BBC’s decision not to describe Hamas as terrorists is pathetic hand …
The definition of genocide is the deliberate killing of large numbers of people from a nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying it. Last weekend, Hamas - whose 1988 charter calls for the total eradication of Israel - committed an act of genocide against the Jewish people. With this in mind, describing Hamas as a terrorist organisation might be considered a mild response.
Yet the BBC[1] can't even bring themselves to do that. Instead, the BBC has chosen to refer to these thugs as "gunmen" and "militants". This disgraceful decision is defended by the corporation on the grounds of its commitment to impartiality.
That's absurd, and instead only fuels suspicion of a deeply ingrained bias against the state of Israel[2]. There is a reason that Hamas is designated as a terror organisation under the 2000 Terror Act. Because, while Israel goes out of its way to limit civilian deaths, Hamas makes no distinction between military and civilian casualties.
In fact, they have actively targeted civilians. Our Royal Family[3], who very rarely wade into this kind of discussion, have rightly voiced their horror[4] at "Hamas's terrorist attack" - making the BBC's pathetic hand-wringing all the more shameful. Rishi Sunak[5] has been unequivocal.
In his address at a UK synagogue during a vigil for the victims of the violence unleashed upon Israel[6], the Prime Minister could not have been clearer: "The people who support Hamas are fully responsible for this appalling attack. They are not militants, they are not freedom-fighters. They are terrorists.
When we say that we stand with Israel, we mean it." He is absolutely right, and we have seen similar condemnation of Hamas' atrocities from Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Ed Davey, and from hundreds of MPs, MSPs, peers and local councillors across the UK political divide. Yet that consensus was glaringly absent from the SNP's coalition partners, the Scottish Greens[8].
Maggie Chapman's first instinct was to take to social media, with a vile tweet seeking to contextualise the carnage as a consequence of "illegal occupation" and "imperial aggression" by Israel, signing off with the hashtag #VivaPalestine. Words fail me. The savage slaughter of civilians cries out for condemnation, but this tweet at the very least excused, if not endorsed the diabolical actions of Hamas.
It seems that according to Maggie Chapman[9], the Jewish babies beheaded by these brutes were just infant accomplices to "apartheid". Had this kind of massacre been inflicted on any other country, the so-called wine-bar revolutionaries would have shouting from the rooftops. But when the victims are Israeli, Maggie Chapman chose the path of moral equivalency and hid behind a string of dogwhistles.
This tweet is not an isolated incident - she and her colleagues regularly post or react to content that is grossly offensive to Jewish people. And the Green Party's refusal to sign up to the IHRA definition of antisemitism lays bare their disgusting, bigoted extremism. They are utterly unfit to be a party of government.
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References
- ^ BBC (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Israel (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Royal Family (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ rightly voiced their horror (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Rishi Sunak (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ victims of the violence unleashed upon Israel (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Maggie Chapman finally deletes her 'vile' tweet blaming Israel for Hamas atrocities - but STILL no apology (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Scottish Greens (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Maggie Chapman (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)
- ^ Facebook (www.facebook.com)
- ^ Twitter (twitter.com)
- ^ here (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)