A comment made by a BBC News presenter who said “Israeli forces are happy to kill children” was not impartial, the broadcaster has admitted.
News presenter Anjana Gadgil made the remark whilst discussing Israel’s military operation in Jenin with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on July 4.
During the interview, Gadgil said: “The Israeli military are calling this a 'military operation,' but we now know that young people are being killed, four of them under 18.
“Is that really what the military set out to do? To kill people between the ages of 16 and 18?
In response, Bennett said: “Actually, all 11 people dead there are militants. The fact that there are young terrorists who decide to hold arms is their responsibility.”
המראיינת מה-BBC העזה לטעון בפניי ש״חיילי צה״ל שמחים להרוג ילדים״ (!).
— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) July 4, 2023
ממש במילים אלה.
צפו בתשובה שלי.
(מתוך ראיון שלי הערב ל-BBC). pic.twitter.com/RUTZfdmAfo
Gadgil replied: “Terrorists, but children. The Israeli forces are happy to kill children.”
Bennett described the news presenter's comments as “remarkable” and asked Gadgil how she would define an armed 17-year-old firing at her family.
In response, she cited the UN, which had “defined [the militants] as children.”
Smoke billows during an Israeli army operation in Jenin i GettyImages-1432547541
Smoke billowing over Jenin during the operation (Photo: Getty Images)
Jewish community groups accused the BBC of being impartial and of demonstrating anti-Israel bias, and the broadcaster apologised the following day.
This apology described Gadgil’s language as “inappropriate” but also stressed the BBC had covered the operation “in an impartial and robust way”.
However, a further complaint was lodged by a viewer who claimed that “insufficient action had been taken to remedy the bias apparent in [Gadgil’s] statement.”
The BBC Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has now acknowledged that Gadgil’s statement “fell below BBC’s standards of impartiality”.
Naftali Bennett F190212YS08-f
Naftali Bennett (Photo: Flash 90)
In a statement it said: “The ECU accepted that, as phrased, the statement might have given viewers the impression that they were hearing the presenter’s personal view on a controversial matter, and that it therefore fell below the BBC’s standards of impartiality.”
It added that, as BBC News had “already acknowledged a problem with the interview” on its online “corrections and clarifications" page, it considered the complaint resolved.
The Israeli military launched the raid on the West Bank city of Jenin on July 3 under the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. It was the largest-scale military operation the West Bank in 20 years.
During the 48-hour raid, Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians and arrested around 100 terror suspects.
