KIDOK

Loads of people seem to be up in arms that the BBC won’t run this. It’s a real toughy. Personally I think Israel have been totally awful, and if anything I’m pro-Palestine, but it’s true as well that Israelis have been killed by palestinian rocket fire over the years. It’s such emotive footage. I’ve been trying to think how it would feel if I had relatives on the Israeli side, who had been killed or injured or felt under threat, and my national broadcaster wasn’t mentioning those deaths or the fact that people on that side of the border live in fear as well. I really think it’s important for the BBC to be as impartial as possible. Working with a lot of American’s I hear views on this situation from a lot of very liberal Jewish people, and it does add another perspective. I don’t necessarily agree with them, but it made it clear to me that there was at least another side to the story. Despite that, I can’t help feeling that what the Israeli’s are doing is horribly heavy handed and it’s even more cruel because it’s so difficult for Palestinians to leave the territory and escape from the violence -not that they want to have to flee. The large areas of flattened land in this video were particularly compelling and I’d like to see this covered more in the normal news coverage. I’ve struggled with the need to be ‘impartial’ over this subject, but I’d rather this than we ended up with coverage like Fox news’ which seems to have no respect for impartiality and has in the past sold myths and bias coverage as truth to huge swathes of America. I’d be tempted to blame Bush’s second term on them …