THUS Magazine

Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair Louise Ellman joined the chorus of criticism of the BBC for refusing to air the DRC appeal. The Telegraph reported her comment: ‘The BBC should allow the appeal to go ahead. If the BBC has specific concerns about whether the money should reach those in need then it should raise those concerns so the can be dealt with.’ Thank you, Louise, for injecting a welcome note of sanity to his debate. It is well-known that Labour Friends of Israel have concerns about what they see as biased coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. They are welcome to air these concerns,and it is wrong of certain sections of the media to assume a default pro-Palestinian position – a hangover from the 1970s, when it was groovy to support the PLO and prance about wearing a keffiyeh. The BBC have come under huge pressure from the lunatic fringe of the Israel lobby, and they are, by and large, a bunch of self-serving parasites abusing the public purse and running scared of Campbell and Mandelson, but I’m pleased to make it absolutely clear that I have never encountered anything other than commonsense and courtesy from Labour Friends of Israel and I am happy to publish their (attributed) comments. For the record, the same applies to Palestinian organisations who don’t spout irrational hatred. It’s called freedom of speech and there’s not enough of it about.

John J Kelly