Since the horrific massacre which Hamas perpetrated in Israel on 7 October 2023, there has been considerable media coverage of the events, both of the massacre itself and the subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza.
For the media, there have been many challenges in providing coverage of events, not least the record number of journalists killed in the territory. It is one of the deadliest conflicts for the profession, with around 245 killed since the October massacre. Reporting is made more difficult because Israel will not allow independent journalists into the area.
This poses huge problems for all media outlets trying to give a fair and balanced view of the conflict. Without access on the ground, challenging claims and counterclaims is extremely difficult. Claims frequently made by the IDF, for example, that Hamas is using hospitals as command centres are impossible to verify. Little evidence has ever been provided. The claims have been made to justify the destruction of almost all medical facilities in Gaza.
Despite the difficulties and lack of access, it is reasonable to ask: how have our media done in bringing to the public as true a version as possible of the terrible events taking place there and the destruction of vast swathes of the territory? Not well would be the conclusion after reading author and journalist Peter Oborne’s recent book Complicit: Britain’s Role in the Destruction of Gaza.
Two main themes
The book has two main themes: the complicity of UK governments in supporting Israel, directly, covertly, and with the supply of arms; and secondly, the biased and one-sided reporting by large sections of our media including, most shamefully, the BBC. Peter was invited by the Salisbury Amnesty Group last month to address an audience. I introduced him to the meeting and started by asking him about his book.
In it, Oborne asserts that successive governments have continued to give Israel political support and military aid and to deny that the country is running an apartheid state or that its activities in Gaza amount to genocide. The RAF has flown hundreds of flights over Gaza claiming them to be part of an effort to help locate hostages. Whether other intelligence has been shared with Israel is shrouded in mystery but there do seem to be credible reports that they are.
There is no doubt, however, that the supplied parts for the F-35 aircraft are used by Israel to bomb Gaza, reducing it to rubble. Around 15% of the aircraft components are made in Britain. These were exempted from the partial ban on exports because, as the then foreign secretary, David Lammy, explained to parliament on 2 September 2024, they were “part of a global supply chain”. Parliament and the public were led to believe by Lammy that arms sales to Israel were being reduced. However, an examination of Israel tax records showed record levels of weapon imports from the UK.
Media support
But what of our media? How have they performed? They are often heard extolling a “free press”. It is reasonable to ask how well – despite the acknowledged difficulties of access – they have exercised this vaunted freedom to keep the public informed and challenge the government’s support for Israel. How have they exercised the noble aspirations of journalism for fairness, truthfulness, trust, and independence? In a word, poorly.
Take just one example – the reports of Hamas killing and beheading babies during the horrific massacre of 7 October. The Daily Telegraph, Oborne writes, led with the story “Hamas Massacres Babies and Children”. The Independent had “They Decapitated Women and Children. We Saw Dead Babies”. “Hamas ‘Cut the Throats of Babies’ in Massacre”, reported The Times.
The Daily Express printed “Horror at ‘Pure Evil of Beheading of Babies”, and, not to be outdone, the Daily Mail: “This was a Holocaust Pure and Simple” with a subheading “Babies beheaded. 40 children shot in a single settlement”. From the mouths of politicians and diplomats, the same stories were repeated, sometimes amplified with claims of dismembered babies in ovens.
There was a problem, however. It wasn’t true.
It was a hoax that large chunks of our media fell for and credulously repeated. Investigations by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and others after the massacre revealed two babies died and neither was decapitated. None were placed in ovens. The October massacre was a horrific event that had a profound effect in Israel, which prided itself on its defences. The readiness of British media to peddle false stories and a hoax is itself revealing. If Palestinian stories were to emerge alleging Israelis beheading babies, would they be so willing to put them on their front pages without caveat or verification?
Why, Oborne was asked, has so much of the reporting on the conflict been so poor? Part of the answer, he said, was the enormous pressure put on newsrooms and journalists by Israeli interests in the UK. This pressure is considerably greater and more effective than anything Palestinian interests can muster.
Parliament is compromised
A significant feature of contemporary UK democracy is the various Friends of Israel groups in parliament. There are Conservative, Labour, and LibDem Friends of Israel groups. Significant numbers of MPs are members: it’s thought around 80% of Conservatives and about 25% for Labour. Jewish News reports that Reform is setting up a similar group. Labour Friends of Israel has just been reported to the election watchdog in relation to the opacity of its funding.
Details are hard to come by, but these groups represent a powerful and well-funded lobby in parliament. There are estimates that Israel spends around a third to a half a million pounds on this activity, including funding “fact-finding” visits to Israel for MPs. The Israeli operation is probably the largest and best funded of all the lobby groups. It was not so long ago that the then Conservative prime minister David Cameron warned that lobbying was “the next scandal waiting to happen”. It seems we did not have long to wait.
Our democracy is damaged
The concern is that we appear to have three elements of our supposedly democratic process which are compromised when it comes to the dire events in the Middle East.
We have a government which is set on supporting Israel come what may, supplying it with arms and a range of sometimes covert support. Both current and past governments have passed legislation, for example the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, to inhibit protests. This legislation has been aggressively evoked to arrest those protesting in support of Palestine. They have outlawed Palestine Action.
We have a parliament where substantial numbers of MPs are members of a powerful and well-funded pro-Israel lobbying organisation.
Finally, we have a media which is all too willing to reflect Israel’s views and is failing to challenge them for fear of the anti-Semitism or anti-Israel accusations which are regularly levelled. Why should criticising Israel be anti-Semitic any more than criticising Russia is anti-Slav?
The Israelis have at last accepted the Hamas statistics for the number of those killed in Gaza – over 71,000 at the time of writing – having strenuously denied it since the conflict began. Yet the BBC always adds “according to the Hamas-run health ministry” after the statistics, which gives an impression of unreliability or doubt. Broadcasters never tell viewers that MPs being interviewed are members of one of the Friends groups. Many will be unaware that Lammy is a member of Labour Friends of Israel, for example.
The British public is not well served by these failings. Integrity, honesty, and impartiality lie at the heart of our democracy. When it comes to Gaza, we do not have them.
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