THE BBC has thrown out a complaint about a news host suggesting it was “understandable” that Israel “rounds people up” during an interview about the mass detention of Palestinians.
The news bulletin in question was broadcast on February 1 and included an interview with Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK.
Zomlot had raised with the BBC the issue of Israel detaining Palestinians, including Palestinian children, without due process.
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, there were at least 9619 Palestinian people in Israel’s prison service in December 2024 (the most recent period for which figures are available). Of these, 1782 – around 18% – were serving sentences while 35% were “administrative detainees”.
Speaking in February, Zomlot pointed to a B’Tselem report into Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which found that “almost all” were held on no charges in a “network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates as a matter of policy”.
Zomlot took issue with the BBC's use of the word "prisoners" to describe Palestinians, compared to "hostages" for Israelis, despite the lack of charges against most people detained by Israel.
Raising the B'Tselem report, Zomlot said: “These Israeli camps have turned into torture camps, murder and sexual abuse.
“This is very well documented, and that's why, in me, this is an opportunity for the international media, including the BBC, to shed light on the criminality Israel is inflicting on our people for all these decades.”
The BBC host then responded: “But when a state, and it's Israel in this case, feels under threat from some people who don't even believe that that nation has a right to defend itself, isn't it understandable that they round people up when they feel threatened by those people?”
The BBC host then interrupted as Zomlot began to ask: “Do you know how many people they have…”
She said: “I asked you a question.”
Zomlot went on: “This whole issue of right of self defence has allowed Israel to inflict the mass murder and mass destruction, what the ICJ now describes as ‘plausible’ genocide.”
The BBC host said that Israel denied the charge of genocide.
A complaint was then made to the broadcaster about the line of questioning, with specific reference to the suggestion that it “is understandable that they [Israel] round people up”.
A listener suggested this reflected “bias towards the Israeli government narrative”.
The BBC’s executive complaints unit accepted that “the manner in which the question was expressed could have given the impression that rounding up civilians irrespective of their innocence was a justifiable response to security concerns” – but dismissed the complaint overall.
The complaints unit said that “viewers in general would have understood it as an attempt at devil’s advocacy”.
It then ruled: “Putting a position to a guest for their response is not the same as endorsing it, but is intended to provide an opportunity for rebuttal – an opportunity which Dr Zumlot [sic] took, responding that Israel had misused the excuse of self-defence.”
