Thread by @DavidHirsh

1/13 [Thread]

Jeremy Corbyn on video, on the Iranian regime English language propaganda channel, complaining that the BBC is biased in favour of the view that Israel has the right to exist.

thejc.com/news/uk-news/n…

2/13 I don't know if this interview was made before or after Corbyn was paid by Press TV.

Corbyn was paid $27000 by Press TV between 2009 and 2012 to help make Ahmadinejad's propaganda.

Press TV is an antisemitic station. Ofcom revoked its UK license.

uk.businessinsider.com/jeremy-corbyn-…

3/13 Here is the transcript of what Corbyn says:

"There is pressure on the BBC from probably Mark Thompson who seems to me to have an agenda in this respect."

4/13 Transcript of Corbyn continues:

"There seems to be a great deal of pressure on the BBC from the Israeli government and from the Israeli embassy and they are very assertive towards all journalists and towards the BBC itself."

5/13 Transcript of Corbyn continues:

"They challenge every single thing on reporting the whole time. I think there is a bias towards saying that Israel is a democracy in the Middle East, that Israel has a right to exist, that Israel has its security concerns…"

6/13 From 2004 to 2012, Thompson was Director-General of the BBC. Corbyn accuses him of 'having an agenda in this respect'.

7/13 Corbyn says the Israeli government & embassy are assertive & challenging when they feel that the BBC has misreported. In my judgement there is a subtext: in some sense the Israelis are powerful in relation to the BBC & that the pressure they exert is irresistible and unfair.

8/13 Corbyn says that there is a bias in the BBC in favour of three claims; claims which by clear inference, then, Corbyn thinks it should not accept without allowing some kind of balancing view.

9/13

i. Israel is a democracy

ii. Israel has a right to exist

iii. Israel has security concerns - (it is possible that this last claim is somehow contextualised by what comes next in the interview).

10/13

i. I think one could legitimately debate the extent to which Israel is a democracy. One could legitimately argue that Israel does not rule over the West Bank in a democratic way.

11/13

ii. The BBC is right not to host debates over whether Israel has the right to exist. Israel could only be deprived of the that right by military conquest. Denying it's right to exist in this way could only mean the deaths and ethnic cleansing of millions of Jews.

12/13

iii. I think it would be eccentric for the BBC to host a debate in which somebody argued that Israel has no security concerns. Israel evidently has security concerns. (the caveat here is that we don't know what Corbyn said next.)

13/13

Corbyn was paid by Press TV.

Press TV is an antisemitic propaganda station.

Press TV is more biased than the BBC.