BBC whitewashes Iranian desire to destroy Israel

The BBC writes:

Iran's Rouhani calls Israel occupation 'old wound' on Islamic world

Iran's President-elect Hassan Rouhani has denounced Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas as an "old wound on the body of the Islamic world".

The BBC is making it sound like Rouhani is only talking about the territories captured in 1967, not all of Israel, especially when it calls them "Palestinian areas." This is the terminology the BBC uses to refer to the territories. (See here, for example, where they explicitly say "Palestinian areas of the West Bank," or here, "the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority controls Palestinian areas."

While it appears that Rouhani used the word "occupation," the BBC is - seemingly purposefully - misleading its readers into believing that he is only talking about the hated "occupation" but has no problem with Israel. Iran, of course, considers all of Israel to be "occupied" so this terminology in the headline and subhead is deceptive - and seemingly purposefully so.

Rouhani makes it clear that he is referring to all of Israel in the part quoted later on:

"There is an old wound on the body of the Islamic world, under the shadow of the occupation of the holy lands of Palestine and Quds [Jerusalem]."

AP and others correctly reported Rouhani's meaning:

Ahead of his inauguration, Iran’s new president on Friday called Israel an “old wound” that should be removed.

Yet the BBC chose deliberately to downplay Rouhani's remarks, seemingly in order to push the idea that Rouhani is a "moderate."

Indeed, the BBC did take pains to point out that Rouhani did not say that this wound must be "cleansed" as other media apparently incorrectly reported.


The BBC is proud that is can detect any nuance that would make the new Iranian president seem to be conciliatory, but it can overlook any clear evidence to the contrary.

(h/t Simon)