Who is Tamar Fogel? The chances are that you will have no idea. She is a
12-year-old girl who arrived home late on Friday, March 11, to discover her
family had been slaughtered. Her parents had been stabbed to death; the
throat of her 11-year-old brother, Yoav, had been slit. Her four-year-old
brother, Elad, whose throat had also been cut, was still alive, with a faint
pulse, but medics were unable to save him. Tamar's sister, Hadas, three
months old, had also been killed. Her head had been sawn off.
There were two other Fogel brothers sleeping in an adjacent room. When woken
by their big sister trying to get into a locked house, Roi, aged six, let
her in. After Tamar discovered the bodies, her screaming alerted their
neighbour who rushed in to help and described finding two-year-old Yishai
desperately shaking his parents' blood-soaked corpses, trying to wake them
up.
I found out about the barbaric attack not on BBC news, but via Twitter on
Monday. I followed a link there to a piece by Mark Steyn entitled "Dead
Jews is no news'. Horrified, I went to the BBC website to find out more.
There I discovered only two stories: one a cursory description of the
incident in Itamar, a West Bank settlement, and another focusing on Israel's
decision to build more settlements, which mentioned the killings in passing.
As the mother of three children, one the same age as little Elad, who had lain
bleeding to death, I was stunned at the BBC's seeming lack of care. All the
most heart-wrenching details were omitted. The second story, suggesting that
the construction announcement was an act of antagonism following the
massacre, also omitted key facts and failed to mention the subsequent
celebrations in Gaza, and the statement by a Hamas spokesman that "five
dead Israelis is not enough to punish anybody".
There were more details elsewhere on the net: the pain and hurt, for example,
of the British Jewish community at the BBC's apparent indifference to the
fate of the Fogels. The more I read, the more the BBC's broadcast silence
amazed me. What if a settler had entered a Palestinian home and sawn off a
baby's head? Might we have heard about it then? On Twitter, I attacked the
UK media in general, and the BBC in particular. I considered filing a
complaint.
The next morning, the BBC's public affairs team emailed me a response that
amounted to a shrug. The story "featured prominently on our website",
they said. It was important to report on the settlements to put the murder
in context, they said. In reply, I asked a series of questions: for how long
did the massacre feature on TV news bulletins? On radio? On BBC News 24,
with all that rolling airtime? Why were the Hamas reaction and Gaza
celebrations not featured? And what about the omission of all the worst
details?
It was only when I tweeted about their continued indifference that the BBC
replied. Then they informed me that the Fogel story had not featured on
television at all. Not even News 24. It was on Radio Four in the morning,
but pulled from subsequent broadcasts. The coverage of Japan and Libya, they
said, drowned it out. Would I like to make a complaint?
Do you know, I think I would. The BBC has long been accused of anti-Israeli
bias. It even commissioned the Balen report into bias in its Middle Eastern
coverage, and then went to court to prevent its findings being publicised.
As a member of the select committee on culture, media and sport, I was at
the confirmation hearing of Lord Patten of Barnes as chairman of the BBC
Trust. I asked him about political neutrality. In reply, he said that he
would give up his membership of a Palestinian aid organisation. Both I and
another member asked about bias against Israel. Lord Patten denied any
existed. What would he do if shown an example of it? He would ultimately
take it to the BBC Trust, he said.
The day after Lord Patten uttered those words, the Fogel children were
butchered to almost complete silence from the BBC.
I have asked the corporation to let me know why, if the story was "prominent
on the website", it was not deemed of sufficient merit to broadcast on
television, and barely on radio. I have asked them to explain the
inaccuracies and omissions in the reporting. And I have asked them what
non-Japan, non-Libya stories made it to air, in preference. Twenty-four
hours later, I have yet to receive a reply.
Like many of us, I consider the BBC to be a national treasure. I am not a BBC
basher; I have never before complained. I do not support nor do I condone
the Israeli settlement building. But none of that matters. This is a story
about three children and their parents, slain with incredible cruelty, and
its effect on the peace process. As a mother, I am shocked at the silence.
As a politician, I am dismayed at the apparent bias and indifference. Yes, I
will be filing a complaint – about a story I never heard. I hope Daily
Telegraph readers will join me.
Louise Bagshawe is MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire.
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