Ahlul Bayt News Agency, Anti-Israel groups outraged at 'racist' BBC’s fleet documentary; plan protests
A BBC documentary screened this week that investigated the Gaza fleet incident on May 31 is causing a storm of protest. The critics, including an activist from the Free Gaza movement who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, are organizing demonstrations on Sunday outside the BBC’s London headquarters and other BBC offices, and are calling for a mass campaign of complaints to the BBC in general and the program makers in particular.
In Death in the Med, the BBC’s flagship documentary series Panorama examined the ill-fated Israeli interception of the Mavi Marmara, the only ship from the Free Gaza fleet which saw confrontation between activists and Israeli troops.
The half-hour program had exclusive access to the Israeli navy unit that took part in the raid and interviewed a number of the commandos, as well as members of the Free Gaza group and the IHH movement that organized the fleet.
The program claimed that the main aim of the activists had not been to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, but rather to orchestrate a political act designed to put pressure on Israel and the international community.
Nine Turkish nationals were killed by the commandos after they came under attack when boarding the Mavi Marmara.
Demonstration outside BBC's London headquarters planned
Sunday’s demonstration outside BBC headquarters in west London is being organized by Ken O’Keefe, one of the Free Gaza activists from the Mavi Marmara, who was interviewed in the documentary, and a group called the Muslim Defense League.
“Enough is enough, we all know the truth of the terrorist attacks committed by Israel on unarmed peace activists! The BBC needs to know that it cannot continue airing lies as the truth,” this group proclaims on its Facebook page.
Other protests are being organized at regional BBC offices in Manchester and Belfast.
Calls to action began even before the program was aired. The group Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), whose founder Asghar Bukhari made a donation to convicted Holocaust denier David Irving in 2006, urged people to complain to the BBC ahead of time.
“No doubt, the BBC will once again be airing and spreading propaganda on Israel’s behalf,” MPAC predicted on its Web site.
An action alert published by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is calling on people to complain.
In it, the group asks why the program’s presenter, Jane Corbin, does not mention “the bombs, rockets and white phosphorus dropped on Gaza by Israel during Operation Cast Lead over a three-week period, killing 1,400 people.”
The group also asks why the IOF boarded the ship at night if it had peaceful intentions, and questions why the presenter gave the flotilla a religious context.
“If Israel’s intentions in boarding the ship were peaceful, why did the commandos board in the early hours of the morning, in the dark, instead of during daylight hours? Why is [Corbin] giving the aid flotilla a religious context when it had none? PSC asked.
Birmingham University lecturer Sue Blackwell, a major player in the call to boycott Israel academia, also sent a call to action highlighting “the aspects of bias of the abysmal piece of broadcasting.”
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