Foreign secretary’s call comes after group releases video of British-Israeli hostage it says died after being wounded in Israeli airstrike

David Cameron has urged the BBC to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation, reviving an accusation that the corporation shies away from a valid description of the Islamist group that is holding Israeli hostages.

The UK foreign secretary told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that the organisation should reconsider its guidelines in light of a video released by Hamas showing the British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell, who the group said had died in Gaza.

Hamas released a statement on Saturday saying the 51-year-old had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike a month ago. The video showed him with a black eye.

    • mindlight@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Wikipedia first lines summarizes the 7th of October quite well:

      Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims.

      Hamas still haven’t released the civilian hostages. Hamas hides among civilians. The list goes on and on.

      The only sad part is that the Palestinian people once voted for a terrorist organisation to represent them.

      People can call Hamas for “Freedom Fighters” all they want but it doesn’t erase the fact:

      Hamas is a terrorist organisation.

      • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        And there’s the problem. Why should Hamas be called a terrorist and not the Israel government?

        This is why news organisations avoid the word. It clearly picks a side.

        • mindlight@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          Why Hamas should be called a terrorist organisation?

          Because they have been committing acts of terrorism.

          Whether other organisations has committed or has not commited terrorist acts is irrelevant in this context and does in no way cancel out the horrible things Hamas has been doing.

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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        6 months ago

        Yeah but in that case:

        US government and Canadian are terrorists (look at their list of war crimes against civilians, genocide of native Americans, kidnapping and “re-educating” native children for ethnic cleansing)

        Israel is a terrorist state (genocide against a specific ethnic group definitely fits this definition even if they just did it for expansionism, that is a political goal and there are 36000 that Israel has killed directly on the low end, including over 224 civilian humanitarian aid workers and 179 civilian unwra workers)

        Hamas is a terrorist organization

        Dole is a terrorist organization (banana republics, Hawaii)

        Many police organizations nowadays are terrorists (constant violence against innocent civilians), especially in the US

        Belgium is a terrorist state (Congo anyone?)

        France is a terrorist state (they have a special police battalion hand picked for violence against civilians lol)

        Russian army is a terrorist org (talk about violence against civilians, they have wiped out so many villages and just killed and dumped the population)

        Hell, Britain is a terrorist org (Kenya atrocities like the chuka massacre, the Irish???, Iraq & Afganistan?? BBC themselves reported how the British government was covering up their forces killing and torture of civilians and children in the middle east)

        The point is that a news org can’t (or shouldn’t) just cherry pick who they want to label terrorists because that, no matter which way you slice it, will be political bias. Their own government has committed many, MANY acts of terror very recently.

        • mindlight@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          No. Not “in that case”.

          Fact: Hamas commits and have committed acts of terrorism and therefore Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It doesn’t matter what other countries have committed terrorist acts now or 100 years ago. There is no connection or dependencies.

          Hamas is a terrorist organisation because of them committing acts of terrorism. End of story.

          When BBC is asked to call Belgium a terrorist start you’re free to discuss that there. In that thread I will happily claim that Hamas is innocent to whatever Leo did in Africa.

        • Murvel@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          If Great Britain labels Hamas a terrorist organization, why shouldn’t the BBC then to the same?

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            6 months ago

            Because the BBC is not the PR arm of the British government. It is supposed to be an independent and impartial entity.

            • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              brit living in America. It is astonishing the difference between news feeds

              the BBC waivers and has its faults and biases, but even biases I loosely agree with are so partisan in the US it makes me feel a bit unwell.

            • Murvel@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              It’s the official stance of the country from their own government, by extension the british people. Are you saying that’s not what the BBC represents?

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                6 months ago

                No. The BBC does not represent the official stance of the country and never has. It is an independent journalistic body.

                • Murvel@lemm.ee
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                  6 months ago

                  Of course they do. The aren’t allowed to print anything they want. Public service is governed by state. Well at least in Sweden but the principle is the same.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                    6 months ago

                    They are, in fact, allowed to print anything they want. They are not beholden to the government. That’s a simple fact.

              • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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                6 months ago

                No. They’re saying the BBC is not the government’s mouthpiece. It is an impartial public broadcaster. The same BBC that has reported on both IRA bombings and Sinn Féin elections. If you understand that last sentence you may realise why the BBC speaks as it does.

      • Murvel@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        Isreal isn’t labeled a terrorist organization by any institutional body that I know of.

        • atoro@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Which is ironic considering at this point Israel has most likely killed more innocent civilians than Hamas ever did

        • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          The zionist paramilitaries that were consolidated (read: Likud) into the first iteration of the IDF were proud, avowed terrorists because they knew they couldn’t win a territorial conflict using conventional methods while outnumbered on hostile turf. Labeled, ha.