, which included the following:
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that the BBC may have been withholding vital information from the public, contributing to incitement against Palestinians, and spreading and reinforcing Israeli war propaganda.
As was the case in both his 2016 reports, Ruhayem also mentioned the “Dahiya doctrine” in that second email:
Another crucial piece of context for our purpose is the so-called Dahiya Doctrine, an Israeli military doctrine that was articulated in the wake of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and put into practice later in Gaza. In the words of Gadi Eisenkot, at the time head of the Israeli Northern Command and currently a member of the war cabinet:
What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. . . . We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. . . . This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”
A report which was published on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on November 7, 2024, includes the following:
During the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, Israel flattened neighbourhoods in Dahieh, and two years later, revealed a military strategy drawn from that experience – what came to be known as the Dahieh Doctrine.
It was first articulated by then-Maj Gen Gadi Eizenkot in 2008 when he was head of the Israeli military’s Northern Command. This doctrine – as it came to be known – called for applying “disproportionate force” against civilian areas where Israel believes it is attacked from, with the goal of pressuring the people of Lebanon to turn on Hezbollah to undermine support for it.
‘From our perspective, these are military bases…,” he said at the time. “Harming the population is the only means of restraining [Hassan] Nasrallah,” he said, referring to the then-leader of Hezbollah. Nasrallah was killed in an air strike in Dahieh in September 2024.
Readers will probably not be surprised to learn that the report in question — headlined “What is Israel’s strategy in targeting Hezbollah’s civilian network?” — was written by Rami Ruhayem.
Ruhayem opens that report with descriptions of the pre-announced Israeli strikes conducted in October against an organisation involved in Hezbollah terror financing. As was reported by the Times of Israel at the time: [emphasis added]
Most of the strikes targeted branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, an unlicensed gray-market bank seen as one of the group’s main sources of cash. […]
Al-Qard al-Hassan, which is sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.
In May 2021 the US Treasury Department described Al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH – founded in the early 1980s) as Heznollah’s “financial firm,” stating:
While AQAH purports to serve the Lebanese people, in practice it illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, exposing Lebanese financial institutions to possible sanctions. AQAH masquerades as a non-governmental organization (NGO) under the cover of a Ministry of Interior-granted NGO license, providing services characteristic of a bank in support of Hizballah while evading proper licensing and regulatory supervision. By hoarding hard currency that is desperately needed by the Lebanese economy, AQAH allows Hizballah to build its own support base and compromise the stability of the Lebanese state. AQAH has taken on a more prominent role in Hizballah’s financial infrastructure over the years, and designated Hizballah-linked entities and individuals have evaded sanctions and maintained bank accounts by re-registering them in the names of senior AQAH officials, including under the names of certain individuals being designated today.
In December 2020, AQAH was hacked and as was noted by FDD:
The hacked documents show that among the AQAH account holders are established and alleged Hezbollah money launderers and financiers with extensive business interests, especially in Africa.
Rami Ruhayem’s description of that organisation, however, tells BBC audiences that:
Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association (AQAH), a charity that offers interest-free microloans, had grown in prominence over the past decade amid US sanctions and the collapse of Lebanon’s banking sector. […]
Israel says AQAH finances Hezbollah’s military activities – a claim denied by the group, which says it has no role beyond offering small, interest-free loans to ordinary Lebanese, in line with Islamic law’s prohibition on charging interest.
Ruhayem’s journalistic curiosity clearly does not extend to finding out why AQAH’s account holders include Iranian organizations, companies and media organisations, as well as the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Such investigative journalism would of course only distract from the main purpose of his article, which is to persuade BBC audiences that Hezbollah’s social system has nothing to do with its military activities and therefore any attacks on elements of that system are illegal:
From an international humanitarian law perspective, experts say AQAH is not a lawful military target regardless of Israel’s claims that it plays a role in financing Hezbollah.
“International humanitarian law does not permit attacks on the economic or financial infrastructure of an adversary, even if they indirectly sustain its military activities,” according to Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism.
Mr Saul said the bombing “obliterates the distinction between civilian objects and military objectives” and “opens the door to ‘total war’ against civilian populations”.
Ruhayem, of course, refrains from informing his readers that the supposedly impartial “expert” Ben Saul has a long record of anti-Israel activism, or that since February, Saul been campaigning to prevent arms exports to Israel.
Neither did Ruhayem bother to clarify that his other “expert” contributor — Amal Saad — is a long-time Hezbollah apologist.
Rami Ruhayem’s efforts to persuade BBC audiences that “Israel is targeting the civilian population that is supportive of Hezbollah” and “striking that population in areas far removed from combat” should surprise no-one. Ruhayem, after all, publicly made his partisan position perfectly clear over a year ago and has repeated it since.
What should raise questions is the fact that despite Ruhayem’s openly anti-Israel position, his BBC managers — who are supposedly committed to the provision accurate and impartial news reporting — have twice in a period of three weeks considered it appropriate to publish his claims of “parallels between Israel’s onslaught in Lebanon and its year-long military campaign in Gaza” and his promotion of the talking point that the “civilian network” of a designated terrorist organisation is uninvolved in the conflict that organisation chose to initiate.
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.
The post The BBC Is Letting an Anti-Israel Journalist Report on Lebanon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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EU Ministers Reject Proposal to Suspend Dialogue With Israel
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a press conference on the day of EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels, Belgium, March 20, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
European Union foreign ministers on Monday did not support a proposal by the bloc’s outgoing foreign policy chief to suspend regular political dialogue with Israel in response to the Jewish state’s ongoing military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell last week had proposed the suspension of dialogue in a letter to the bloc’s foreign ministers ahead of their meeting on Monday in Brussels, citing “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza,” the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas. He also wrote, “Thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel.”
The proposal was met with widespread resistance, with several ministers either expressing support for Israel’s position or arguing that severing dialogue with the Jewish state would be counterproductive.
“We know that there are tragic events in Gaza, huge civilian casualties, but we do not forget who started the current cycle of violence,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters after Monday’s meeting in Brussels, seemingly referring to the fact that Hamas began the conflict with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. “And I can tell you that there was no agreement on the idea of suspending negotiations with Israel.”
The regular dialogues that Borrell sought to break off were enshrined in a broader agreement on relations between the EU and Israel, including extensive trade ties, that was implemented in 2000.
“In light of the above considerations, I will be tabling a proposal that the EU should invoke the human rights clause to suspend the political dialogue with Israel,” Borrell wrote last week.
A suspension needed the approval of all 27 EU countries, an unlikely outcome from the beginning.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock publicly rejected the proposal last Thursday.
“We are always in favor of keeping channels of dialogue open. Of course, this also applies to Israel,” the German Foreign Office said of Borrell’s plans.
The Foreign Office added that, while the political conversations under the EU-Israel Association Council provide a regular opportunity to strengthen relations and, in recent months, discuss the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza, severing that mechanism would make little sense.
“Breaking off dialogue, however, will not help anyone, neither the suffering people in Gaza, nor the hostages who are still being held by Hamas, nor all those in Israel who are committed to dialogue,” the statement continued.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp similarly said that he disagreed with the proposal and that the EU needed to continue its diplomatic dialogue with Israel.
“Apparently, the high rep [Borrell] takes a 180-degree turn. I don’t fully grasp that,” Veldkamp told reporters in Brussels. “In the view of the Netherlands, this door should be kept open, and we should start a discussion with the Israeli ministers. There will soon be a new high rep. Let’s use these opportunities to get a dialogue running, because there’s a lot to discuss, including the catastrophic humanitarian situation the Gaza Strip.”
Borrel, whose formal title is the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, is set to leave his position, with his five-year term as the EU’s foreign policy chief coming to an end next month. His successor is former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
The EU has been divided over how to address the war in Gaza. While some member countries, such as Spain and Ireland, have been fiercely critical of Israel since the outbreak of the conflict, calling on the bloc to review and even suspend its free trade agreement with Israel, others have been more supportive. For example, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic have so far largely backed Israel’s military efforts.
“Most of the member states considered that it was much better to continue having a diplomatic and political relationship with Israel,” Borrell told a press conference after the meeting on Monday.
“But at least I put on the table all the information produced by United Nations organizations and every international organization working in Gaza and the West Bank and in Lebanon in order to judge the way the war is being waged,” he added.
Earlier, Borrell said he had “no more words” to describe the situation in the Middle East, before chairing his last planned meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
“I exhausted the words to explain what’s happening in the Middle East,” he said, citing the death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “There [are] no more words.”
Hamas launched the ongoing conflict with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. During the onslaught, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and kidnapped over 250 hostages while perpetrating mass sexual violence and other atrocities.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations, direct attacks, and store weapons.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said last month that Israel has delivered over 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since it launched its military operation a year ago. He also noted that Hamas terrorists often hijack and steal aid shipments while fellow Palestinians suffer.
The Israeli government has ramped up the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza in recent weeks under pressure from the United States, which has expressed concern about the plight of civilians in the war-torn enclave.
Nonetheless, Borrell said ahead of the meeting that his proposal was meant to put pressure on the Israeli government after it had, in his view, ignored several pleas to adhere to international law in the Gaza war.
“Many people tried to stop the war in Gaza … this has not happened yet. And I don’t see a hope for this to happen. That’s why we have to put pressure on the Israeli government, and also, obviously on the Hamas side,” Borrell said, without mentioning Hamas’s rejection of recent ceasefire proposals.
Borrell has been one of the EU’s most outspoken critics of Israel over the past year. Just six weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, he drew a moral equivalence between Israel and the terrorist group while speaking to the European Parliament, accusing both of having carried out “massacres” while insisting that it is possible to criticize Israeli actions “without being accused of not liking the Jews.”
Borrell’s speech followed a visit to the Middle East the prior week. While in Israel, he delivered what the Spanish daily El Pais described as the “most critical message heard so far from a representative of the European Union regarding Israel’s response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.”
“Not far from here is Gaza. One horror does not justify another,” Borrell said at a joint press conference alongside then-Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. “I understand your rage. But let me ask you not to let yourself be consumed by rage. I think that is what the best friends of Israel can tell you, because what makes the difference between a civilized society and a terrorist group is the respect for human life. All human lives have the same value.”
Months later, in March of this year, Borrell claimed that Israel was imposing a famine on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. His comments came a few months before the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected the assertion that northern Gaza was experiencing famine, citing a lack of evidence. Borrell’s comments prompted outrage from Israel.
In August, Borrell pushed EU member states to impose sanctions on some Israeli ministers.
On Monday, beyond his push to suspend EU-Israel dialogue, Borrell also sought to introduce a ban on the import of products from Israeli settlements in “occupied Palestinian territories according with the rules of the International Court of Justice.”
The post EU Ministers Reject Proposal to Suspend Dialogue With Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Mississauga vigil for Hamas leader was called off, but the Jewish community says the mayor should apologize for defending it
The group said members were going to be volunteering on an urgent food security issue instead.
The post Mississauga vigil for Hamas leader was called off, but the Jewish community says the mayor should apologize for defending it appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Amsterdam Police Identify 45 Suspects Linked to Violent, Antisemitic Attack Targeting Israeli Soccer Fans
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
Dutch police said on Sunday that they have identified and are investigating 45 suspects of whom they have images in connection to the violent attacks targeting Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam earlier this month.
“Because of the seriousness of the crimes, but also because of the social impact, we immediately scaled up to a special investigation team,” Dutch police chief Janny Knol said in a statement.
All 45 suspects are being probed for serious violent crimes, according to Dutch media. Nine of them have been arrested so far and remain in police custody, authorities said on Sunday, including a suspect who reported to police on Saturday night after his unblurred photo was released to the public.
On Friday, police said they were investigating 29 more suspects, including two who ultimately turned themselves in and have been arrested. Unblurred photos of the some of the other suspects have been online since Friday night and more images of suspects will be released soon, according to a police spokesperson cited by the NL Times.
Following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Dutch team Ajax in Amsterdam on Nov. 7, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian gangs violently attacked Israelis who attended the soccer game. The premeditated and coordinated attack took place in various parts of the city late that night and into the early hours of Nov. 8. Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were chased, run over by cars, assaulted, and taunted with anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian slogans such as “Free Palestine.” Five people were reportedly hospitalized for injuries.
Police are “looking at all crimes committed in the run-up to the game and in its aftermath,” Knol said after the violence erupted in the Dutch capital.
A Dutch court last week arraigned eight suspects, including minors, who were arrested in connection to the violent attack in Amsterdam, the NL Times reported. Those suspects include a 21-year-old man from Almelo, a city in eastern Netherlands; a 37-year-old man from Amsterdam suspected of pulling someone off his bicycle; two men, ages 19 and 21, who were arrested over the weekend; and two 26-year-old men, one from Amsterdam and one from Utrecht, who are suspected of publishing posts on social media that incited violence against the Israeli soccer fans.
The post Amsterdam Police Identify 45 Suspects Linked to Violent, Antisemitic Attack Targeting Israeli Soccer Fans first appeared on Algemeiner.com.