May 29 was Jerusalem Day - Israelis celebrated by chanting ‘Death to the Arabs’ and Physically Attacking Them – BBC’s Yolande Knell described it as ‘really jubilant, festive, it feels like a party.’

According to Ha’aretz ‘Dozens of Jerusalem Day Videos Showed Jews Beating Palestinians’ – yet the BBC saw nothing

Yoland Knell on how a Pogrom can really be a Festive Party

Every year Israel ‘celebrates’ the capture of Arab East Jerusalem with Jerusalem Day including Flag March. Previous years have seen thousands of settlers chanting  ‘Death to the Arabs’ ‘May Your Villages Burn’. This year was no exception.

Israeli Labour Party's Omar Bar Lev gave permission for the pogrom to take place

Despite this Israeli Labor Party's Public Security Minister Omar Bar Lev gave permission for the Flag March to pass through Damascus  Gate.

Once again thousands of settlers chanted their favourite slogans, without any interference from the Police. An addition to the medley of slogans were some new ones ‘Shira is dead’ and ‘Shira is a whore’ with reference to the assassinated Al Jazeera journalist, Shira Abu Akleh.

Settlers attack Palestinians during “flag march” through Jerusalem

The difference was that this year there were also:

Assaults, vandalism, racist chants, pepper spray and rock-throwing were documented on Jerusalem Day, in some cases in front of the police. Nevertheless, the vast majority of detainees are Palestinians

According to Ha’aretz ‘Dozens of Jerusalem Day Videos Showed Jews Beating Palestinians. Only Two Were Arrested’. Out of 60 who were arrested, 58 were Palestinians. And it was only because 3 thugs attacked well known Radio Kan reporter Iyad Harab that his assailants were later arrested. At the time Israel’s notoriously thuggish and racist Border Police stood by while his attackers ‘beat him with sticks, sprayed him with tear gas, broke his glasses and stole his phone’

Back to the breathless BBC 'Reporter' Yolande Knell who informed her viewers that:

there are just thousands upon thousands of young Israelis like this that I’ve seen around the city the mood of them is really jubilant, it’s festive, it feels like a party.

Composite videos of attacks by Jewish Supremacists on Palestinians

One wonders what Yolande would have made of the Nazi pogrom Kristallnacht in November 1938. Perhaps she would have been caught up in the enthusiasm of the Nazis’ Sturmabteilung (SA) as they burnt Jewish synagogues and smashed Jewish shop windows, declaring that

there are just thousands upon thousands of young Germans. The mood of them is really jubilant, it’s festive, it feels like a party.

Fortunately Ms Knell was not present at the Kristallnacht pogrom. Unfortunately she was present at the Jewish Supremacist pogrom in Jerusalem on May 29 2022.

The transcript of her 44 second piece to camera reads:

‘This is near the start of the march. And there are just thousands upon thousands of young Israelis like this that I’ve seen around the city. The mood of them is really jubilant, it’s festive, it feels like a party. So this is the contentious point the marchers were aiming for, Damascus Gate is the entrance to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Usually at this time of day there will be plenty of Palestinians milling around. Israeli Police have cleared them away. And as you can see the Israeli marchers with their flags, their dancing, their singing. They’re celebrating their presence at this spot. And they are going to head now into the Old City through the alleyways to the Western Wall.’

Yolande’s only reference to the Palestinians, who live in East Jerusalem was that the Police ‘have cleared them away’ as if they were just so much debris.

+972 Magazine reported that

This year, racist slogans seem to have been the main chants at the march, including “death to Arabs,” “Muhammad is dead,” and “may your village burn.” These were heard from almost every group that passed through Damascus Gate, and not just at the fringes. Young Jewish extremists also celebrated the death of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and wished death upon Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of Knesset.

The organizers of the march made no attempt to prevent the chants. The police, which routinely and forcibly disperses Palestinian protests in Jerusalem over political chanting deemed to be “incitement,” also did not intervene. Only when a group of marchers tried to storm the press compound did the police stop them — but without making any arrests, even of those who threw objects at the journalists in full view of the police.

The Israeli Police, far from defending the Palestinians under attack, arrested the victims when they fought back. To those with an eye to history this used to be what happened in Czarist Russia where the police and military attacked the Jews when they fought back against the pogromists.

The fact that District Commander Doron Turgeman could say: “I wish to express great admiration for our commanders and police officers who operated in all the sectors to maintain security and law and order.” demonstrates that like a rotting fish, racism runs from the head to the bottom of Israel’s police.

Nir Hasson of Ha’aretz reported that:

The videos and photos posted on social media paint a different picture – one in which Jewish rioters acted with near-total impunity for many hours in several parts of the capital. Some of the alleged offenses were committed by people who did not conceal their identity and in the proximity of police officers who only moved the rioters away but did not arrest them.

This is the ‘Jewish Democracy’ that our politicians – from Johnson to Starmer defend from those who campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, calling them ‘anti-Semites’. Below is a description of some of the attacks.

Vandalism and rock-throwing in Sheikh Jarrah

Groups of Jewish youths who had gathered in the morning in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah assaulted Palestinian residents with rocks and vandalized vehicles and property in a number of separate incidents. The testimony of neighborhood residents and video footage indicate that the police who were there refrained from using force against the youths or arresting them. In some of the videos, the police are seen intervening and distancing the rioters from the place.

In several of the incidents, Palestinian youths responded by throwing rocks at the Jews. In those cases, the police cracked down and used stun grenades and batons to disperse the Palestinians. In one incident, two brothers, Ramadan and Ahmed Sau, were arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks. Their lawyer, Nasser Odeh, presented videos in court showing Jewish youths throwing rocks while police officers stood near them and did not intervene. Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Bialin (Benny) Elazar Bialin rejected the claim of discriminatory enforcement.

“I am aware of the claims that a group of Jews that was present at the scene and threw rocks at the defendant and his home was not subjected to any arrests. The police investigation division will assuredly review this matter and hold the rock-throwers from the other side fully accountable too,”

the judge wrote in his ruling on extending the remand of one of the brothers. Their father, Mahmoud Sau, says, “They had a green light from the police. That’s what we saw.” Two suspects in the attack, Amitzur Ben-Yosef and Binyamin Ben-Zimra, were arrested by the police that same evening after Harab identified them. Another hearing in the case is expected to be held today.

Assault of journalist Iyad Harab

KAN reporter Iyad Harab was attacked Sunday night in Sheikh Jarrah after covering the march. The assailants – there were apparently three of them – beat him with sticks, sprayed him with tear gas, broke his glasses and stole his phone. He was taken for medical treatment following the attack.

Harab says that while the attack was taking place, several Border Police officers were standing about 10 meters away and did not intervene. “They attacked me and I screamed because of the gas. They beat me with sticks. There is no way they didn’t hear it,” he says, adding that he intends to lodge a complaint with the police investigations division. He says that police officers only arrived after the assailants left.

Assaults on Palestinian drivers

On Sunday night dozens of youths gathered near Route 1. In one incident, a Palestinian driver who got out of his car was attacked, with 20 youths surrounding him and kicking him as he lay on the ground. A Jewish passerby came to his aid. No arrests were made in this incident.

In another incident that occurred not far from there, in Sheikh Jarrah, a Jew attacked a Palestinian with a flagpole. Several police officers were there but the assailant was not arrested.

Clashes and assaults at Damascus Gate

In several instances, young Jews assaulted Palestinians with pepper spray. In one video, a youth is seen pepper spraying stretcher-bearers who are carrying a wounded Palestinian at Damascus Gate.

In the Old City, violent clashes erupted between march participants and Palestinians. In one incident captured by Haaretz photographer Ohad Zwigenberg, a Jewish youth can be seen kneeing an older Palestinian woman named Aida Sidawi who approached a group of marchers while calling out “Allahu Akbar.” Another young man pepper sprayed the woman and she required medical care.

Snatching a phone from the hands of a Palestinian photographer

In one video, a youth participating in the march is seen grabbing the phone out of the hands of Palestinian journalist Maisa Abu Rajal, while his friends urge him on. A complaint was lodged with the police, but it appears that no investigation of the matter has been opened.

Another journalist who was standing next to Abu Rajal says that this incident was just one of many in which youths tried to grab the phones from journalists who were covering the march. She says that police officers who were standing nearby were informed, but nothing was done. The youth was identified, and the phone was returned to Abu Rajal a few days later. The SIM card in it had been stolen.

Rock-throwing at Mount Zion parking lot

In the hours after the Flag March, several dozen Jewish youths arrived at the parking lot between Mount Zion and Silwan. For many minutes, they threw rocks at buildings and caused damage to cars without hindrance, and then left the area. No one was arrested.

Songs of incitement and racist chants

Dozens of videos show groups of young participants in the Flag March shouting things that might be considered incitement to violence or incitement to racism. In many of the videos, the song “Zochreini Na,” a song of revenge based on a biblical verse, is heard, with the words changed to call for “revenge on Palestine.”

In other cases, more extreme songs are heard, with lyrics like “let their village burn” and “Shoafat is going up in flames” (in a song that alludes to the murder of teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir), “Death to Arabs” and more in that vein. In many cases, the songs were chanted in the presence of police officers, who did not arrest or detain anyone involved. Unlike in previous years, this year it appears that the march organizers did not try to prevent the youths from singing the songs of incitement.

The bias of the BBC and its reporter, Yolande Knell, is shocking but not surprising given the BBC’s record. Its hostility to Russia’s occupation of Ukraine disappears when it comes to Palestine. Instead of treating Israeli Police as an Occupiers police force it treats them as a normal police force such as you might see operating on the streets of Britain.

The BBC not only does not admit to the racist and Jewish Supremacist nature of the march but it refuses to see the racism of the Jerusalem Police.

I have therefore submitted a complaint to the BBC, which of course was turned down, totally ignoring my complaint against Yolande. I have therefore resubmitted the complaint – it took 4 submissions as the BBC’s Complaint Form only allows 2,000 characters. To see the full correspondence see here.

BBC Complaints - Case number CAS-7192624-N5T8N6

I refer to the email of 4 June 22 from Ciaran Hanna rejecting my complaint. I wish to appeal.

My complaint was in 2 parts:

1.   About you updating the report on the BBC News Website removing all reference to chants of ‘Death to the Arabs’ and similar slogans at the Jerusalem Day march on May 29.

I accept that the references you removed were later reinstated but the initial removal of the comments still remains suspect. My second complaint has not been addressed.

2.   Ms Knell gave a piece to camera in which, like a grinning monkey, she declared:

 ‘This is near the start of the march. And there are just thousands upon thousands of young Israelis like this that I’ve seen around the city the mood of them is really jubilant, it’s festive, it feels like a party. So this is the contentious point the marchers were aiming for, Damascus Gate is the entrance to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Usually at this time of day there will be plenty of Palestinians milling around. Israeli Police have cleared them away. And as you can see the Israeli marchers with their flags, their dancing, their singing.  They’re celebrating their presence at this spot. And they are going to head now into the Old City through the alleyways to the Western Wall.’

This is a shocking report which is emblematic of the BBC’s coverage of Occupied Jerusalem. There is of course no mention that this was a celebration of the conquering of the city  in 1967.  No mention of the Occupation. No mention at all of the content of these Israelis (in fact settlers of the far-Right) singing and chanting.

This was a demonstration above all of Jewish Supremacy and these were Jewish Supremacists. Ms Knell seemed oblivious to this.

Knell’s reference to Palestinians being ‘cleared away’ like some detreitus, from their own space in the Arab Quarter to make way for Jewish settlers is indicative of the racist nature of the BBC’s reporting. It is simply disgusting.

I refer you to the Ha’aretz Report https://tinyurl.com/3pd8e3j8

 ‘Dozens of Jerusalem Day Videos Showed Jews Beating Palestinians. Only Two Were Arrested - Assaults, vandalism, racist chants, pepper spray and rock-throwing were documented on Jerusalem Day, in some cases in front of the police. Nevertheless, the vast majority of detainees are Palestinians.’

All of this Yolande Knell appeared to have missed such was her enthusiasm for these young racists.

Nir Hasson continued:

‘Numerous videos and photographs taken on Sunday in Jerusalem appear to show offenses committed by Flag March participants against Palestinians along the route of the march and in areas adjacent to the Old City. The police say more than 60 people were arrested and detained in the city that day, the large majority of them Palestinian. Only two of the people arrested were Jews.

In the videos one sees Jews and Palestinians committing assaults, acts of vandalism and theft, shouting racist chants and incitement, using pepper spray and throwing rocks.... [In a statement issued by the police at the end of Jerusalem Day, District Commander Doron Turgeman said: “I wish to express great admiration for our commanders and police officers who operated in all the sectors to maintain security and law and order.”]

The videos and photos posted on social media paint a different picture – one in which Jewish rioters acted with near-total impunity for many hours in several parts of the capital. Some of the alleged offenses were committed by people who did not conceal their identity and in the proximity of police officers who only moved the rioters away but did not arrest them. The two Jews who were arrested are suspected of involvement in the assault on Iyad Harab, a journalist for public broadcaster KAN’s Arabic service.

Ha’aretz gave a number of examples of what this ‘party’ consisted of.

 ‘Vandalism and rock-throwing in Sheikh Jarrah

Groups of Jewish youths who had gathered in the morning in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah assaulted Palestinian residents with rocks and vandalized vehicles and property in a number of separate incidents. The testimony of neighborhood residents and video footage indicate that the police who were there refrained from using force against the youths or arresting them. [In some of the videos, the police are seen intervening and distancing the rioters from the place.’]

In several of the incidents, Palestinian youths responded by throwing rocks at the Jews. In those cases, the police cracked down and used stun grenades and batons to disperse the Palestinians.

In one incident, two brothers, Ramadan and Ahmed Sau, were arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks. Their lawyer, Nasser Odeh, presented videos in court showing Jewish youths throwing rocks while police officers stood near them and did not intervene. Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Bialin (Benny) Elazar Bialin rejected the claim of discriminatory enforcement.

Assault of journalist Iyad Harab

KAN reporter Iyad Harab was attacked Sunday night in Sheikh Jarrah after covering the march. The assailants – there were apparently three of them – beat him with sticks, sprayed him with tear gas, broke his glasses and stole his phone. He was taken for medical treatment following the attack.

Harab says that while the attack was taking place, several Border Police officers were standing about 10 meters away and did not intervene. “They attacked me and I screamed because of the gas. [They beat me with sticks. There is no way they didn’t hear it,” he says, adding that he intends to lodge a complaint with the police investigations division. He says that police officers only arrived after the assailants left.]

Two suspects in the attack, Amitzur Ben-Yosef and Binyamin Ben-Zimra, were arrested by the police that same evening after Harab identified them. [Another hearing in the case is expected to be held today.]

Clashes and assaults at Damascus Gate

In several instances, young Jews assaulted Palestinians with pepper spray. In one video, a youth is seen pepper spraying stretcher-bearers who are carrying a wounded Palestinian at Damascus Gate.

In other cases, more extreme songs are heard, with lyrics like “let their village burn” and “Shoafat is going up in flames” (in a song that alludes to the murder of teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir), “Death to Arabs” and more in that vein. In many cases, the songs were chanted in the presence of police officers, who did not arrest or detain anyone involved. Unlike in previous years, this year it appears that the march organizers did not try to prevent the youths from singing the songs of incitement.

If Yoland Knell had been around at the time, would she have described Kristallnacht as a ‘festive party’ ?

Yet just 2 Jewish settlers were arrested because they attacked a well known TV reporter.

This reporting is typical of the BBC’s racist, colonial reporting which identifies with the occupiers unconditionally. The only occupation that the BBC reports on is that in Ukraine. Where the Occupier is an ally of the United States, be it Israel or Saudi Arabia in Yemen, then there is either no coverage or biased coverage.

Yolande Knell clearly isn’t fit to be a reporter. She should be dismissed.

What took place in Jerusalem was not a party nor was it festive.  It was a gigantic, government s sponsored pogrom. The deaths of Israeli Jews have always warranted far greater attention that Palestinian deaths which largely go unreported.

Your coverage of Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder was indicative of your ‘both sidism’. If it had been Russia murdering a journalist you wouldn’t have awaited Putin’s ‘investigation’.

It is no surprise that most of your viewers aren’t even aware that East Jerusalem and the West Bank are under occupation because you do nothing to inform or educate them.

I look forward to your attempt to justify the indefensible.

I would therefore like this complaint escalated.

Tony Greenstein

Report: Israel arrested no Jews over violent, racist march