Sharon shuns BBC over documentary

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Friday July 11, 2003
The Guardian

Ariel Sharon has barred the BBC from his meeting with the British press during a visit to London next week amid accusations that the corporation made false allegations against Israel in a report on weapons of mass destruction.
The bar follows a decision made by Mr Sharon's office a fortnight ago to "withdraw cooperation" from the BBC in protest at a documentary that looked at the lack of international scrutiny of Israel's nuclear and biological weapons programmes and the double standard compared with Iraq.

Although the programme, Israel's Secret Weapon, was broadcast in Britain in March, it was a trailer on BBC World rather than the content that provoked Israeli anger. It showed pictures of the nuclear reactor at Dimona and the biological institute in Nes Tziona as a narrator asked: "Which country in the Middle East has not declared the nuclear and biological weapons in its possession?"

A preview focused on Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, who has spent 17 years in jail after the Israelis kidnapped him from Italy because he revealed secrets about the Israeli nuclear programme to the Sunday Times.

Danny Seaman, the director of the Israeli government's press office, who has made similar accusations of anti-Israeli coverage against the Guardian, accused the BBC of putting Israel in the same camp as Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

"The BBC didn't raise anything that has not already been on Israeli television," he said.

"It's the tone not the facts we're worried about. This is not an organisation that is there to get the truth. It's there to level every real or imagined accusation against Israel."

"We're used to journalistic garbage as a cover for anti-Israeli propaganda. But it was not only this programme. We feel this was the culmination of a decision by the BBC to show Israel as some kind of criminal country, a rogue police state. There's an insensitivity to the state of Israel and the Jewish people, and their history."

The Israelis say the BBC has "not been invited" to a briefing by Mr. Sharon in London on Tuesday.

But given that every other major British news organisation will be represented, and that the BBC has always been invited to similar events in the past, the decision amounts to a ban.

The BBC said: "Any action the Israeli government might take which would hinder our journalism is regrettable."

The decision to shun the BBC was made by the Israeli government's public relations forum, which includes representatives from Mr Sharon's office, the foreign ministry and Mr Seaman's department.

As a result, Israeli officials will refuse to do interviews with the BBC and the corporation will find it difficult to obtain press cards and work permits.

"Literally hundreds of BBC crews come here every year. They will find it much more difficult to work," said Mr Seaman.

The confrontation has been building for some time as the Israelis become exasperated with critical reporting by foreign journalists.

But it has been particularly infuriated by the BBC because of the volume and depth of its coverage and because some of its outlets are easily accessible in Israel.

World Service radio can be heard on medium wave rather than the more difficult short wave. Until recently, the BBC's international television broadcasts were available on Israeli cable television. That service was dropped during the Iraq war, officially because of a dispute over its cost.

Israeli officials have been delighted by the BBC's confrontation with Alastair Campbell, saying it confirms that the corporation's standards and influence are in decline.

The decision to shun the BBC has been welcomed in Israel with few people leaping to the corporation's defence. But some have questioned the wisdom of refusing interviews to such an influential news outlet.

"There are international precedents to decisions of that type," said the Israeli newspaper, Maariv. "Events of that nature used to happen in Albania and East Germany. Then in Iran and Afghanistan. Once again, Israel finds itself in good company."