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.”

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