Israel brutally kills disabled Palestinian man. BBC headline: it was a natural death

The BBC has changed a headline about Israel after viral condemnation.

Israeli soldiers set a combat dog on a Palestinian man living with Down’s syndrome in Gaza during a raid of his family home. After the dog attacked 24 year old Muhammed, a solider told his mother they would “treat him”.

The Israeli soldiers later expelled his mother and the rest of his family at gunpoint. Once they let Muhammed’s relatives back in a week later, his brother found him, who said: “he was lying on his stomach, his body had decayed and worms had begun to eat his face”.

But this is how the BBC initially reported it:

Israeli soldiers set an attack dog on this disabled man, and watched him bleed to death.

You’d never guess this from this BBC headline, though. pic.twitter.com/dvEapeK4O4

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) July 16, 2024

And in the BBC article itself, the reader has to scroll through several paragraphs before the outlet mentions the dog attacking Muhammed.

After people’s condemnation of the framing went viral, the BBC then backtracked on the headline:

The BBC changed the headline because of your outrage.

Never stop fighting the dehumanisation of the Palestinian people as they are butchered with Western complicity.

Doing so is literally a matter of life and death. https://t.co/gFXOxBjsa9 pic.twitter.com/9bMaYitTea

— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) July 16, 2024

A BBC pattern of pro-Israel coverage

The article is the latest instance of the BBC propagandising for Israel. In another piece, the BBC painted Israel’s plans to colonise Gaza as “Who wouldn’t want a beach house?”

This is consistent framing from the BBC on Israel’s colonial expansion. In a further piece, a BBC headline reads “Israel approves plans for 3,400 new homes in West Bank settlements”. In other words, Israel’s theft of more Palestinian land is something requiring simple planning approval from the coloniser, rather than something illegal.

The BBC also often removes Israel as the perpetrator. One headline reads “Deadly air strike shows system to protect aid workers in crisis, agencies say”. Of course, the air strike merely fell out of the sky, Israel didn’t launch it, according to this headline.

What’s more the attack in question was a triple strike, targeted on a World Central Kitchen aid worker convoy. It killed three British people, as well as others from Poland, Australia and Palestine. Within the BBC piece, it further seeks to obscure that Israel targeted the aid workers deliberately. In fact, Human Rights Watch has documented another seven instances where aid workers shared their location with Israel, only for the the state to kill or injure them.

‘The BBC seems aligned with Israel’s propaganda strategy’, says its correspondent

The BBC‘s own staff are concerned with its coverage. Beirut-based BBC correspondent Rami Ruhayem wrote an email to BBC director general Tim Davie on 1 May. And its full contents were just released.

In the email, also forwarded to BBC News staff, Ruhayem said:

I’ve seen evidence of bias in favour of Israel as well as evidence of a collapse in the application of basic standards and norms of journalism that seems aligned with Israel’s propaganda strategy. Such evidence has been pouring in for months at a dizzying pace

Ruhayem also explained in the email that BBC senior figures and management are not taking staff concerns properly:

Silence has been a common response to a mass of evidence-based critique of coverage.

Other BBC journalists have also criticised the media outlet’s coverage. In a letter to Al Jazeera in November, eight UK-based BBC journalists wrote:

The BBC has failed to accurately tell this story – through omission and lack of critical engagement with Israel’s claims – and it has therefore failed to help the public engage with and understand the human rights abuses unfolding in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since October 7. When will the number be high enough for our editorial stance to change?

The BBC‘s reporting on Israel and Palestine has long been a disgrace. But it has only gotten worse since the violence escalated further.

Featured image via The Telegraph – YouTube