The official broadcaster of Britain has maintained its stance on its choice to not designate Hamas as a “terrorist organisation.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been tasked by Israeli President Isaac Herzog with pressuring the BBC to designate Hamas as a “terror organisation.”
The demands follow accusations of “blood libel” by an Israeli official account and a UK minister after a reporter suggested that Israel was responsible for the bombing of a Gaza hospital.
Herzog and Sunak had a press conference together on Thursday in Jerusalem, and Herzog remarked, “The BBC’s portrayal of Hamas is a distortion of the facts.”
The British PM “cannot intervene, per se,” Herzog continued, adding that the BBC is “known as Britain” worldwide and that “there has to be an outcry so that there will be a correction.” The Palestinian terrorist group is “one of the worst terror organisations,” he added.
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What else do they need to see to realise this is a horrible terrorist group? Sherzog added.
Sunak responded, saying “we should call [Hamas’ attack on Israel] what it is – an act of terrorism perpetrated by an evil terrorist organisation,” without mentioning the BBC.
But according to Sunak’s office, Culture Secretary Lucy Fraser has spoken with BBC Director-General Tim Davie “numerous times” this week and has urged the network to “reflect on their coverage and learn lessons for the future”
Since the start of the conflict, the BBC has come under fire from Israeli pundits for choosing to refer to Hamas as a “militant” group rather than a “terrorist” one. The BBC stated last week that their policy is to never define terms like “terrorist” for itself but to always ascribe them to people who use them.
The BBC said, “This is a strategy that has been employed for decades and is consistent with that of other broadcasters. “The BBC is an editorially independent broadcaster whose job is to explain precisely what is happening ‘on the ground’ so our audiences can make their own judgement.”
The BBC was accused of “modern blood libel” on Thursday by Israel’s official Twitter account over journalist Jon Donnison’s initial reporting on a bombing that occurred at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday. It came after the identical word was used the day before by Robert Jenrick, the British Minister of Immigration.
Jenrick is wed to an Israeli citizen and is a part of the Parliamentary Conservative Friends of Israel group.
The BBC claimed that while Donnison made incorrect assumptions, he never specifically connected the incident to Israeli soldiers.
The explosion, which according to police killed close to 500 people, has been blamed on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Since then, Israel has made public a mobile video that allegedly depicts the hospital being struck by a stray Palestinian missile.
