The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) wants to hold the BBC accountable for its grossly biased coverage of Israel’s war against Gaza, but suddenly finds itself banned from starting its ceasefore march of Saturday Jan 18th outside Broadcasting House in London.
However, it looks like the march is going ahead, and CAMPAIN plans to be there with its banner and leaflets. If you want to join us, please send a message to admin@campain.org so we can tell you exactly where and when we shall meet (we usually meet for a coffee at about 11 am).
So, what is going on?
The Metropolitan Police has not only banned demonstrators near the BBC on 18th January, but plans to prohibit all protests outside the BBC on Saturdays. This is to say the least, unfortunate, as Ben Jamal, Exec Director of PSC, describes Saturday as the only viable day for national protest – as you will see in this video interview with Owen Jones.
With just over a week to go before the march, the Met reneged on a decision to allow it to go ahead. It took this last-minute step at the prompting of Zionist groups that claim the march would cause serious disruption to the Jewish community. More specifically, they say it will damage people’s access to a local synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath, and that it is tantamount to harassment of Jewish people.
These arguments are clearly preposterous. As Ben Jamal explains, the synagogue is not on the route of the march but tucked away on a side street about 500 metres north of the BBC. The Met has itself acknowledged there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue during any of the past marches. A group of Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants cited by LBC have written opposing the police block, saying that:
Along with thousands of other openly Jewish protesters, we have attended numerous Palestine demos in London and have received nothing but support and warmth from our fellow demonstrators.
We also hear that 150 MPs and public figures have slammed the Met over the march restrictions.
The Met has provided no evidence of harassment, but simply says that if Jewish people feel unsafe that’s good enough………. One of the leading complainants is Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis who is overtly pro-Israeli and has spoken of the IDF as noble, and described the soldiers fighting in Gaza as heroic..
This BS would be laughable were it not damaging our right to protest peacefully
As Owen Jones says:
This is outrageous, it is scandalous. Our right to protest is one of the most fundamental democratic rights, and our ancestors fought for it at huge cost and sacrifice ………
We infer that the real reason for the ban is to protect the BBC which both Conservative and Labour Governments have been using as a propaganda organ in support of Israel. Many thousands of licence-fee payers, notably the 1,440 signatories of CAMPAIN’s Open Letter of Feb 2023, have tried to use the BBC's complaints mechanism, only to find themselves stonewalled by a management that will not own up to the most obvious errors. More recently over 100 in-house journalists have complained as you will see in this recent blog.
Ben Jamal finishes by saying the march will go ahead on Jan 18th, and he wants as many people as possible to join. CAMPAIN will certainly be there.
The way forward
In the past, many of those supporting the Palestinians have been reluctant to expend time and effort challenging the mainstream media as it pumps out misinformation and smears British people who stand up for the Palestinians. I particularly noticed this from 2015 onwards, when pro-Israel lobbyists and the mainstream media embarked on a feeding frenzy against Jeremy Corbyn and supporters. I had never voted for Jeremy but found it scandalous that a decent man who had made reasonable objections to aspects of British foreign policy, particularly on Palestine, could be tarred and feathered in this way.
At the time, leading PSC figures argued we shouldn’t devote much attention to these things, because they were a diversion from the real battle going on in Palestine (or words to that effect) and the all-important BDS movement. However – just as night follows day - recent events are causing this very important institution, PSC, to refocus its attention on the misinformation and the smears.
This was notably the case with the obscene misreporting of the football riots in Amsterdam of Nov 6–7, 2024. PSC responded by organising a petition demanding that Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, demand that it investigate Sky News’s disreputable role in this affair. Nearly 35,000 people signed the petition, and while Ofcom has so far not acted on it, PSC is in a good position to rachet up the pressure.
It is also the case with the Met’s prohibition on protest in front of the BBC, not long after BBC insiders’ shocking complaints of bias on which Owen Jones reported. Indeed, Ben Jamal senses growing concern about the BBC’s complicity with the horrors in Palestine, with BBC journalists speaking out (at great risk to themselves). Now, it appears that PSC will go ahead with the 18th January demo, whether the Met and the political establishment like it or not.
We hope that this heralds an era when the pro-Palestine movement in the UK will go on the front foot, and hold to account those responsible for misinformation on Palestine and defamation of British people who stand up for it here in the UK.
As for CAMPAIN, we shall continue protesting the BBC as long as it continues stonewalling complaints about its coverage. We shall do this along the lines of protests we held (to good effect) last year outside Church of England Headquarters in Westminster and Lambeth.
If you are interested in attending with us on Jan 18th or later, let us know by writing to admin@campain.org, and we shall let you know where and when we shall be meeting.
We look forward to your comments below.
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