| Email Alert: 23rd January 2009
BBC
bans aid to Gaza
"Convoy
needed more than ever" - George Galloway
The BBC has pulled the plug on a television appeal by 13 charities
for Gaza. The ban on the aid advert by the Disasters Emergency Committee
(DEC) comes as United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-moon visited
Gaza to witness the appalling devastation. He said of the UN compound
destroyed by Israel:
"I am
just appalled. I am not able to describe how I am feeling. This
was an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the United
Nations."
George Galloway,
who is organising an aid convoy to Gaza leaving London on St Valentine’s
Day, 14 February, says:
“This
is a sickening decision by the BBC. When it said no, all the other
broadcasters pulled the plug on the ad as well, according to some
obscure ‘convention’. The BBC has already drawn international
opprobrium for its unremittingly pro-Israel bias during the assault
on Gaza. Now it is stymieing relief efforts. Three immediate responses
are called for:
“The
BBC must be subjected to a wave of protest over this inhuman decision.
If public opinion mobilised over lewd broadcasting by Jonathan Ross
and Russell Brand then surely it can over this far graver failure
to serve the public.
“The
other broadcasters, who have no problem with the appeal, should
be persuaded to transmit it anyway. Conventions are not binding
with the force of law. If the BBC has in effect broken it, why should
others feel bound?
“Everyone
who supports the Palestinians people in Gaza should step up their
aid, activities and political solidarity. The convoy I am helping
to organise to Gaza, leaving London on 14 February, St Valentine’s
Day, takes on even more importance. Support it. Collect for it.
Send a vehicle laden with aid on it. The convoy is designed to break
both the material and the media blockade on Gaza.
“Let’s
answer the BBC’s disgraceful action – taken at public
expense, thanks to our licence fees – with a massive convoy
of material aid and political support for the Palestinians.”
Make a complaint
to the BBC
Phone: 03700 100 222
Email: Send your complaint on line
Write: BBC Complaints,
PO Box 1922
Glasgow
G2 3WT
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