Municipality condemns BBC’s east Jerusalem ‘walking tour’

by Dan Slobodkin

The city carried out 25 percent fewer demolitions last year – down from 86 in 2008 to 65 in 2009 – said municipality spokesman Stephan Miller Thursday in response to a vituperative segment the BBC aired on the January 18th segment of its “Panorama” program.

“The [number] of demolitions carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality every year is determined solely by the number of illegally constructed buildings erected by those residents who flouted the law,” Miller noted.

Yet on her “walking tour” of east Jerusalem, “Panorama” narrator Jane Corbin claimed she had secured a list of 40 homes slated for demolition in the coming weeks. She described east Jerusalem as a “battlefield” where Israeli authorities wield “weapons” against hapless Palestinian victims.

“It would be prudent to ask Ms. Corbin what happened to her alleged list of 40 planned demolitions since her filming in late 2009,” suggests Miller. “You’ll easily find yet another one of her distasteful distortions.”

Corbin makes no mention of the reasons for demolitions of illegal homes and buildings, such as preserving green spaces, archeological sites and places of architectural or historical significance, and does not bother to tell viewers how illegal structures in Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods can be detrimental to Arab residents, who sometimes issue formal complaints to the municipality.

“Last year, only 133 permits were granted to Palestinians in the whole of east Jerusalem. Nearly ten times more were given to Israelis in west Jerusalem,” says Corbin. What the BBC reporter leaves out, though, is that only 244 permits were filed, meaning 55 percent of requests were approved, resembling the 63% approval rate in west Jerusalem.

According to an analysis of the broadcast by Robin Shepherd, director of international affairs at a British think tank and former London Times bureau chief, “The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern-day propaganda.”

Tags: BBC, East Jerusalem, Jane Corbin