In a news item on March 7, following the Mercaz Harav
Yeshiva attack, the BBC showed a bulldozer demolishing a house, while
correspondent Nick Miles told viewers: "Hours after the attack, Israeli
bulldozers destroyed his family home. Later, mourners set up Hamas and Islamic
Jihad banners nearby."
The house, however, was not demolished; the BBC was
embarrassed when news reports from other broadcasters showed the east Jerusalem
home intact and the family commemorating their son's actions.
Last week, the BBC apologized live on its news program, admitting
it had used footage of another house being demolished.
News anchor Geeta Guru-Murthy said: "Now, we would like
to clarify a report we heard at this hour last Friday about the attack by a
Palestinian gunman on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem. In the report, the day
after the attack, BBC World said that the gunman's home in east Jerusalem had
been demolished by the Israeli authorities. That was not correct, and the
images broadcast were of another demolition."
The fabrication was exposed by Boston-based media monitor
CAMERA, which revealed that the images used by the BBC were similar to photos
taken by the Palestinian news agency Maan from the demolition of the house
belonging to Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Shehadeh in Bethlehem on March 7.
In a second incident, in a news item entitled "Israel
jets strike northern Gaza" on March 14 on their News Web site, the BBC
reported that Israel was deliberately targeting civilians in an operation
targeting Kassam rocket launch sites in Gaza, and claiming that the United
Nations secretary-general had described it as an attack on civilians.
"The Israeli air force said it was targeting a rocket
firing team... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Israel's attacks
on Palestinian civilians, calling them inappropriate and
disproportionate," the report said.
In a letter to the BBC, Manchester Jewish community member
Jonathan Hantman wrote,
"It is one-sided for the report to describe Israel's
operations as 'attacks on civilians' while not describing the Palestinian
rocket attacks, to which Israel was responding, as 'attacks on civilians' or
'acts of terrorism.'"
Hantman also pointed out that Ban's attributed comments were
made weeks earlier to the UN Security Council and not in reference to that particular
attack. He added that it was also wrong to mention the UN secretary-general's
condemnation of Israel without mentioning his condemnation of Palestinian
rocket attacks in the same statement.
"Ban's statement, made some two weeks ago, did not
refer to yesterday's attack and did not describe Israel's operations on Gaza as
'attacks on civilians,'" Hantman noted. "He did, however, describe
Palestinian rocket attacks as 'acts of terrorism.'"
In his statement to the UN Security Council on March 1, Ban said:
"While recognizing Israel's right to defend itself, I condemn the
disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many
civilians, including children... I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call
for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism."
Apologizing for the error, the BBC said in its response,
regarding the speech: "We accept we should have made reference to what
[Ban] said about Palestinian rocket attacks as well as to the 'excessive use of
force' by Israel. We have amended the report, also removing the reference to
Israeli 'attacks on civilians.'"
