The BBC told an outright lie about Rachel Corrie’s death

BBC Radio 4's  World at One yesterday, Tuesday 28th August, can be heard here for a week after transmission.  The programme covered the verdict which exonerated the Israeli military of any blame for the death of Rachel Corrie, crushed  under an Israeli military bulldozer carrying out one its frequent missions to bulldoze Palestinian homes. 

Regev was never challenged on his claims
On this occasion the BBC have strayed from their frequent dishonesty by omission or weasel words to outright untruth.  A number of Israeli soldiers did not die in any incident related to "what happened that day", i.e. the day of the killing of Rachel Corrie, the subject of the interview.  

You can listen to the original piece and judge for yourself.

 

TIME:
18:32     Slot on the Rachel Corrie verdict starts.

19:00     BBC reporter gives usual 'balanced' report, careful not to suggest Israeli Army has been lying.

20:39     Craig Corrie, Rachel's father presents his case for 2minutes 16 seconds, arguing that the judge was just a  mouthpiece for the Israel Army lawyers.

23:25      Mark Regev is given 3 minutes 14 seconds to claim, unchallenged, that "Israeli courts are known for their independence ...internationally", that "Palestinians know that our courts give justice" and to question whether Rachel Corrie and other supporters of Palestinian rights are "rational" since "the area was a war zone".

25:03     Martha Kearney says to Regev:  "Clearly Rachel Corrie was one of the casualties of what happened that day and I know Israeli soldiers died too."

During the interview, Regev denied that Israeli bulldozers that day were demolishing Palestinian homes, one of several of Regev's lies, unchallenged by Martha Kearney.

Kearney's language on supposed military casualties in Gaza on the day of Rachel Corrie's killing is extremely vague, but is clearly designed to offer help to Regev. Kearney is actually peddling a naked lie here and Regev eagerly accepts the untruth and builds on it. 

Martha Kearney could not know that "Israeli soldiers died too...casualties of what happened that day" because no Israeli soldiers died in Gaza in the three weeks before Rachel Corrie's death on March 16th or in the following five weeks.

A soldier of the occupation forces, Sgt Doron Lev, was killed in Gaza on February 23rd 2003 by a resistance fighter. Cpl. Lior Ziv was killed on April 20th. The exhaustive Israeli archives - http://bit.ly/fyqm - list no other Israeli military fatalities in Gaza between those dates.

An Israeli man, Zachar Rahamin Hanukayev, not then serving in the Iraeli Army, was killed at Karni Industrial Crossing at the opposite end of Gaza from Rafah on April 15th.

The record shows clearly, therefore, that Kearney was spreading disinformation favourable to the Israeli version of events and clouding the story of an unarmed American peace activist.

There were nine Palestinian deaths at Israeli hands the day Rachel Corrie was bulldozed under the ground, including a four year-old girl and a 90 year-old man.  This was covered in the Observer, but barely merited attention from other UK media.  We are used to this treatment of spilt Palestinian blood as water and Israeli blood as precious, but the development from naked bias to shameless lies to help Israel spin the killing of Rachel Corrie is shocking.  Though not surprising to anyone who remembers the BBC refused to even broadcast the humanitarian appeal on behalf of Gaza from British charities.

Mick Napier
Edinburgh 29 August 2012
chair@scottishpsc.org.uk