{"id":190956,"date":"2026-05-13T06:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190956\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T06:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:56:07","slug":"the-return-of-the-bbcs-bethlehem-separation-barrier-mantra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190956\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of the BBC\u2019s Bethlehem \u2018Separation Barrier\u2019 Mantra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether for the purpose of reporting on Christmas celebrations<\/a>, a visit by a pope<\/a> or a graffiti artist\u2019s political campaigning<\/a>, BBC journalists\u2019 trips to\u00a0Bethlehem<\/a>\u00a0over the years have almost inevitably resulted in the promotion of inaccurate claims concerning the\u00a0anti-terrorist fence<\/a>\u00a0in that area.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On May 8, the BBC News website published\u00a0a filmed report<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Wyre Davies<\/a>\u00a0in which he uses the occasion of\u00a0the marathon<\/a> that has been held almost annually in Bethlehem for the past\u00a013 years<\/a>\u00a0to promote political messaging.<\/p>\n

Early on in his report Davies tells BBC audiences that: \u201cEven the route of this marathon is predicated by the Israeli separation barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to interview one of the event\u2019s organizers \u2013\u00a0Eitedal Ismail<\/a> \u2013 who promotes unchallenged political messaging. Ismail claims:<\/p>\n

They come from everywhere to run Palestine marathon because this the our right to move, our right to freedom of movement. Other people it\u2019s easy to move from city to another city for travel but in Palestine we haven\u2019t this right.<\/p>\n

Davies then tells viewers that:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marathon runners talk about hitting walls and overcoming barriers. A key feature of\u00a0this\u00a0marathon is Israel\u2019s huge separation barrier which dominates\u00a0Bethlehem and very much dictates the course of the marathon. [Emphasis in the original.]<\/p>\n

The routes of the various races can be seen\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The route of the anti-terrorist fence \u2013 marked with a red line \u2013 can be seen\u00a0here<\/a>. Only small sections of the race routes are located near the fence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Interestingly, a version of the term \u201chitting walls\u201d \u2013 per Davies\u2019 wording \u2013 also appears on the Palestine Marathon\u2019s own\u00a0website<\/a>, which states:<\/p>\n

Marathon runners anywhere may \u201chit a wall\u201d under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course. In the State of Palestine, runners literally hit the Wall. [Emphasis added.]<\/p>\n

The\u00a0apartheid Wall \u2013 deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004 but still standing tall \u2013 prevents Palestinians from exercising their basic human right to freedom of movement and separates them from their land and from each other. But impediments to freedom of movement reach far beyond the Wall. Military checkpoints in the West Bank are further obstacles that have a devastating impact on Palestinian lives and livelihoods, particularly adversely affecting people with disabilities who already face many barriers in their daily lives.<\/p>\n

Predictably, Wyre Davies failed to inform BBC audiences that Bethlehem is situated in Area A and has been under Palestinian Authority control since 1995, in accordance with the terms of the Oslo II Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, he had nothing at all to tell BBC audiences about\u00a0the context<\/a>\u00a0behind the construction of the anti-terrorist fence and the fact that it very effectively curbed the infiltration of Palestinian terrorists into Israeli towns and cities after hundreds had been murdered in terror attacks. Neither did he bother to point out that 97 percent of the anti-terrorist fence is just that \u2013 fence \u2013 with only three percent made of concrete, mainly in areas where protection from snipers is necessary.<\/p>\n

Instead, like so many of his colleagues before him, Wyre Davies self-conscripted to promotion of the mantra used to publicize a sporting event that since its inception has been\u00a0part of<\/a>\u00a0a political campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Comments are closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether for the purpose of reporting on Christmas celebrations, a visit by a pope or a graffiti artist\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-190956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}