The BBC issued an apology on Wednesday following a contentious interview in which a presenter made controversial remarks suggesting that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children,” according to the Jewish Chronicle.
Anjana Gadgil, the news presenter, made these comments while discussing Israel’s military operation in Jenin with former-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, during a Tuesday evening broadcast.
After facing pressure from Jewish community groups, who accused the BBC of partiality and displaying anti-Israel bias, the corporation offered an apology.
During the interviews, Gadgil asked Bennet about the young casualties of the military operation, stating, “The Israeli military is calling this a ‘military operation,’ but we now know that young people are being killed, four of them under eighteen. Is that really what the military set out to do? To kill people between the ages of 16 and 18?”
“Quite to the contrary,” Bennet replied. “Actually, all 11 people dead there are militants. The fact that there are young terrorists who decide to hold arms is their responsibility.” The former Israeli prime minister went on to explain that, of many of the terror attacks over the past year, events that have collectively ended several dozens of Israeli civilian lives, the perpetrators have come from, and we trained in, Jenin. “Jenin has become an epicenter of terror,” he says. “All the Palestinians that were killed were terrorists in this case.”
Rubble on the streets of the West Bank city of Jenin, following a major Israeli aerial and ground offensive in Jenin, in one of Israel’s biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years. July 4, 2023. (credit: NASSER ISHTAYEH/FLASH90)BBC ‘addressing the issue’
Following the controversy, a BBC spokesperson addressed the issue to the Jewish Chronicle, stating: “BBC News has received comments and complaints concerning an interview with Naftali Bennett broadcast on the BBC News channel about recent events in the West Bank and Israel.
“The complaints raised relate to specific interview questions about the deaths of young people in the Jenin refugee camp.
“The United Nations raised the issue of the impact of the operation in Jenin on children and young people.
“While this was a legitimate subject to examine in the interview, we apologize that the language used in this line of questioning was not phrased well and was inappropriate.”
The BBC, however, emphasized that it covered the broader events in Jenin in an impartial and robust manner.
Sam Halpern contributed to this article.
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