BBC Fake News about Palestine
The BBC Today programme, the flagship BBC News program, devoted 10 minutes today to tell the people of Britain that the current conflict in Israel was the fault of the British. The piece contained half truth after half truth and factual errors. It was an example of utter bias by the BBC.
A recording of the piece in full is included below. Mishal Husain began the piece with an incorrect summary:
“The land that is now Gaza, Israel and the West bank was all governed by Britain from the end of the First World War to 1948.”
The truth was that the territory was Administered under a 1922 League of Nations Mandate by Britain. The League of Nations ended in April 1946 to be replaced by the UN. The Mandate expired in 1946 and Britain continued to administer the territory on behalf of the UN until 1948 then relinquished its role. The League of Nations monitored the British administration and could have withdrawn the Mandate at any time. (See The “Mandate” below). Administration under a UN or League of Nations Mandate is not “governed by Britain”.
Husain goes on to say that:
“British forces left that May without a resolution of the fighting taking place between Jews and Arabs.”
She does not mention that Britain had been the Mandatory power until 1946 and by 1948 had no legal basis for remaining in Palestine because the UN Resolution 181 set an expiry date on the Mandate of August 1948 . The day that Britain withdrew in May 1948 the USA recognised the State of Israel.
The American “expert”, Eugene Rogan then goes on to falsely blame the British for the 1936-39 revolt: “Their [the British] interior policies provoked a massive Palestinian uprising in 1936-39”. See Arab Revolt in Palestine. This uprising was due to the flood of Jews fleeing Nazism in Europe. Wikipedia says: “The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000 that year – the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935”. Of course, this influx of Jews had not been foreseen in 1922 when the Mandate was established.
Rogan then goes on to say “Unable to make their Imperial project work..”. It was not an Imperial project, it was a League of Nations Mandate.
Rogan describes handing over the Mandate to the United Nations as a “British legacy at the end of their Empire”.
Mishal Husain then prompts with “They [the British] did come up with a Partition Plan didn’t they, and with two states which, if you look at the map though, its a very tricky map isn’t it, its like three lots of pockets of territory, connected with Jerusalem as an international city.”
The Plan was developed by the UN, not the British.
Rogan responds with “it looks like a checker board”
This is the final plan developed by the UN. It is not optimal but no-one could say it looked like a checker board. Below is the final plan from UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) (29th November 1947):
This resolution also terminated the British Mandate. (Image courtesy Wikipedia)
Rogan describes the zionists as being better trained and armed than the Palestinians but makes no mention of the fact that they were supported financially and politically by the USA.
Mishal Husain: “Why did the British do that, essentially leave without a resolution and leaving them to fight it out?”
As mentioned above, the UN Resolution 181 had ended the British Mandate:
Part 1: 1 “The Mandate for Palestine shall terminate as soon as possible but in any case not later than 1 August 1948. “
Rogan seems totally unaware of the truth: “In my own view Britain had always hoped to keep Palestine in an Empire as a strategic asset”. Rogan seems to be working for the US State Department, he knows all the facts given above and was determined to shift the blame from the USA to Britain. The USA encouraged and armed zionists to kill British soldiers.
This entire interview was classic BBC Bias. A tame “expert” was selected to amplify the views of BBC staff (a glove puppet). No effort was made to ensure that the content of the interview was impartial.
The BBC are the greatest threat to the UK. In this piece of fake news it was carefully airbrushing the role of the USA from the discussion and piled on vilification of Britain. We have Americans, Israelis and Arabs to vilify the UK without the BBC joining in. A news channel should be created that has a strict Charter with Broadcasting Councils to ensure fairness. See After 100 years the BBC must change.
THE MANDATE
In 1922 the League of Nations (the post WWI United Nations) gave the British a mandate to administer Palestine and Transjordan. This mandate could be revoked by the League of Nations.
The UN stores an archive copy of the Mandate, see QUESTION OF PALESTINE: TEXT OF MANDATE.
The Mandate establishes Britain as the the administrative power working on behalf of the League of Nations. This role is similar to a modern UN Peacekeeping Force:
24: “The Mandatory shall make to the Council of' the League of Nations an annual report to the satisfaction of the Council as to the means taken during the year to carry out the provisions of the mandate.”
The Mandate could be terminated by the League of Nations:
28: “In the event of the termination of the mandate hereby conferred upon the Mandatory, the Council of the League of Nations shall make such arrangements as may be deemed necessary for safeguarding in perpetuity, under guarantee of the League, the rights secured by Articles 13 and 14…”
The Mandate contained the intention of the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration had no legal significance in International Law but the League of Nations Mandate was a legal document. Notice that the Mandate says explicitly that:
“it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jew in any other country”
Full text:
“Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of his Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jew in any other country;”