Video: BBC admits wrongdoing in presenting pro-Israeli commentator as neutral expert

The BBC has admitted it breached its own editorial guidelines in presenting a pro-Israeli commentator as an independent analyst during Israel’s assault on Gaza in November 2012.

Over the course of just two days, the strongly Zionist Jonathan Sacerdoti made four separate appearances on the BBC’s rolling news channel, BBC News 24, to give his assessment of the events leading up to Israel’s assault.

On each occasion, he was presented as a neutral expert on Palestine and Israel, the director of an independent think-tank, The Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy.

However, Sacerdoti is far from neutral on the subject of Israel.

He previously worked as director of public affairs at the Zionist Federation and, in 2012, he was elected to the International Division of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The International Division’s primary work is to promote Israel.

In August 2011, the BBC’s “independent expert” spoke at a pro-Israel rally in Trafalgar Square organized by the British Israel Coalition and supported by the Israeli government, where he was pictured draped in a large Israeli flag.

Sacerdoti defended Israel’s killing of nine unarmed Turkish activists on the 2010 aid flotilla to Gaza in an interview on Al Jazeera. more

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