FORMER Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said the BBC lacked “moral clarity” as he clashed with a presenter during an interview.
Bennett said that the BBC was “taking sides” in its reporting on the current conflict in the Middle East.
During the interview, Victoria Derbyshire read out a quote from the Geneva Convention to Bennett, specifically Article 43.
She said: “The parties to the conflict shall confine their operations to the destruction or weakening of the military resources of the adversary and shall make a distinction between the civilian population and combatants.
“And between civilian objects and military objectives.”
Bennett replied: “That’s exactly what we’re doing. That’s exactly why we’re allowing civilians to evacuate before pounding them.”
As Derbyshire tried to speak, Bennett said to her: “You asked the question, would you let me answer.”
He claimed that Hamas entered “roughly 30 communities” and that they “butchered babies, burnt them alive, they pulled a baby out of a pregnant mum and then beheaded the baby, beheaded the mum”.
Victoria Derbyshire quotes lines from the Geneva Convention to former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett. Bennett claims Israel is obeying international law before attacking the BBC for taking the Gazan side in the conflict & lacking moral clarity #BBCLauraK pic.twitter.com/1OIlm8UGN0
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 22, 2023
“This is what we’re dealing with. With all due respect I think the Geneva Convention first and foremost tells a country you need to defend yourself and we will defend ourselves,” he added.
“I know that last week a hospital was fired by Islamic Jihad that fired a rocket on it and BBC said that it was Israel but it wasn’t Israel.
"And I understand that BBC has taken a side, on the Gazan side, because all your questions are only about the Gazan civilians.
“You haven’t asked one question about those children. From the very beginning of this interview, you’re just asking me about them but it seems you care little about our side.”
Derbyshire consistently said that this was “not true” and added: “I began by talking about the hostages.”
In a previous interview with Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi, Derbyshire had also said it was important to "acknowledge the barbarity of the attack on Israelis".
Bennett replied he was talking about the babies he had claimed were murdered and that it was the “BBC way” to only ask about one side.
“If you think there’s a balance here between two equal sides then you are lacking moral clarity and BBC I must say is lacking moral clarity," he said.
It comes as the BBC revealed on Friday that its journalist would no longer use militants as the “default” term for Hamas and will instead describe them as a group “proscribed as a terror organisation by the UK Government and others”.
Elsewhere, the former director general of the BBC Greg Dyke told Sky News the corporation “always gets attacked in times of crisis” and suggested criticism of its reporting is inevitable.”
