Whether for the purpose of reporting on Christmas celebrations, a visit by a pope or a graffiti artist’s political campaigning, BBC journalists’ trips to Bethlehem over the years have almost inevitably resulted in the promotion of inaccurate claims concerning the anti-terrorist fence in that area.
On May 8, the BBC News website published a filmed report by Wyre Davies in which he uses the occasion of the marathon that has been held almost annually in Bethlehem for the past 13 years to promote political messaging.
Early on in his report Davies tells BBC audiences that: “Even the route of this marathon is predicated by the Israeli separation barrier.”
He goes on to interview one of the event’s organizers – Eitedal Ismail – who promotes unchallenged political messaging. Ismail claims:
They come from everywhere to run Palestine marathon because this the our right to move, our right to freedom of movement. Other people it’s easy to move from city to another city for travel but in Palestine we haven’t this right.
Davies then tells viewers that:
Marathon runners talk about hitting walls and overcoming barriers. A key feature of this marathon is Israel’s huge separation barrier which dominates Bethlehem and very much dictates the course of the marathon. [Emphasis in the original.]
The routes of the various races can be seen here.
The route of the anti-terrorist fence – marked with a red line – can be seen here. Only small sections of the race routes are located near the fence.
Interestingly, a version of the term “hitting walls” – per Davies’ wording – also appears on the Palestine Marathon’s own website, which states:
Marathon runners anywhere may “hit a wall” under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course. In the State of Palestine, runners literally hit the Wall. [Emphasis added.]
The apartheid Wall – deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004 but still standing tall – prevents Palestinians from exercising their basic human right to freedom of movement and separates them from their land and from each other. But impediments to freedom of movement reach far beyond the Wall. Military checkpoints in the West Bank are further obstacles that have a devastating impact on Palestinian lives and livelihoods, particularly adversely affecting people with disabilities who already face many barriers in their daily lives.
Predictably, Wyre Davies failed to inform BBC audiences that Bethlehem is situated in Area A and has been under Palestinian Authority control since 1995, in accordance with the terms of the Oslo II Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Unsurprisingly, he had nothing at all to tell BBC audiences about the context behind the construction of the anti-terrorist fence and the fact that it very effectively curbed the infiltration of Palestinian terrorists into Israeli towns and cities after hundreds had been murdered in terror attacks. Neither did he bother to point out that 97 percent of the anti-terrorist fence is just that – fence – with only three percent made of concrete, mainly in areas where protection from snipers is necessary.
Instead, like so many of his colleagues before him, Wyre Davies self-conscripted to promotion of the mantra used to publicize a sporting event that since its inception has been part of a political campaign.