The BBC had been under constant attack all week by the Conservative Party, members of the Government and the Prime Minister himself, Rishi Sunak, who accused the public entity of lacking impartiality for calling ‘militants’, and not ‘terrorists’, Hamas members. This Saturday, the doors of the London headquarters of the public corporation, on Portland Street, dawned with enormous stains of red paint. The group Palestinian Action(Palestinian Action) has claimed responsibility for the act of vandalism on the social network Israel’s war means you have Palestinian blood on your hands.” The text concluded with the hashtag #ShutBBCDown.
The paint stains were still clearly visible when, around noon, thousands of people began to gather around the church of All Souls, circular in plan, right in front of the BBC façade. The British radio and television headquarters was the starting point chosen for the demonstration that has brought together tens of thousands of people in the center of the British capital in favor of Palestine and against the Israeli bombings in Gaza. From the church, along Regent Street and through Oxford Circus, the congregants have reached Piccadilly Circus square. Several teenagers waved Palestinian flags atop the statue of Eros, in the center of this iconic London landmark.
Throughout the route, chants were heard in favor of the liberation of Palestine and the end of the bombings. There was not a single sign of support for Hamas, in a demonstration that the organizers wanted to be as least conflictive as possible. The police presence has been intense, but quite passive, except at times when some officers confiscated the firecrackers and flares that several activists were trying to light, or the occasional confrontation between protesters and pedestrians who went to the shops in a very commercial area and expressed his support for Israel or his condemnation of Hamas.
Socialists for Palestine, members of the minority Communist Party of the United Kingdom, even a representation of Neturei Karta, the ultra-orthodox Jewish group opposed to Zionism and the existence of the State of Israel… An enormous and heterodox variety of associations mixed with the protesters, who were mostly citizens without any affiliation.
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These days, the Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, has sent the police some “recommendations” of complicated compliance and ambiguous content to avoid anti-Semitic protests following the atrocious attacks committed by Hamas in Israel. The display of the Palestinian flag is not prohibited, as some media outlets had suggested, but it is noted that waving it in certain contexts—for example, in front of buildings of Jewish communities or organizations—or accompanied by certain chants may be grounds for law enforcement to act. A clearly delicate line, because the thousands of protesters gathered this Saturday in London referred in some chants to Israel as a “terrorist state”, or proclaimed that “From the river [Jordán] to the sea [Mediterráneo]”Palestine will be free.” A way of suggesting that Israel is excess in that geographical space.
“We are tired of hearing only one side of the story on television or from our politicians, which ignores the suffering of our Palestinian brothers,” says Aaliyah, 16, who has joined up with other friends from high school to attend the demonstration. Unlike her friends, Aaliyah did not wear hijab,the veil thatIt covers the head and neck, but instead showed lush black, curly hair.
From the BBC terrace
The BBC cameras showed, from the attic of its headquarters, a good panoramic view of the demonstration. These days the public broadcaster has carried out intense information work on the new outbreak of violence in the Middle East, as a result of the atrocities committed by Hamas last Saturday. A total of 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians and many of them children, were killed in one of the largest acts of violence suffered by Israel in recent decades.
The public corporation has suffered attacks from the Government, conservative MPs and Sunak himself, for remaining faithful to its editorial standards and not calling Hamas activists ‘terrorists’. The BCC’s editorial guidelines make it clear that “the word ‘terrorist’ can be more of an obstacle than a help in understanding things,” and the network strongly suggests avoiding its use: “We should try to avoid that term.” if we cannot attribute its use to a specific source. We must let others characterize [hechos o personas]. It is up to us to report the facts as we know them,” says the corporation’s latest internal document, written in 2005, to clarify an issue that always resurrects in critical moments.
However, the conservative government has decided to forcefully attack the public channel. The Minister of Defence, Grant Shapps, came to confront BBC4 journalist Mishal Husain directly this Friday after accusing the public news services of not being very interested in the terrorist activities of Hamas. “The BBC seems to refuse to call them terrorists, even though the British Parliament has passed a law defining them that way,” Shapps said.
Hamas was designated as a terrorist organization by the Terrorism Law of 2000, which defined in detail what this violent activity consisted of.
After describing how the BBC had covered “the atrocities, the deaths, the injuries and the survivors” of last Saturday’s attacks, Husain challenged the minister: “How can you say that we are not interested in those atrocities? ”.
Shapps was limited to acting as the battering ram of an attack endorsed by Sunak himself. “As the prime minister has said repeatedly, Hamas members are not militants. They are terrorists. It is the duty of our national broadcaster to recognize this fact,” a spokesperson for the prime minister had said hours before.
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