Little or no public debate allowed by the BBC.

[mouthpipette]

Caller to R5 live the other day mentioned that the last time the conflict in the ME was discussed on Nicky Campbell's show was March 14.
Considering there are usually 2 topics discussed and that it goes out 5 days a week, that's a lot of shows that haven't been a platform for debate about Israel/Gaza.

And it gets even worse.

BBC1 question time, and you have to go back to October 17 2024 to find a question about the ME. Since Oct 17, dozens of questions about Trump and Ukraine, but strangely Israel / Gaza doesn't feature.
Also, whilst stories about Harry or GCSE results will have a "Have your say" comments section, on the BBC news website, there are none for stories on the current conflict.
LBC not afraid to cover it and to be a platform for a discussion, the BBC obviously are.

I don't see why I should Quantum? Genuinely, I don't get what the point you and twiglets are trying to make here is? I find your posts utterly bizarre if I'm honest, your concern about people highlighting war crimes being greater than your concern for war crimes is just pure strange to me.

I expect my government and local representatives to work to certain standards and I'm not shy about contacting them when I feel that they aren't, I've seen change happen when enough people care to change things. We should never be afraid to criticise our governments, increasingly in the West governments are becoming more totalitarian and that's a scary thing, we should be encouraging criticism not mocking people for questioning. I can't get my head around people just not caring about what their governments do and instead wanting to play a pointless game of Globle. Why? Like why are you even posting here if you don't care?

The BBC is our public state broadcaster and has a duty to responsibly and propetionally deliver news. The weight should be towards national affairs and the rest of the world and it's myriad of problems should be reported on broadly and fairly. We need stories from the US, Ukraine, China, India etc.

There is a place for neutral reporting of foreign conflicts as in Gaza but judgment has to be made about the impact on our own society. Reporting on the Russia/Ukraine conflict for instance does not have the same risk as increasing anti semtism as reporting on Gaza does so this needs some editorial thought as there are real life consequences to the journalism. We also are quite aware Hamas are engaged in a propaganda war where they seek to change public opinion by embedding their troops in civilian infrastructure and inviting the IDF to engage.

The Israel/Gaza conflict may or may not end soon but one thing we do know is that anti semiism has become embedded in UK society since October 7th (there is an MN thread about a mother who does not want her son to pass as Jewish at school by wearing a skull cap which is frankly chilling). We have to look at the reporting of the Gaza war with this in mind.

Imagine if Muslim women were routinely harassed or attacked for wearing hardware yet we are now in a position where is has become the new norm for Jews to feel obliged to suppress their religious identity. This is not good and if an overweight of reporting is adding to this state I think the BBC should look again at how it reports.

Imagine if Muslim women were routinely harassed or attacked for wearing hardware

They are. There was a thread on mumsnet yesterday from a woman who was attacked for speaking Arabic on the phone to her mother. He spat at her and shouted anti Muslim misogynistic abuse. The thread was about the police doing nothing. The fact that you think people have to 'imagine' Muslims being attacked just for existing says that you aren't existing in the real world at all.

The UK are physically helping Israel in the conflict, it is a domestic story. The UK are involving themselves in this conflict.

Immigration seems to bring out all of the Islamaphobic fools. Should the BBC stop reporting on that too? Covid brought out anti Chinese sentiment, news of Trump brings out anti US sentiment(just look at mumsnet for that too), Brexit brought out anti Irish sentiment. Where does your plan to censor of the news stop or does it just start and end with Gaza? Stop telling people what's happening and hope that they forget that the UK government is helping a country currently starving 2 million people of food and medicine.

Because you can't.
I look at the twix feeds people link to and I can see the diet of horror (real or propaganda - because on many instances I've seen conflicting reports). It is usually a few posts down that I see the posts glorifying hamas.
No, I don't think it's a board game, what a telling comment.

Again I don't understand what you are saying and how it relates to my post? Are you saying it is propaganda or glorifying Hamas to criticise British war crimes, I'm not on 'twix' so maybe that's why your post seems incoherent to me. My post gave a BBC article relating to eyewitness accounts from over 30 people in the special forces talking about the murdering war crimes they witnessed by their colleagues. Your reply to that was accusing me of 'despising Britain' and now some ramblings about propaganda?

I can't what? Give you the name of a government I think is above criticism, I've been open about the fact that I think no government should be. It doesn't mean I 'despise' all governments though.

Marvellous. Give me a name of a government you don't despise.

The British government like I said. I told you at the beginning of this weird exchange that it was you saying that I 'despised' them and not me.

Word salad to avoid answering a very simple question.

You don’t despise the British government despite them being “2 peas in a pod” according to you with the Israel government?

It’s just a game to you, isn’t it?

I don't agree with their actions but I don't 'despise' them. I think they should be criticised and I think that they should prosecute the people responsible for both committing and covering up war crimes and pay reparations to their victims. I believe in legal justice, not hate, hate does nothing. Just like I would like to see the Israeli government and the soldiers their responsible for war crimes brought to justice and reparations paid for the huge amount of suffering and damage caused. I will add I would like to see a full investigation into Oct 7 and legal justice for those victims too. Arrest people, give them a fair trial and if found guilty punish them according to the law.

Why would this be a game to me? More bizarre statements based off nothing at all.

It seems like a game to you because you refuse to answer a simple question about who is your ideal government.

All you want to talk about is negative things never anything positive. And then you say hate does nothing… more word salad.

Really? On a board called conflict in the middle east I want to talk about conflict in the middle east not about the plus points of various governments around the world? Shocking behaviour.
How can justice be done if people don't talk about it Twiglets? If we all just nodded and said ah, yes murderous genocidal statements from governments are understandable, oop wait they are actually doing what they said, nevermind let's keep things ✨ positive ✨

I’m bored with you @Mylegishangingoff

Beginning to suspect you just jumped on the Palestinian cause as it’s an excuse for you to vent your anger at the world.

On a thread about little or no debate...we're debating. Ironic huh.

You did bring up the subject of the British government btw.

Your post about accusing me of never saying anything positive just reminded me of the time that I complimented some Israelis on a good deed and then you told me off because obviously me complimenting some Israelis on a job well done means I think all other Israelis are evil 😭 Fun times. Sorry to hear you are bored of me now. I'll miss your insights into my personality for sure.

Name a country, name a country, why do you despise Britain?! That's debate yeah?

A very good interview this morning on R4 Today between Nick Robinson and David Mencer at about 08.15 this morning. It's worth a listen. A very good line of questioning from Robinson and predictably Mencer tries his best to side step the questions. In the interview Mencer is noticeably flustered. Is he starting to realise that Israel's position with regard to withholding aid is indefensible?

I didn't ask why, you already stated your position. I asked a question and hoped you could give me an example of a government that fulfils your criteria. Perhaps as you're interested in 'conflict in the middle east', you could find an example from that area.

The BBC has supposedly tried to stay neutral but I think it is too much in the Hamas camp, probably because it is stuff full of people with one political view only, which is a shame. It needs to recruit from a wider base.

The BBC should be neutral and there is a real risk of propagating Hamas propaganda inadvertently as with the 'children of Gaza'. As no journalists can access Gaza what is stated as fact by news teams is often conjecture or they are fed stories by Hamas from inside Gaza.

It is not reported how many Hamas fighters are miles in each engagement as Hamas won't release these figures but it is obviously significant. Not stating the number of Hamas dead gives the incorrect impression Israeli military action is solely against Civil and which is not the case (however Hamas would love you to think that).

Why is it that journalists can’t access Gaza?

It’s morally superior to not want babies to starve to death? Morally superior to what, exactly? Just want to check what the benchmark is.

Do you mean it reports on the atrocities happening to the Palestinian people? I hope you aren't equating Palestinian with Hamas?

You aren't allowed to be emotional about it because 'it's war that's what happens', weirdly enough can you can be as emotional about the Israeli hostages as you like, you be enraged that they don't have food or medical care and nobody accuses you of using emotional rhetoric or being thick, it's just Palestinians you can't empathise with because again 'it's war what do you expect'.

It would be far more preferably if the BBC would just censor the news so the thick people who didn't do well at school don't get saddened by images of starving children and people being pushed into 'concentrated' areas of Gaza waiting for Israels final act which they say will be 'encouraging migration', or ethnic cleansing as its widely known, of those who have survived the diseases and starvation that their aid blockade is creating.