BBC World Service

EI commentary on Bush-Abdullah meeting on BBC World Service "Newshour" program



On 6 May 2004, EI’s Ali Abunimah appeared on the BBC World Service programme “News Hour”, to comment on the meeting between US President George W Bush and his Majesty King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, during which Bush stated that, “I remain committed to the vision I laid out here in the Rose Garden on June 24, 2002, of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security, and to the establishment of a Palestinian state that is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent.” 

EI on BBC World Service "The World Today"



On 25 March 2004, EI’s Ali Abunimah was a guest on the BBC World Service’s The World Today programme, commenting on the aftermath of Israel’s assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and the US veto against the UN resolution condemning the assassination. “The United States has made it clear for many years now that it’s not interested in letting the UN have any role in resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict and it wants that conflict to be resolved or not resolved on its and Israel’s terms.” Listen to the interview in MP3 or 3GP formats (Quicktime Player or Real Player). 

BBC Transcript of "Israel's Secret Weapon" (part 1)

Israel declared over the weekend that it is cutting off ties with the BBC to protest a repeat broadcast of a documentary about non-conventional weapons said to be in Israel. The program was broadcast for the first time in March in Britain, and was rerun Saturday on a BBC channel that is aired all over the world. The boycott decision was made by Israel’s public relations forum, made up of representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office. It was decided that government offices won’t assist BBC producers and reporters, that Israeli officials will not give interviews to the British network, and that the Government Press Office will make it difficult for BBC employees to get press cards and work visas in Israel. Before the broadcast Saturday, Israeli officials tried to pressure the BBC to cancel the broadcast, saying that the program was biased and presented Israel as an evil dictatorship. Here is a complete transcript of the program. 

Belgium's war crimes law under threat

A breaking news report from BBC World Service reveals that Belgium’s universal jurisdiction law, under which a case has been lodged by survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre against Ariel Sharon, Amos Yaron, and others, is now threatened by fears that the law will allow war crimes cases to be brought against former President George H.W. Bush for atrocities committed during the 1991 Gulf War, and against President George W. Bush and others in his administration for launching an illegal war on Iraq.