Complaint
A viewer complained that the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs International Editor Jeremy Bowen, in repeating a quotation which had been shown to be apocryphal, was giving currency to a lie which has been used to suggest the early Zionists knowingly ran roughshod over an existing indigenous Arab population in Palestine.Β The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality.
Outcome
In the material part of the programme, Mr Bowen said:
There was a famous historian, Avi Shlaim, found this great quote. Β Some rabbis who came out here after that first Zionist conference they telegrammed back, they telegraphed back to Europe and said, because they were there to survey the territory and they said βthe bride is beautiful but sheβs already marriedβ β in other words there were people here. Β One of the old sayings about Israel was that it was a land without a people for a people with a land but that wasnβt true because there were Palestinian Arabs here. Β And the fact that when the Zionists were coming in, to start with there was a bit of co-operation but increasingly there was conflict and I think asking where this conflict came from I think it I think it started off with two peoples having very strong claims to the land in their own minds and not being able to agree how to split it and how to share it.
The ECU noted that the historian had subsequently made clear that he had not been able to source the quotation and that he regarded it as apocryphal.Β However, it considered the authenticity of the quotation was immaterial to the point Mr Bowen was making, which was about the potential for conflict arising from the demographics of Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel.Β In the ECUβs judgement, Mr Bowenβs use of the quotation would neither have misled viewers about the situation he was describing nor conveyed a less than impartial attitude towards it.
Not upheld