SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Why is BBC reporter Barbara Plett-Usher repeating on the News at Ten an entirely unsubstantiated, very dangerous and utterly Israeli-serving claim as a fact?

Why is BBC reporter Barbara Plett-Usher repeating on the News at Ten an entirely unsubstantiated, very dangerous and utterly Israeli-serving claim as a fact? In discussing the "pros" and cons of Israel's plan to introduce a new "aid" system in Gaza – in which private US military contractors, under Israel's direction, distribute pitifully small amounts of aid to Palestinians and only in a tightly controlled zone next to the Egyptian border, in readiness for the population's expulsion into Sinai – she states that Israel is "arguing that this [the new scheme] is going to prevent Hamas from stealing aid and so reduce its influence". The "arguing" relates not to whether Hamas is actually stealing aid. It relates to whether Israel's *new scheme* will "prevent Hamas stealing aid". In other words, the premise for both Israel and Plett-Usher is that Hamas is indeed stealing aid and that Israel's new distribution system is an attempted solution to address that problem. But as the head of the UN World Food Program stated at the weekend: there is precisely no evidence of theft by Hamas. It's just another made-up claim by Israel to advance its interests: to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from Gaza by starving them of meaningful aid. Plett-Usher could have taken care to avoid colluding in Israel's disinformation, and adopted a far more responsible formulation: "Israel argues that its new aid distribution system will prevent, what it claims, is a problem of Hamas stealing aid and thereby reduce its influence. However, UN experts say there is no evidence of Hamas diverting aid." It is the height of irresponsibility to repeat Israel's lies, especially when they serve the goal of advancing its genocide. It makes the journalists who peddle such lies complicit in that genocide.

Last edited10:45 AM · May 26, 2025