Caabu continues its work on monitoring BBC coverage of Israel/Palestine. We recently wrote to complain about this article on the scandal in Israel surrounding the leaked video on the alleged abuse of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman.
Our sent complaint is here:
We are writing to complain about this article regarding accuracy and impartiality. It is welcome that the original headline was changed to one that references the alleged detainee abuse.
The article focuses on the leak of the video as the scandal, as opposed to the contents. It does not focus on how the alleged Palestinian victims of rape, torture and abuse see this. Their views are totally absent. The article should focus on what the video entailed and the clear prohibition of torture under international law. Meanwhile, there are no quotes from the Palestinian victims here nor are the testimonies from Palestinian detainees given. There is also the failure to reference human rights organisations, namely Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, and their reports on the torture faced in prisons by Palestinian detainees, such as the B’Tselem “Welcome to Hell” report. As reported in the BMJ, the bodies of the deceased prisoners returned to Gaza during the hostage/prisoner exchange, were found with visible signs of torture on their bodies; this is not mentioned in the article. While the leaked video is focused on in the article, there does not seem to be mention of the three Israeli whistleblowers, who worked in the prison and spoke to CNN last May, alleging that they had witnessed torture at Sde Teiman. We are concerned that the article does not give the full view of the picture. Also, the article claims that abuses have allegedly been taking place since October 7, but this is inaccurate. Abuses against Palestinian detainees have been alleged to take place prior to October 7, as reported by human rights organisations such as B’Tselem. The article omitted that Israel has denied ICRC access into Israeli prisons since 7 October 2023, thus making way for more abuses to be able to take place under the radar. It does not mention that transferring prisoners from occupied territory into Israel is a war crime and violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
However, there is a character limit on complaints submitted to the BBC, so we did shorten this, from what is written below.
Longer Version:
We are writing to complain about this article regarding accuracy and impartiality. It is welcome that the original headline was changed from “Israel’s military ex-top lawyer as scandal over video leak deepens” to one that references the alleged detainee abuse.
The article focuses on the leak of the video as the scandal, as seen by many in Israel, as opposed to the contents. It does not focus on how the alleged Palestinian victims of rape, torture and abuse see this. Their views are totally absent. The article should focus on what the video entailed and the clear prohibition of torture under international law.
Meanwhile, there are no quotes from the Palestinian victims here nor are the testimonies from Palestinian detainees given. There is also the failure to reference human rights organisations, namely Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, and their reports on the torture faced in prisons by Palestinian detainees, such as the B’Tselem “Welcome to Hell” report. And as reported by BMJ, the bodies of the deceased prisoners, who were returned to Gaza during the hostage/prisoner exchange, were found with visible signs of torture on their bodies; this is not mentioned in the article. While the leaked video is focused on in the article, there does not seem to be mention of the three Israeli whistleblowers, including medics, who worked in the prison and spoke to CNN last May, alleging that they had witnessed torture at Sde Teiman. It was also reported in Haaretz, that a doctor at Sde Teiman, Professor Yoel Donchin, was shocked at the condition of the Gazan detainee, after he was allegedly abused by nine Israeli reservists. We are therefore concerned that the article does not give the full view of the picture.
Additionally, reports the article claims that abuses have allegedly been taking place since October 7, but this is inaccurate. Abuses against Palestinian detainees have been alleged to take place prior to October 7, as reported by human rights organisations such as Addameer, amongst others.
The article omitted that Israel has denied ICRC access into Israeli prisons since 7 October 2023, therefore making way for more abuses to be able to take place under the radar. It also does not mention that transferring prisoners from occupied territory into Israel is a war crime and a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
We will continue to monitor the BBC’s coverage of Gaza, particularly in light of the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and News Head Deborah Turness, following accusations of systemic and institutional bias. Caabu’s report, as well as the Centre for Media Monitoring data report on which Caabu supported, found that there was BBC bias against Palestinians, and we will continue to advocate for the BBC to ensure that its editorial standards are maintained at the highest levels.