Gaza Bombing: French TV Channel Removes Journo’s Anti-Israel Clip
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Well-known journalist Alain Gresh’s comments criticising Israel for its devastating bombing campaign against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the besieged Gaza Strip were deleted by the news website of French TV channel BFMTV.
During an interview with BFMTV on Sunday, Gresh said, “First, we must remember that this escalation has been triggered by Israel without Israel—at the time it conducted its operations—having suffered any attack.”
The former editor-in-chief of French newspaper Le Monde diplomatique added, “This is the fourth or fifth war that Israel has waged against Gaza with hundreds of people killed. The Palestinian people live under occupation in Gaza as in the West Bank. And this situation can only lead to violence, to confrontations. Today, the subject of Palestine arouses fears, especially when approached as I do in a bit of a radical way.”
Initially, BFMTV published the two-minute clip in which Gresh criticised Israel but he later tweeted that the segment had been removed.
Twitter users had already shared the deleted clip on social media after Gresh posted a link redirecting to BFMTV’s international news page. He thinks BFMTV deleted the clip because of his views on Israel, French left-wing newspaper Libération’s fact-checking service CheckNews reported.
BFMTV told CheckNews that the “entire segment is, of course, available on [streaming service] RMC BFM PLAY and, therefore, accessible to whoever wants it”.
François Raineteau, the communications director of BFMTV owner Altice France, said that the clip was deleted “to avoid any manipulation” since it “was truncated, not whole”. There is “no censorship on BFMTV” and “all opinions and all parties to the conflict are present on air, in interviews or in stories, as well as on our site”, Raineteau added.
In the most lethal violence in the region since Israel and Hamas fought the 11-day war in May 2021, at least, 43 Palestinians, including 15 children, were killed from Friday to Sunday as Israeli jets pounded Gaza and the PIJ fired hundreds of rockets, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.
Finally, the violence ended after Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Israel and the PIJ late Sunday.
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