Francesca Albanese spoke to Declassified about her new report Truth Under the Rubble, which looks – in part – at how the Western media covered Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Albanese singles out the BBC as one of the worst offenders in terms of propagating Israeli narratives, and not allowing Palestinian guests to talk about the suffering of their people.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories also told us that the BBC and UK government are wrong to claim that we have to wait for the ICJ ruling to determine whether Israel has committed genocide – and that Britain has a duty to prevent genocide.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.
There’s a reason why so few truly leftwing politicians are visible in public life. Because the media’s role is to weed them out, discredit them, place them beyond the pale
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[W]atch this short video of the BBC’s Nick Robinson interviewing Green party leader Zack Polanski and demanding that he affirm “Israel’s right to exist”. It is a classic of the genre. Note Robinson’s heavy framing of the question:
What we’re talking about is whether a state created by the United Nations, in the aftermath of pogroms and Holocaust, the worst act of racism in the history of the planet, has a right to exist or not. This is a question you have always dodged.
That’s very much in the “How many times a day do you beat your wife?” tradition of interviewing. In a post on X, Robinson again challenged Polanski: “Why is this a difficult question to answer?”
Both, let us note in passing, are Jewish. But only one is assumed to accrue moral standing in the exchange from their views about Israel.
We could easily turn the question around against Robinson:
Do you think the state of Israel – as a state illegally occupying and oppressing Palestinians for decades and committing the crime of apartheid, as determined by the world’s highest court, and one deemed to be committing genocide according to a consensus of legal and human rights authorities as well as genocide scholars – has a right to exist?
Did apartheid South Africa have a right exist?
The answer to Robinson’s question is very simple. States come and go. They don’t have a right to exist, peoples do. And importantly, according to international law, people enjoy the same, universal rights. Which is exactly why Israel as a state committing the crime of apartheid – as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 2024 – has no right to exist as it is currently constituted.
Polanski responded with the entirely reasonable assertion: “Israelis and Palestinians should have equal rights in a democracy.” Which was the solution accepted by the international community for black and white South Africans, post-apartheid.
And yet Robinson keeps interrupting Polanski, treating his sensible, moral position – one in line with his party’s new official policy that “Zionism is racism”, as determined by its members – as though it is proof of extremism, of antisemitism. As if Polanski is being slippery by refusing to accept what is, in fact, Robinson’s extreme premise.
Robinson is arguing that, even after Israel has been judged to be an apartheid state by the world’s highest court and to be committing genocide according to leading authorities on the subject, it should have an inviolable right to carry on exactly as it is.
Robinson’s implied position is that Palestinians and their supporters should simply shut up and live with the fact that Israel has been slaughtering and maiming hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s people. Nothing to see here, is Robinson’s message.
So who is the real extremist, who the real racist: Zack Polanski or Nick Robinson?
dizzy: One thing that I noticed in this biased and unreasonable interview was the repeated references to the proposer having a friend … The answer to that of course is How on Earth is that relevant? It’s the proposal that was voted on, those who voted had no knowledge or interest in who the proposer had as friends. Do I have any interest in who your friends are Nick? How is that relevant to anything?
Unreasonable interviewers can and should be challenged. Polanski could do some more practice, get a PR minder like other politicians have and maybe avoid interviews or interviewers like this after missing sleep. You’re being totally unreasonable, I’m not willing to being interviewed by someone so biased and unreasonable?
Rachel MiIlward, deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. CC image.
Responding to Reform UK’s latest attacks on asylum seekers, deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, Rachel MiIlward said:
“Another superficial, ill-thought-out and cruel announcement by Reform UK, which will fail to tackle the roots of the asylum crisis whilst making sure more suffering is heaped on the most vulnerable.
“We do not want to see people risking their lives crossing the channel in small boats. What we need is strong international cooperation to address the reasons that people are having to seek asylum in the first place: war, poverty and the climate crisis, and to provide safe & managed routes that would offer a real alternative to people smugglers.”
“We must remember our basic humanity. Many of those seeking asylum have endured horrendous trauma. They include mothers and children. We have a duty to offer compassion and sanctuary, not insecurity, fear and intimidation.
Millward also criticised the BBC for its recent reporting on asylum issues:
“We are disappointed that in recent days the BBC, with its own reports stretching over multiple days, failed to show the challenges those genuinely claiming asylum face. Of course applications for asylum must operate under a proper legal framework, but introducing ever more restrictive rules won’t make the system more efficient. What it would do is make life even harder for the most vulnerable.”
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer explains that UK is participating defensively in Trump and Israel’s criminal war for Israel’s genocidal expansion in Iran and states that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
