Ruth Matar and Nadia Matar are co-chairwomen of Women in Green, a grassroots women's movement dedicated to the security and Jewish heritage of historic Israel.
 
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BBC and CNN -- Accessories to murder
By Ruth and Nadia Matar    May 3, 2001

Posted with permission of Women in Green

The perverse role the Media can play, particularly in television news broadcasting, is exemplified by BBC and CNN in their apparent war against the Jewish State of Israel. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority find they have solid friends in BBC and CNN, and exploit this advantage to the hilt. In their unwillingness to objectively present the news from this area, both BBC and CNN are cardinal offenders of biased and prejudicial reporting. The consequences are grave, damaging and far reaching.

Arafat shrewdly makes available to these TV Stations his spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi and her ilk, who persuasively justify evil and murder. Arafat knows in advance that a pro-Arab interpretation immediately will be given by these Networks. Moreover, these "friendly" television stations can be counted on to present only Arafat's spokespeople in BBC and CNN report of events. From time to time, CNN and BBC attempt to cover up their blatant prejudice and unbalanced reporting by having someone from Israel; however, both these TV Stations consciously choose a person from the Israeli "left" to give Israel's version; such a person, they know in advance, will in no way change Arab lies and distortions of the events of the day.

Moreover, these stations can be counted on to couch their presentation in terms so as to give the impression that "Arab freedom fighters" are waging war against their Jewish oppressors. The word "terror" is not part of the BBC and CNN vocabulary; neither of them will ever designate Arab attacks against civilians in these terms. Their favorite ploy is to emphasize the large number of Arab deaths in proportion to the lesser number of Jewish deaths. The obvious distinction is never made that it is the Arabs who always initiate the violent attacks of mortars, gunfire, bombs and deathly stone-throwing; of course, it is always in self-defense to these murderous attacks, that disproportionate Arab deaths occur.

CNN and BBC, moreover, promote the Arafat fiction that the Jews occupy Arab land rather than their own Jewish Biblical homeland. Over 90 percent of the Arabs migrated to Israel within the last hundred years. Joan Peters in "From Time Immemorial," makes that crucial disclosure, but that fact will never be heard on either TV station.

CNN and BBC disclaim any prejudice, and are quick to deny what seems to be patent anti-Semitism. Yet they will never ask any "hard" questions of Arabs being interviewed by them. Nor will BBC and CNN ever mention the fact that Arab terrorism would not continue if Arafat openly stated in Arabic that he condemns violence and terror. Moreover, they will not say that if he actually rounded up and prosecuted those promoting such murderous attacks against civilians, such terror and violence would end. The almost daily Jewish deaths that occur are attributable to the encouragement given Arafat by the unfair, uncritical, slanted and prejudicial news reporting of CNN and BBC. Their behavior is immoral. The management of these TV Stations should be held responsible for the mounting Jewish casualties.