ITV News Blasted for Anti-Semitic Misinformation: Reader's Explosive Letter Exposes Shocking Inaccuracies, Incites Outrage⁉️

Hi and welcome to this Video Production News Insight:

Today, we address a serious issue raised by one of our readers, concerning a recent ITV News broadcast. Our readers detailed letter highlights severe inaccuracies and misinformation in ITV's coverage of the "Nakba" protest in Israel on May 15, 2024. After thorough review, we have confirmed his claims, revealing how such errors misrepresent historical facts and risk inciting anti-Semitism. As journalists, it's our duty to support his complaint and call out these serious lapses.

Firstly, ITV misrepresented Jewish and Arab land ownership before Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The maps shown underplayed Jewish population centers and land while exaggerating Arab ownership. Accurate historical maps depict a different reality, which ITV ignored, thus perpetuating the false narrative that Israel "stole" Palestinian land. This kind of distortion fuels anti-Semitic sentiments.

ITV also misdefined the term “Nakba.” Originally coined by Constantine Zurayk to describe the defeat of Arab armies, ITV presented it solely as the displacement of Arabs. This omission of historical context misleads viewers and fosters a one-sided narrative of victimhood. The term’s meaning, later twisted by figures like Yasser Arafat, was presented without necessary clarification.

Furthermore, ITV failed to mention key historical events, such as Arab leaders urging Arab citizens to evacuate during the 1948 war and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries. Efforts by Israeli leaders to encourage Arab residents to stay were ignored. By omitting these facts, ITV skews public perception, unfairly depicting Israel as the sole aggressor.

Such biased reporting by ITV contributes to a dangerous environment, fostering anti-Semitic sentiments. Consistently presenting a one-sided view of the Arab-Israeli conflict misinforms the public and indirectly incites hatred. Our duty as journalists is to report the truth accurately and without bias, ensuring all facts are presented with necessary context.

The letter highlights significant flaws in ITV’s reporting. These inaccuracies distort historical facts and contribute to rising anti-Semitic sentiments. We support our readers call for ITV to correct these errors and commit to truthful, balanced journalism. Only through honest reporting can we foster an informed public and a safer, more inclusive society.

Below, we present our readers letter in full, allowing our readers to examine the details and form their own opinions on the matter.

Well, that’s all for now. But until our next article, please stay tuned, stay informed, but most of all stay safe, and I’ll see you then.

Bénédict Tarot Freeman

Editor-at-Large

VPN City-Desk

citydesk@vpnldn.co.uk

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Dear Sir/ Madam,

I write to lodge a formal complaint about the feature on ITV News at 10pm on the 15th May 2024 regarding the "Nakba” protest in Israel.

Due to the seriousness of the misinformation during this broadcast, which I believe encourages anti-Semitism and endangers the Jewish population of this country, I shall be forwarding this letter to both the Chairman and CEO of ITV, Ofcom, as well as to my local MP Sir Keir Starmer The Israeli Ambassador to Great Britain, The Community Security Trust, The British Board of Deputies, The Campaign against Anti-Semitism and CAMERA UK.

I wish to point out three distinct instances whereby you totally misled your audience with false and misleading information. 

1. Gross inaccuracy and misrepresentation of the land owned by Jews & Arabs prior to Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

In the first “population map” that you showed, ITV grossly under-represented the areas where Jewish populations lived, and the land that they owned at the start of Israeli war of Independence. While I was not able to screenshot the first map you showed on the News at 10, it bears striking similarity to the map below, taken from the Al-Jazeera website:

In this map you show a historically inaccurate visual representation of:

1. The Jewish population centres and land owned by them (in blue).

2. The Arab population centres and land owned by them (green).

3. What land was state owned by the British Mandate and uninhabited (not indicated).

The map below (source: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs) shows a partial map (i.e it excludes much of the predominately uninhabited land of the Negev Desert) of the same area which accurately shows population centres and land owned by the Jews, Arabs & the British Mandate at the time.

As you will see by comparison, the map displayed by ITV is grossly inaccurate.

Map of proposed League of Nations Partition Plan 1947

Following the first inaccurate map that you showed, you followed on with a second map (again pretty much identical to this map taken from Al-Jazeera) showing the land owned by Jews and Arabs after Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

This map is indeed fair in representing the land owned post Independence. However by showing the (below) inaccurate before and “after” maps, and by omitting the League of Nations Partition plan map (shown on the next page) which was agreed upon on by the Jews but not the Arabs, ITV perpetuates the defamatory libel that “Israel stole the land of the Palestinians” without any explanation of the historical facts. This is gross misrepresentation.

This lack of background information, disinformation and half truths will, without doubt, lead the British public to hold views that are not based on facts, but merely slanderous accusations. This in turn will lead to anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish views being held by the British public which is wholly unacceptable, as it leads to anti-semitism and the endangering of the safety of the British Jew.

1. Incorrect inference of the meaning of the word “Nakba” ITV explained that the "Naqba" was a reference term used to describe a catastrophe regarding the loss of land and homes by the Arab population of the former British Mandate, upon the establishment of The State of Israel. The word in fact does not mean that at all. And the cause of the displacement of Arab citizens was not due to the Declaration of Independence by The State of Israel, but by the war started by Israel’s 5 neighbouring Arab states and the Arab League members present in British Mandate Palestine prior to the Declaration. Constantine Zurayk coined the term "Nakba" which, while still meaning “catastrophe”, refers to the humiliation in defeat of the 5 neighbouring Arab States and the Arab League, in their war of annihilation against the State of Israel, following Israel's Declaration of Independence, after the Arab States refusal to accept the League of Nations Partition plan. The word Nakba was only taken up later by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood member Yasser Arafat and the terrorist PLO and twisted to refer to a catastrophe as something other than the combined Arab armies loss, despite their having considerably more means to wage war than the fledgling State of Israel. The term “Nakba” refers historically to the “shame" of the loss by the Arab armies against Israel.  The historic and true meaning of the word was not even touched upon as a counter explanation to the twisted and historically incorrect meaning of the event commemorated as the “Nakba” that ITV presented. 
   

2.  Historical revisionism regarding the displacement of populations in the Middle East around the time of Israel’s Declaration of Independence. To paraphrase, you said many hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "..either left or were forced to leave by Israel". You miss out two important pieces of information in this description as to why some of the Arab population of the then established State of Israel were displaced. You also fail to inform your viewers about the equally relevant fact regarding the displacement of Jewish citizens from other Middle Eastern countries at this time. ITV failed to point out that the invading Arab countries urged the Arab citizens of the newly declared State of Israel to evacuate their lands while war was underway. The invading Arab armies, so confident in their victory, urged the Arab population to leave their homes and lands to avoid harm, and that they would be able to return upon the expected Arab winning of the war. ITV also failed to point out the historical fact that David Ben-Gurion tasked Golda Meir to ask the Arab population to remain and not flee during the war. The following is a quote from Golda Meir book “My Life”. “Ben-Gurion called me and said: ‘I want you to immediately go to Haifa and see to it that the Arabs who remain in Haifa are treated appropriately. I also want you to try and persuade the Arabs who are already on the beach to return home. You have to get it into their heads that they have nothing to fear,’ he said. And so, I went immediately. I sat on the beach there and begged them to return home… I pleaded with them until I was exhausted but it didn’t work.” In other letters Ben Gurion, for example, in his letter to the Mayor of Haifa, said that those who had fled due to the war should come back after the war. In this talk of mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing, you also omit to say that after Israel's declaration of Independence in 1948, a vast ethnic cleansing of around 700,000 Jews living in Arab states were forcefully expelled or murdered. You do this while propelling the propaganda that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing. You are I am sure, aware that 20% of Israel's population currently is Arab or Muslim, with equal rights as citizens, while barely a Jew remains in the Arab states that they formerly inhabited for millennia.  This is a gross omission of facts that would lead the average viewer to believe that the displacement of Arabs from the land was due solely to Israel’s declaration of Independence and not the many other contributing factors.In addition it does not address Israel’s willingness to allow the Arab population to have remained on the land. It also paints a very one-sided historical account regarding the displacement of people from the Middle East by the omission to explain the anti-Jewish pogroms in neighbouring lands at the time.

ITV’s incitement to violence on a slow but insistent level. In addition to these three specific instances of misinformation, your consistent lack of balanced reporting on the complicated issues at hand regarding the Arab- Israeli conflict, constantly paints the Palestinians as historic victims. No one would deny that Arab “Palestinians” have suffered. But they have suffered by their consistent refusal to accept peace with Israel despite the 11 offers of a 2-state solution made to them. Again this is historic fact you consistently omit to include in your explanation of the conflict.

Moving past history and focusing on the current Gaza conflict; ITV never, or perhaps rarely, explains that Israel is fighting a war against the Hamas army of terrorists who by their thousands invaded Israel of the 7/10 and committed some of the most atrocious crimes against humanity against civilians, in modern history, including murder, mutilation, dismemberment, rape and burning people alive. Crimes committed with glee. ITV should make clear that Israel has not invaded Gaza with a remit to single out and murder in cold blood, unarmed civilian women and children. It should be made clear that the IDF is fighting a war against a merciless terrorist group who have established the most sophisticated urban warfare landscape designed specifically in combination with human shields to maximise civilian casualties. It is also unacceptable to take Hamas death tolls and repeat them parrot fashion, and then fail to revise the figures when the UN cuts the female and child deaths by half. Again, ITV is leading the British public towards anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish views, as it leads to anti-semitism and the endangering of the safety of the British Jew.

By delivering such an a one-sided and focused narrative on the actual history at play, ITV conspires to spread propaganda painting the State of Israel and by association Jewish Zionists (of which the vast majority of the U.K's Jewish population are) as serial oppressors, with little mention to the 7/10 massacres which triggered Israel's war Hamas, tainting the public view on matters which in turn leads to acts of anti-Semitism with this country. Your false narrative in order to keep a good "oppressor/ oppressed" story running has led and will continue to result in danger to Jews and Israelis living in this country. 

I would like to note before note before closing, going back to the initial story ITV covered about the “Nakba” march in Israel that Israel, as a free and fair democratic country - the only one in the Middle East - where Jews, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Bahai, Samaritan, Karaite and others, can practise their faith freely - allowed this march without any interference. The Israeli Arab marchers were allowed to peacefully demonstrate and voice their views as full citizens of Israel. This was not mentioned once, however I have seen ITV broadcast views of protesters and commentators claiming Israel is an apartheid state and guilty of ethnic cleansing. 

I would expect a national news broadcaster to be aware of historical accuracy and not lead the British public down a route whereby you allow the tag "oppressor" to be stuck on Israel and as I said above, as a corollary, lead to increased anti-Semitism and danger to U.K Jewry. 

Unless a concise admission of your errors are broadcast on News at 10, I will continue to fight through whatever legal channels necessary to ensure ITV do not get away with this incitement to violence on a slow but insistent level without facing the consequences. 

Yours Faithfully

Concerned VPN Subscriber.