The BBC, Britain’s most powerful media institution, has played a pivotal role in shaping public understanding of Israel’s war on Gaza – and in doing so, has repeatedly chosen to obscure, minimise and sanitise one of the most brutal military campaigns of the 21st century.
A comprehensive new report by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) reveals a damning pattern in the BBC’s coverage of the war: a relentless privileging of Israeli voices, a dehumanisation of Palestinian suffering, and a willful refusal to name – let alone interrogate – the context of occupation, siege and apartheid that underpins this catastrophe.
This is not about minor editorial missteps. It is about a systematic failure to treat Palestinians as fully human – as people whose lives and deaths deserve to be represented with the same dignity, gravity and moral clarity afforded to Israelis.
It is about a publicly funded broadcaster abandoning its duty of impartiality in favour of a deeply politicised, one-sided narrative.
From the outset of Israel’s assault on Gaza following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, the BBC framed the war not as a continuation of decades of colonisation, blockade and dispossession, but as a symmetrical clash between two sides.
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Articles that failed to mention the word “occupation” were not the exception but the rule. Terms like “settlements”, “blockade” and “apartheid” – used by the UN and Amnesty International – were almost entirely absent.
Instead, the conflict was flattened into a series of tit-for-tat exchanges, with Palestinian resistance divorced from any historical or legal context.
Grotesque distortion
The result? A grotesque distortion of reality in which the structural violence inflicted by one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world, against a besieged population of two million people, is erased in favour of empty euphemisms and passive constructions.
The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza now exceeds 55,000, most of them women and children. But in BBC coverage, the CfMM report shows, Palestinians were most often described as having “died” or been “killed” in air strikes, with no mention of who launched them. Israeli victims, by contrast, were described using more emotive language, such as “slaughtered”, “massacred” and “butchered”.
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The CfMM report, published this week, examined more than 35,000 pieces of BBC content related to Israel’s war on Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 6 October 2024.
The BBC used the word “massacre” 18 times more often to describe Israeli deaths than Palestinian ones. It offered almost equal numbers of victim profiles for both populations – even though a vastly higher number of Palestinians have been killed. This is not a neutral editorial choice; it is a devaluation of Palestinian lives.
And it doesn’t stop there. Palestinian guests on BBC programmes were routinely interrogated, interrupted, and pushed to condemn Hamas – as if that were the price of being allowed to speak. Israeli spokespeople, many of whom defended war crimes on air, were treated with deference. Not one Israeli guest was asked to condemn the deliberate bombing of hospitals, refugee camps or schools – despite mountains of evidence and international outrage.
This type of editorial blindness is not accidental. It flows from a deeper institutional culture that refuses to see Palestinians as people
The asymmetry extends to reporting on hostages and prisoners. Israeli hostages were the subject of intense coverage, complete with emotional interviews, wall-to-wall updates, and sombre, humanising details. Palestinian prisoners – thousands of whom have been held without charge or trial – barely registered.
Even in cases of prisoner exchanges, BBC coverage focused almost exclusively on Israeli returnees. Who were the Palestinian prisoners? How long had they been imprisoned? Were they tortured, abused, or denied due process? These questions were largely left unasked and unanswered.
This type of editorial blindness is not accidental. It flows from a deeper institutional culture that refuses to see Palestinians as people with legitimate grievances, aspirations and rights; a culture that demands Palestinians speak only as victims or terrorists, never as human beings resisting subjugation.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the BBC’s treatment of language. The report documents more than 100 instances in which presenters interrupted or challenged guests for using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza – even as the International Court of Justice ruled that South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide could proceed.
Profound betrayal
When it comes to Ukraine, the BBC has no problem platforming such language, with journalists freely invoking allegations of “war crimes” when describing Russian aggression. But on Israel, the BBC ties itself into rhetorical knots to avoid saying what millions around the world can see with their own eyes: a systematic, unrelenting campaign of annihilation.
This is not balance. This is censorship – one that shields the powerful and silences the oppressed.
The betrayal is perhaps most profound when it comes to journalists themselves. More than 225 journalists have been killed in Gaza over the course of the war – the deadliest period for media workers in living memory. Yet the BBC saw fit to report on just six percent of those deaths.
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These were not nameless casualties. They were mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, documenting their people’s suffering with extraordinary courage. Many died with their cameras still in hand. Their deaths should have been a central part of any newsroom’s self-reflection. Instead, they were treated as background noise.
Compare this with Ukraine, where 62 percent of journalist deaths were covered by the BBC. The disparity speaks volumes. In Gaza, even the deaths of journalists – the people through whom we see the world – are deemed unworthy of sustained attention.
Late last year, more than 100 BBC staff signed an open letter warning that the broadcaster was failing in its duty to report fairly on Gaza. They pointed to a culture of fear, editorial double standards, and an unwillingness to allow Palestinian voices and perspectives to be aired without hostility.
The BBC defended its coverage of Gaza, saying it was “transparent” when mistakes were made and “clear with our audiences on the limitations” of its work due to access restrictions on reporting from the ground.
The concerns raised by BBC staff echo those raised in the CfMM’s report – and they demand more than a defensive PR response. What’s at stake here is not just the BBC’s credibility, but the role of media in times of mass violence.
The BBC likes to position itself as a global gold standard for journalism. But when its coverage consistently amplifies the voices of the powerful while muting those facing obliteration, it ceases to be a neutral observer.
Silence in the face of injustice is not impartiality. The public deserves better. So do the dead Palestinians – and those still living.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
