UPDATE: Be sure to also read my follow up complaint to the BBC.
I just wrote the following to the BBC regarding the BBC Sport’s website’s inability to state that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Background will follow below.
It’s so odd that the ONLY TWO pages which had “incorrect details and mistakes” happen to be Israel and the non-existant state of Palestine.
The BBC once again fails it’s mandate and has to beg and grovel: apology not accepted. Be big enough to admit you don’t want Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel because, in the end, you don’t want a Jewish state to exist in ancient biblical Israel.
You people revolt me: my happiest memory (of many) from leaving the UK 3 years ago was cancelling my direct debit for your license fee. Supporting you with money felt like being a shareholder in companies supplying gas to the Nazis.
You now supply the poisoned minds and ideas that would lead to millions of dead Jews again if we didn’t have our own army to defend Jews from the people whose minds you are corrupting.
Last week word spread on the tweeter and other social networks about the BBC Sport’s information pages. I first saw a link to an article in The Commentator drawing attention to two oddities: according to the BBC Israel had no capital and the mythical, unicorn filled state of “Palestine” had it’s capital in the also mythical geographic entitiy known as “East Jerusalem”. Pause to remember the only time in thousands of years when Jerusalem has been divided is under the illegal occupation of Jordan following their military conquest of it in 1948 until its liberation in 1967.
I reviewed and immediately fired off an official complaint via the BBC’s official complaint system. I have it book marked.
YOUR COMPLAINT:
Complaint Summary: Why do you not list a capital city for Israel?
Full Complaint: As subject. Israel’s Olympic information page does not list Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. All other countries (including entities that are not even countries) have a capital listed. Why do you not list the capital of the world’s only Jewish State?
After I sent my complaint the Prime Minister’s Office also sent a formal complaint to the BBC about their erroneous web site. It’s nice to see them taking up this kind of thing so quickly.
As you’d expect from the BBC they immediately backed down, sort of. They can’t quite bring themselves to write “Capital: Jerusalem” or remove the “East Jerusalem” dream from the dreamy Palestinian state:
Israel’s page reads: “Seat of government Jerusalem, though most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv”
“Palestine” reads: “Intended seat of government East Jerusalem. Ramallah serves as administrative capital.”
I received an official response over the weekend and this is what prompted me to write back the answer I posted at the very top of this post.
Thank you for your e-mail.
The Olympics page on the BBC Sport website provides extensive information on the London 2012 games, including the profiles of all the teams taking part.
Due to an error which was made at the time the information was added onto the website, incorrect details and mistakes appeared on the Israeli and Palestinian team pages. This has since been rectified in line with BBC policy.The BBC as an impartial broadcaster remains committed to accuracy and we regret if anyone was offended by this.
Kinds regards,
Mike
BBC Sport Interactive complaints team
I’m also glad to say Mark Regev is still sending letters: he’s not accepting the “Seat of government” crap.
UPDATE: Be sure to also read my follow up complaint to the BBC.
