Welsh Protesters glue themselves to BBC entrance barriers

Two protesters demonstrating against the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli bombing of Gaza glued themselves to entrance barriers at BBC Wales in Cardiff yesterday.

Bob Cottrell and Dee Murphy, of the Swansea-Palestine link group, were released after causing disruption in the foyer for almost three hours.

Another member of the group, Fiona Williams, claimed the BBC’s coverage of the bombing was pro-Israeli.

She said: “Hamas is referred to as a militant organisation, rather than the democratically-elected government, having been elected by a huge majority.

“The settlements in the West Bank should be referred to as illegal, the Israeli Defence Force as the Israeli Army, and the separation barrier as the apartheid wall.”

A spokeswoman for BBC Wales said: “We’re satisfied that the BBC’s coverage of the events in Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been balanced, fair, accurate and up to the usual BBC standards of impartiality.

“In our reports, we have tried to explain how the current situation started and has since developed, and given air-time to representatives from across the political spectrum.”

Meanwhile, more than 100 people attended a peaceful rally in Cardiff city centre earlier.

Carrying banners and singing songs calling for an end to violence, they gathered outside the Aneurin Bevan statue on busy Queen Street.

A handful of police officers attended, but the hour-long demonstration passed without incident.

Organiser Ray Davies, vice-chairman of CND Cymru, said: “We want to give a Welsh protest voice to what is happening in Gaza.

“I feel a great deal of sadness and pain at the bombings, and it has prompted me, and other people, to use that to campaign for peace in Palestine and Israel.”

Yousif Abbas, who runs an Iraqi community school in Cardiff, said: “A resolution has been promised, but there is no sign of it. There needs to be an end to all this, by peaceful means.”

Abdullah Saif, 18, from Butetown, Cardiff, said: “We’re the next generation, and we need to show people what’s happening. The leaders are sitting down and doing nothing, while people are being bombed and killed.” More