The BBC hides truth about Israel's genocide - again

The BBC keeps failing to report Israel's actually stated genocidal intent

Here is an example of how the BBC covers up the truth about Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.

It’s another example of how Israel’s genocidal intent is erased by the BBC to stop you, its audience, from understanding what Israel is actually doing to the Palestinian people.

Meet Aharon Haliva. He’s an Israeli general who was in charge of Israeli military intelligence until April 2024 - so, for the first seven months of Israel’s genocide. A recording of comments he made - we know made in the last few months - has been broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 television station.

Someone who was one of the most senior Israeli generals declared that for every person killed on 7th October, 50 Palestinians must die and “it does not matter now if they are children.”

He said it was “necessary” because it was a “message to future generations” of Palestinians.

He further added “They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price.”

The Nakba refers to the mass expulsion of three quarters of a million Palestinians from their home which accompanied the establishment of Israel in 1948.

A few things here. Firstly, this guy is not, quote unquote, “far right”. He is regarded as a moderate in Israel. Indeed when he resigned in April 2024, someone who is badged far right, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, celebrated - and Haliva notes his political differences in this clip.

Second, even though this recording is badged as being from within the last few months, we know that more than 50 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli state for every person killed on 7th October, Israel or foreign national, soldier or civilian. That would be 60,000 or so Palestinians: the official death toll is 63,000, but we know that’s a drastic undercount, excluding people buried in the rubble who are badged as missing, it doesn’t include those killed by indirect causes, such as the destruction of healthcare or lack of food, and also the reporting system in Gaza has been collapsing because of the genocidal onslaught.

Thirdly, note how he makes clear that this death toll is not about those who would be classed as military targets, as Hamas militants for example. He specifically says it doesn’t matter if those killed are children. He is openly stating the desirability of slaughtering huge numbers of civilians, including children, for what he styles as a form of collective punishment, to discipline the Palestinians and deter them from crossing Israel.

He explicitly refers to the Nakba, which it used to be common to deny in Israel, to pretend it never happened - and yet now Israeli leaders and officials do the opposite - embrace it as something to emulate. But alas Israel’s genocide in Gaza is far more lethal than the Nakba.

What this senior general is doing is making very clear Israel’s intent - to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, which it has done over and over again in full view of the world. There is no pretence here - no attempt to lie that “it’s very regrettable that civilians are killed, that we do all we can to avoid killing civilians, but alas this is war”: he makes clear that slaughtering civilians is an integral part of Israel’s strategy. This is a straightforward confession of war crimes and crimes against humanity by someone who was a key figure in Israel’s leadership.

And yet nothing - zero, zilch - on the BBC news website, the world’s biggest online news source. It’s reported in Israeli newspapers Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, a right-wing Israeli newspaper

It’s reported in the Guardian, which gave important context about Israeli genocidal intent, and it’s even on CNN, which is guilty of often dire coverage of Israel and Palestine

Nothing on the BBC.

The BBC throughout has covered up explicit genocidal and criminal intent by Israeli leaders and officials - in doing so deceiving its audience about the real nature of what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.

For example, on 9th October 2023, Yoav Gallant, then-Israeli defence minister who was later indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, with charges centred on starvation, said:

Imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.

It had a single mention on the BBC website, but it was buried - appearing towards the end of an article, with no explanation about the criminality of his statement, in an article which buried the lede - the headline was “Israel’s military says it fully controls communities on Gaza border”

On the same day, Israeli general Ghassan Allian said:

Hamas became ISIS and the citizens of Gaza are celebrating instead of being horrified. Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.

This was overt genocidal language, making explicitly clear Israel saw Palestinian civilians as military targets who would suffer collective punishment. It wasn’t mentioned at all by the BBC at the time. This has gone on all the way through the genocide. If the BBC had given proper coverage to these confessions, then it would have had to report Israel’s onslaught as the criminal enterprise it was from start to finish. So it didn’t, so it could stick to a script of - this is Israel defending itself, with a side debate about whether the response is proportionate or not, where we can all agree to disagree.

There’s another example, from Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Finance minister in May.

As translated that by the anti-Zionist Jewish activist who goes by the handle @ireallyhateyou, he says:

He says "We conquer, cleanse, and stay... On the way, we annihilate everything that still remains... The IDF... leaves nothing standing... We're breaking Gaza apart, leaving it as a pile of rubble, total unprecedented destruction."

There is nothing subtle about this. Overt genocidal language. Not covered by the BBC either. Lies by omission are still lies. The BBC should have made clear what Israel’s leaders have explicitly said are their actual motives over and over again. They did not do so, and in doing, the BBC whitewashed a genocide.