A Democratic or a Jewish State? Webinar from Jewish Network for Palestine & the Socialist Labour Network

Sky News conducts an investigation into Israel’s murder of Hind Raja – something the BBC would never dream of

Tonight Jewish Network for Palestine and the Socialist Labour Network held a joint webinar attended by 320 people.  Nearly 500 registered for the meeting. Above is the recording.

Ghada Karmi

Tony Greenstein was the first speaker followed by British Palestinian Ghada Karmi who lived through the Nakba in 1948, then Haim Bresheeth, an Israeli anti-Zionist and JNP Steering Committee member.  Last to speak was Rania Khalek from Breakthrough News. Rania is from Lebanon although she was speaking from the United States. Rania, gave a brilliant description of the situation.

Haim Bresheeth

The quality of all the speakers was very high. Unfortunately Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada was not able to be present because he has gone down with food poisoning.  I wish him a speedy recovery.

Israel's Murder of Hind Rajab

Sky News Programme on the Murder of Hind Rajab

Tonight Sky News, unusually for the British media, did what the BBC has never done, which is to conduct an investigation into one of Israel’s worst atrocities, the murder of a 5 year old girl and the paramedics sent to rescue her, after the Israeli military had given the ambulance clearance.

Tony Greenstein

This has been a repeated phenomenon of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. So often has it happened, most famously with the murder of the 7 members of the World Food Kitchen, that one can now say with certainty that Israel’s ‘deconfliction’ mechanism is used as a deliberate means of entrapping its victims.

When health workers were asked whether they would prefer to sleep in an area that the Israeli military had been given the co-ordinates for and agreed with, they said ‘no’.

The short video into the murder of Hind Rajab in the Tel al-Hawa district of Gaza City demonstrates that despite the evidence – satellite photos showing the position of the Israeli tanks, a press release on the military’s own website admitting they were in the area, which they then deleted when it incriminated them and the recordings of the Hind and her sister speaking to the Red Crescent, the Israeli military simply denied what was plainly obvious.

This is the press release that Israel issued boasting of its operations in the Tel al-Hawa area

When the press release showed the Israel army to be a liar they simply deleted it - yet the US is happy for Israel to conduct its own investigations

And why shouldn’t the Israeli military lie. It knows that whatever happens, however many it murders, the United States Administration has its back. There is no war crime, no atrocity that the Biden regime won’t turn a blind eye to. And why not?  Did they not persecute Julian Assange for revealing a fraction of their war crimes in Iraq?  Why should the United States not tolerate similar behaviour in its favourite attack dog? That is why when the US says its passed the investigation  to the Israeli authorities we can take it as read that they aren’t in the least concerned.

To those who say that the BBC is more progressive because it is state owned my answer is that this only means it reflects more accurately the genocidal views of our rulers. Although it occasionally has better stuff on its website, none of this leaks into its mainstream news or current affairs broadcasts.

Almost obscenely, for the anniversary of Israel’s genocide in Gaza the BBC commissioned a special tribute film Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again. It’s not the story of how Palestinians have survived the genocide of the past year, but the Israeli victims of the breakout from Israel’s open air prison in Gaza.

The idea of conducting a serious investigation into e.g. the bombing of Al Ahli hospital when 500 Palestinians were murdered as Israel began to target hospitals or the story of the destruction of Al Shifa Hospital never occurred to the BBC because Palestinians are less than human.

It is as if, in the wake of a slave revolt in the Caribbean the BBC had made a film about how traumatic it was for the slave holders. If the BBC had existed at the time it probably would have.  The BBC consciously provides the narrative to enable Israel and the United States to continue the genocide. It has the blood of thousands of Palestinians on its hands as surely as those who pulled the trigger.

My Open Letter to the BBC's Complaints Department

The least people can do is to refuse to pay their BBC license. There is nothing the BBC can do. Its investigators have no power of entry. All you need is a minimal amount of courage. You don’t have to announce it to anyone. Just do it and ignore the 3 monthly reminders the BBC sends out. That way you won’t have to contribute to Hugh Edwards £200,000 pay-off. If a million people in Britain were to no longer pay their license fee to the genocide enablers at the BBC they would soon get the message. You don’t have to enter an Elbit arms factory or do anything risky, just stop paying the bastards.

Tony Greenstein