Gaza residents launch legal fight to make BBC broadcast aid appeal

Two Gaza residents are using legal threats to try to get the BBC to lift its ban on broadcasting humanitarian aid appeal for victims of the recent conflict.

Clerkenwell-based law firm Hickman & Rose has written a 23-page letter to the BBC seeking to take the corporation to a judicial review unless it airs the Disasters Emergency Committee film.

The letter, headed "Legal challenge to the decision not to broadcast the DEC appeal", has been sent on behalf of three people, two of whom are named as residents of Gaza.

The letter asserts that the BBC decision - made by the director general, Mark Thompson, and top executives - was "irrational or otherwise unlawful" and says it breached the European convention on human rights.

"We have been instructed to write a letter of claim and we are awaiting a substantive response," said a spokeswoman for the law firm.

The letter derailed the BBC Trust's fast-track investigation into the corporation's decision to refuse to broadcast the Gaza appeal.

A special three-person ad hoc BBC Trust committee - chaired by Richard Tait, a former chief executive of ITN, with the trust chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, and vice-chairwoman Chitra Bharucha - had planned to make recommendations to the full trust board and make an announcement on Thursday.

The BBC Trust said it did not know how long the process would take.

"The delay is regrettable, but of course we take all complaints very seriously," said a BBC Trust spokesman.

The BBC received 21,000 after it refused to show the appeal complaints. BSkyB also refused to broadcast the appeal.

Comments

'Coronavirus-free' Gaza prepares for the worst

Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario. But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned. "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible

Boycott of New York diamond dealer launched to protest settlement construction

Members of Adalah NY call for boycott of Leviev for its crimes against Palestinians and South Africans New York, NY, May 9 – On the day before Mother’s Day, 40 New York human rights advocates gathered at the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue and called on throngs of weekend Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in West Bank villages including Bil’in and Jayyous. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry shopping periods in the US annually. The New York protest came as controversy is growing in Norway over Norwegian government investments in Leviev’s company Africa-Israel . The New York protesters also commemorated Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil’in who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers last month during a peaceful protest against the construction on Bil’in’s land of Israel’s wall and of the Mattityahu East settlement by a Leviev company. Thanks to vivapalestina.us (not co

Support striking Palestinian quarry workers demanding their rights from Israeli employer

On 16 June, 35 Palestinian workers at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim (in area C, east of Jerusalem, in the Occupied West Bank) began a strike. The workers, organized with the independent union WAC-Ma'an, are demanding an end to exploitation and humiliation, and insist on signing a first collective agreement. Salit Quarries’ main customer is Readymix Industries (Israel). The total reliance of Salit Quarry on Readymix as their biggest and by far the most important customer puts responsibility on Readymix to make sure that their clients abides by labour laws and safeguards elementary rights for the workers of Salit. We call upon Readymix to urge the Salit management to terminate this unnecessary strike by signing the collective agreement with the workers and WAC-Ma’an. Click this protest link to send your message. The text of the message is as follows: I write to you to express my grave concern about the failure of Salit management to sign a collective agreement with the workers of

Search iGaza