British news weekly The New Statesman has published an advertisement accusing the BBC of having a pro-Israel bias. The ad, a letter signed by 232 activists, claims that the BBC has demonstrated “a consistently pro-Israel bias” during its coverage of the Gaza flotilla incident specifically.“The BBC’s decision to broadcast uncritically Israeli film of the attack reflects a consistently pro-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” the ad stated.
It was signed by a number of Israel-hating leftists including Liberal Democrat peer Jenny Tonge, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Methodist Church minister Stephen Leah, Palestinian academic Nur Masalha and Israel-born academics Avi Shlaim, Moshe Machover and Haim Bresheeth along with many involved in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
The ad, organized by a group called the “Campaign to end BBC bias on Palestine” but asking for donations to a radical group called “Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods”, was rejected by The Independent and The Guardian for legal reasons.
A Facebook protest page set up by one of the wingnuts, Cheryl “Filasteen” Abdul, said that the Independent wouldn't publish the ad because it was “based on opinion and not facts.”
“The advertising department there does not seem to appreciate the virtues of a free press, because they kept telling me it was based on opinion not facts,” she said.
The Guardian also refused to publish the letter without changes in the text. “Legal have just got back to me and said that we’ll only be able to run your ad if you can make a few changes to the copy,” Jennifer Melmore from the Guardian’s advertising department told the activists in an email last month.