This in from another good man.

UN nuclear chief boycotts BBC over Gaza appeal

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog and a Nobel peace prize winner, has cancelled planned interviews with the BBC in protest at the corporation’s decision not to air a humanitarian appeal for Gaza.

In a statement issued to the Guardian, ElBaradei unleashed a stinging denunciation of the BBC that deepens the damage already inflicted by the Gaza row.

The statement from his office at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the BBC management decision not to air the aid appeal for victims of the fighting “violates the rules of basic human decency which are there to help vulnerable people irrespective of who is right or wrong”.

According to the statement, the IAEA director had cancelled interviews with BBC World Service television and radio, which had been scheduled to take place on Saturday at the World Economic Forum at Davos.

A BBC spokesman said: “We regret that Mr ElBaradei was not able to participate in an interview with the BBC while he is at Davos. Our audience around the world remains interested in what he has to say about a range of topics and we hope he will accept an invation at another time.”

Elbaradei, an Egyptian lawyer, is due to leave his post as IAEA director general in November. He won acclaim for his scepticism over western claims that Saddam Hussein was attempting to develop nuclear weapons, and his public opposition to the invasion. He and the IAEA won the Nobel peace prize in 2005.

Officials in his office said it was unclear how long ElBaradei’s BBC boycott would last. A spokeswoman said she expected him to review his position in light of how the BBC resolved the row.

Both the BBC and Sky decided not to air an appeal from the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group of non-governmental humanitarian agencies, for aid for victims of the recent conflict in Gaza.

The appeal was broadcast by ITV, Channel 4, and Channel Five last night and was watched by a combined audience of 4.5 million.

At the beginning of the broadcast, a voiceover said: “This is not about the rights and wrongs of the conflict, these people simply need your help.”

The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, said the appeal was not broadcast because it would have damaged the impartiality of the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/28/bbc
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PS There’s a reference there to the Global Economic Forum in Davos. Many of the UK banking chiefs are dropping out as they cannot possibly be seen having a good time when they have made such a pig’s ear of the banking system. I believe Blair was holding court there last year after he had fixed up his JP Morgan sinecure.

Whatever happened to John Bull? Must we now say John Bullshit? Has John Bull traded kidney pie for motzoh ball soup?

To take one example out of the 13 charities, Islamic Relief, the Devil’s Claw as you call it puzzlingly, has a CEO named Haroun Atallah, an income of £29m, a salary bill of £4.4m and do not pay anyone in excess of £60,000 pa. Their Annual Report

http://www.islamic-relief.com/WhoWeAre/Files/AnnualReportandFS2007_a.pdf

is easily available on the Charity Commission website as are those for the other charities and gives all the required information.

18. Staff Costs and Emoluments
Total
2007
Gross Salaries £4,436,120
Employers National Insurance £430,409
Pension Contribution £38,889
Number 195

Average number of Employees As restated
Engaged on Charitable Activities 38
Engaged on Publicity Activities 27
Engaged on Fund-raising Activities 68
Engaged on Management and Governance Activities 26
Engaged on Support Activities 36
There were no employees with emoluments in excess of £60,000 per annum.

19. Trustees Remuneration
2007
Trustees are not remunerated (2006 £Nil)
Neither the trustees nor any persons connected with them have received any remuneration, either in the current year or the prior year.

Number of Trustees 7
Trustees Expenses
Travel – £2,048

Can we please stop now?

I suspect you are wrong on the salary figures. Just for information some charities do have chief execs on salaries in excess of £150k p.a. That’s an awful lot of small donations. This is Dissident Voice seeking social justice and peace. Is it social justice for a pensioner or low waged to donate £1 which might be a major percentage of their disposable income intending their gift to help people even less fortunate than themselves for someone to enjoy a very healthy income from that £1? That too is a social justice issue isn’t it?

That is however a side issue. The persecution of the Palestinians, the attrocities committed by Israeli armed forces and the tacit approval of much of the rest of the world governments is the real issue and we need to be united in trying to help there.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0AgUJncX4X4

Thompson, earning £816,000 pa inc. bonus and pension, sent this e-mail round to the staff, many of whom are said to be very angry. In fact the NUJ and BECTU members have written to the BBC.

‘see below Mark Thompson’s email to all BBC staffers concerning DEC Gaza appeal decision:

Dear all

I am writing to you to explain some of the background to our decision not to broadcast an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee about the humanitarian problems in Gaza. It’s a decision which is being widely debated outside the BBC and I know will be of interest to many of you as well.

When there is a major humanitarian crisis, the DEC – which is a group of major British charities – comes together and, if it believes various criteria are met and a major public appeal is justified, asks the BBC and other broadcasters to broadcast an appeal. We usually – though not always – accede to the DEC’s request and as a result have broadcast many DEC appeals over the years.

A few days ago, the DEC approached us about an appeal for Gaza and, after very careful reflection and consultation inside and outside the BBC, we decided that in this case we should not broadcast the appeal. One reason was a concern about whether aid raised by the appeal could actually be delivered on the ground. You will understand that one of the factors we have to look at is the practicality of the aid, which the public are being asked to fund, getting through. In the case of the Burma cyclone, for instance, it was only when we judged that there was a good chance of the aid getting to the people who needed it most that we agreed to broadcast the appeal. Clearly, there have been considerable logistical difficulties in delivering aid into Gaza. However some progress has already been made and the situation could well improve in the coming days. If it does, this reason for declining to broadcast the appeal will no longer be relevant.

But there is a second more fundamental reason why we decided that we should not broadcast the appeal at present. This is because Gaza remains a major ongoing news story, in which humanitarian issues – the suffering and distress of civilians and combatants on both sides of the conflict, the debate about who is responsible for causing it and what should be done about it – are both at the heart of the story and contentious. We have and will continue to cover the human side of the conflict in Gaza extensively across our news services where we can place all of the issues in context in an objective and balanced way. After looking at all of the circumstances, and in particular after seeking advice from senior leaders in BBC Journalism, we concluded that we could not broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully constructed, without running the risk of reducing public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in its wider coverage of the story. Inevitably an appeal would use pictures which are the same or similar to those we would be using in our news programmes but would do so with the objective of encouraging public donations. The danger for the BBC is that this could be interpreted as taking a political stance on an ongoing story. When we have turned down DEC appeals in the past on impartiality grounds it has been because of this risk of giving the public the impression that the BBC was taking sides in an ongoing conflict.

However, BBC News and the BBC as a whole, takes its responsibility to report the human consequences of situations like Gaza very seriously and I believe our record in doing it with compassion as well as objectivity is unrivalled. Putting this decision aside, we also have a very strong track-record in supporting DEC appeals and more broadly, through BBC Children In Need, Comic Relief and our many other appeals, in using the BBC’s airwaves to achieve positive humanitarian and charitable goals. This is an important part of what it is to be a public service broadcaster. It is sometimes not a comfortable place to be, but we have a duty to ensure that nothing risks undermining our impartiality. It is to protect that impartiality that we have made this difficult decision.

Finally, it is important to remember that our decision does not prevent the DEC continuing with their appeal for donations and people are able to contribute should they choose to.

All the best,

Mark Thompson
Director-General’
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The excuses given by him are ridiculously unconvincing. How could broadcasting the appeal possibly put in doubt the BBC’s impartiality? Certainly the Zionist lobby has been at work.

In November 2005, BBC Director General Mark Thompson travelled to Israel, (my link above) where he schmoozed with Ariel Sharon, the war criminal, which were intended to let the BBC ‘build bridges with Israel’. I am not sure how many prime ministers of foreign countries have had similar visits by the BBC’s Director General. There cannot be many, if any.

Still, this does not really answer the question. Despite initial denials by
Tzipi Livni — “Humanitarian crisis? What Humanitarian crisis?” — no-one
now denies that the situation in Gaza is dire, and its people are in great
need of aid. Israel can no longer deny it. Moreover, neither Israel nor
the Zionist lobby made the slightest protest when President Obama promised to provide such aid from the US and its satellites.

Here is the key to the puzzle. Obama’s promised aid has a big string attached to it: the aid must be channelled via Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. That condition was explicit in Obama’s statement. Hamas are personae non gratae.

One of the main aims of the Israeli massacre in Gaza was to impose on the people in Gaza the corrupt and compliant Palestinian Authority, which is subservient to Israel and the US. The promised aid will be used as an instrument of subjugating the Palestinians to Israel and the US further increasing the collaboration. The US and Israel want to stop aid going through independent channels.

Probably the pressure on the BBC has been exerted not only by
the UK Zionist lobby, but also by the US. If this conjecture is correct expect to hear in future about Israel putting many obstacles in the way of independent aid getting through to Gaza, eg keeping the borders closed.

Incidentally there hasn’t been a peep out of the Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, the Palestinian Authority’s answer to the voluble and ever-present-on-the-BBC Israeli Ambassador, Prosor.

Shame on the oppressors and persecutors of the Palestinians.

And Kahar and John I do not think that the executives of the 13 DEC charities combined will be in receipt of anything near Thompson’s individual salary. It is easy to cast aspersions.

I find I have to agree in part with some of the criticisms of some major aid agencies. There are often “expenses” incurred which mean the aid donated does not reach the people who need it. Some of the larger charities do have execs on huge salaries who enjoy junkets etc. However there is also the problem of controlling governments, militias etc in some aid areas also misappropriating and syphoning funds and aid away. Notwithstanding this what other way do we have to get our aid to these people? The system is far from perfect but it is what we have so I would ask people to support the major charities in their work.

The situation in gaza has troubled me for many years. The situation over the last few months has been intolerable. Men women and children have been enclosed in a ghetto. Food and supplies were being allowed in and people we encouraged to travel outside to work for the controlling authorities. Then on a political whim the border is closed – nothing in or out. The situation becomes untenable so the people in the ghetto fight back. The authorities move in with tanks and bombs and kill hundreds. I am not talking about Gaza – this was Warsaw where the Nazi’s put down the Jewish uprising. How can Israel say their attack was justified? In my opinion they are the last of the fascist states and I hope that some people find that offensive enough to actually stop and think.

There are too many apologists for Israel who feel that because of the Holocaust they cannot be criticised. Hogwash. This discourages impartial reporting. All we ask is the news channels etc report the story fairly and accurately and doesn’t pander to any lobby. Any decent minded person can see that the horrors in gaza should be addressed and we should do what we can to help the victims. We should all also do what we can to try and stop future attrocities.

Possibly not the most coherent of pieces I have ever written but I hope I get my point across. Sorry if I have repeated anything previously.

We must confront the Jewish past and those aspects of the present which are based simultaneously on lying about that past and worshiping it. The prerequisites for this are, first, total honesty about the facts and, secondly, the belief (leading to action, whenever possible) in universalistic human principles of ethics and politics.

The ancient Chinese sage Mencius (4th century BC), much admired by Voltaire, once wrote:

This is why I say that all men have a sense of commiseration: here is a man who suddenly notices a child about to fall into a well. Invariably he will feel a sense of alarm and compassion. And this is not for the purpose of gaining the favour of the child’s parents or of seeking the approbation of his neighbours and friends, or for fear of blame should he fail to rescue it. Thus we see that no man is without a sense of compassion or a sense of shame or a sense of courtesy or a sense of right and wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity, the sense of shame is the beginning of righteousness, the sense of courtesy is the beginning of decorum, the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Every man has within himself these four beginnings, just as he has four limbs. Since everyone has these four beginnings within him, the man who considers himself incapable of exercising them is destroying himself.

We have seen above, and will show in greater detail in the next chapter how far removed from this are the precepts with which the Jewish religion in its classical and talmudic form is poisoning minds and hearts.
The road to a genuine revolution in Judaism – to making it humane, allowing Jews to understand their own past, thereby re-educating themselves out of its tyranny – lies through an unrelenting critique of the Jewish religion. Without fear or favour, we must speak out against what belongs to our own past as Voltaire did against his:

écrasez l’infâme!

(crush the infamous!)

Please sort the problem out, Editors!

“What was this war about? Could it be as banal as gaining seats in the coming elections? That Israeli Defense and Foreign Ministers Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni have shown their voting publics – elections next month – they have bigger cojones than the hawkish Bibi Netanyahu.”

YES, indeed, it could all boil down to a decision who of the three has REAL BALLS! And this will be decided by the Israeli electorate, early this February. Then the World will know who has been Awarded the Biggest, Heaviest GOLDEN BALL(s)!!! by an extremely judicious, enlightened and savvy Israeli public…

in pals case, the many empires/lands are their lethal enemies. it may be true, that even if pals wld resist occupation by non-violence, they wld be provoked into some kind violent acts.

and we all know there are no absolutes, such as apsolute peaceful occupation or any countries or person’s apsolute security.

so, US/israel are saying to pals, We’ll kill, kidnap, imprison, torture you anyway but not as much as when you endeavor to be apsolutely peaceful and obedient.

so, which is better for pals? thnx

The BBC is often accused of an anti-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Middle East, and recently censured reporter Barbara Plett for saying she “started to cry” when Yasser Arafat left Palestine shortly before his death.

Fascinating, then, to learn that its director general, Mark Thompson, has recently returned from Jerusalem, where he held a face-to-face meeting with the hardine Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Although the diplomatic visit was not publicised on these shores, it has been seized upon in Israel as evidence that Thompson, who took office in 2004, intends to build bridges with the country’s political class.

Sources at the Beeb also suspect that it heralds a “softening” to the corporation’s unofficial editorial line on the Middle East.

“This was the first visit of its kind by any serving director general, so it’s clearly a significant development,” I’m told.

“Not many people know this, but Mark is actually a deeply religious man. He’s a Catholic, but his wife is Jewish, and he has a far greater regard for the Israeli cause than some of his predecessors.”

Understandably, an official BBC spokesman was anxious to downplay talk of an exclusively pro-Israeli charm offensive.

Apopros this month’s previously undocumented trip, he stressed that Thompson had also held talks with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/pandora/bbc-chief-holds-peace-talks-in-jerusalem-with-ariel-sharon-517400.html
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Wonder what else is going to emerge!

Have just heard that 100 protesters from Stop The War Coalition/PSC have occupied the BBC HQ in Scotland.

they were not jews but an euro-asian people with the worst
cult possible.
gazan events and their conduct towards indigenous pop of palestine proves it.
even the west may secretely abhor these cultists but need israel as nonsuicide bomber of shemitic lands or suspected sites of wmd production.
that’s the only usefulness israel has for the christian world. thnx