The attacks launched at Israel from the Gaza strip on the 7 October 2023, were a real shock to the entire world. Within days the Israeli Defence Force began to bombard the Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the entire world. It is an area which contains many refugee camps and which has been dependent on food aid because it lacks the resources to provide for the population. In the United Kingdom we believe we live in a country in which we enjoy freedom of speech and are not subject to political censorship. Yet what we are allowed to see of the conflict in Gaza is extremely limited in comparison, for example, with a country such as Spain.

The approach of the BBC, on the surface at least, seems to be that it is taking an impartial view of a conflict between two comparable states in what is referred to as a war. In contrast, when covering the war between Ukraine and Russia, there is no attempt at impartiality. The BBC takes a clear stance on this war. Russia has launched an illegal, full scale invasion of Ukraine and the BBC is doing its utmost to provide extensive coverage of this war in an attempt to display its support for Ukraine as it tries to defend its very right to exist.

I believe that the BBC is correct to try and support Ukraine as it attempts to fight for its very existence against an invading force that seemed to have far greater superiority in terms of its size and weaponry and which was engaging in an invasion against another sovereign state. But the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza seems to be of a very different nature. The most advanced military power in the region is waging war against a collection of refugee camps that it has blockaded for many years. It is an invading force that has prevented the indigenous people of the region from having a chance to establish their own nation state and which continues to do everything in its power to prevent them from doing so.

Is there more behind this than just the BBC being impartial?

Many people around the world see what is going on in Gaza and the West Bank as an act of genocide. There is little doubt that it is an act of ethnic cleaning as Israel attempts to remove all non Jews from a land it believes it has a right to take from them. Is impartiality an appropriate stance to take when faced with the daily atrocities committed by the State of Israel? More than this, there are grounds to believe that due to the presence of figures in key positions within the BBC with previous links to Jewish media organisations, the BBC is displaying a pro-Israeli bias. Over 400 media figures sent a letter in July 2025 highlighting this which was extremely critical of what seemed to be a fear on the part of the BBC of saying anything that might be seen as critical of the Israeli government.

News items about the conflict in Gaza are normally begun with the comment that Israel doesn't allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. This doesn't prevent pictures of the horrors taking place in Gaza from appearing on news broadcasts in other countries. On 27 November 2025, Israeli forces executed two unarmed Palestinian men in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, an event captured in full on CCTV and replayed on headlines across the globe. The BBC reported the story but cut away just before the soldiers opened fire. In the accompanying commentary it was reported that "Israeli soldiers appear to open fire and shoot them dead at point-blank range".

There seems to be pressure on journalists interviewing Israeli officials and spokespersons from challenging what is being said. Declassified UK reports that: "Writer Daniel Trilling spent months interviewing BBC journalists for his detailed study of the corporation’s coverage of Gaza and found plenty of evidence amongst editors and middle managers of 'an intense desire not to offend the Israelis'. Trilling quotes one senior reporter saying that the BBC is 'terrified of the pro-Israel lobby and of [UK] government criticism'. Another journalist tells him that, in the early days of the genocide, editors and managers were arguing: 'But what else is Israel supposed to do?'

The damage being done to Britain

When you see a densely populated area being reduced to rubble with tens of thousands of people having been slaughtered through missile attacks and bombardments by soldiers and tanks, it seem insensitive in the extreme to talk of damage being done to Britain by what is occurring. But the way in which the British government is seeking to prevent the public from knowing what is really happening is not without its costs. With large numbers of younger people no longer feeling able to trust the mainstream media this will have an adverse impact on our democracy.

A broader impact on Britain applies throughout much of the world. In much of what is known as the Global South, many people are also able to see the blatant hypocrisy of a country which tries to garner support for its stance on Ukraine which has been subject to an invasion by Russia but which says nothing on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of its entire population through the invasion of Israel.

The recent comment by the Israeli Prime Minister, claiming Britain to have turned into an Islamic Republic, is an attempt to deflect attention from the horror of what Israel is doing and instead to try and foment ethnic tensions within the United Kingdom. It is also aimed at playing upon comments made by leading US politicians in an attempt to play upon potential tensions between the United States and Britain. This, from a Prime Minister who is seen as leading a country described by the various political party groups who are "friends of Israel" as being one of our strongest allies.