Denying Palestinians the Permission to Narrate: The BBC’s Biased Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. Author: Kitty Welsh

“When this conflict is over, and Palestinians have a state they so richly deserve, this period will be looked back on as the Western liberal media’s darkest hour”– David Hearst, 2025 (Miladi 2025, p.11)

The BBC is the most influential broadcaster in the UK (Barkho 2008, p. 280), and a constant presence in our British households. On a global scale, despite critics, the broadcaster has been recognised as a source of impartial and neutral journalism since its inception (Miladi 2025, p. 10). This recognition needs to be questioned. What narratives are the BBC incentivised to promote? The answers are apparent in the blatant bias of the BBC’s reporting of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Not only is contextual information left out, but there is also a systematic language bias that serves Israeli interests and treats Palestinians’ deaths as less newsworthy (CfMM 2023-24, p.10). The BBC has historically reflected the interests and perspectives of powerful groups (Mills 2016, p.84), and its reporting on Gaza is no different, especially with the pressure of pro-Israel lobby groups (Ahmed 2025).

The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) found an extremely uneven coverage of deaths by the BBC. Based on the 34:1 Gaza-Israeli death toll, Israeli deaths got 33 times more coverage than Palestinian deaths in articles, as well as 19 times more across TV and radio (CfMM 2023-24, p.9). The reporting presents a false narrative (Plummer 2018) that an equal conflict is taking place, rather than a genocide. Biased language also adds to this narrative, with “murder” being used to describe killings 220 times more for Israeli deaths than Palestinian deaths (CfMM 2023-24, p.156). There have been several reports dissecting the linguistic and structural biases of the BBC’s reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza; it is what is done with these investigations that matters. Framing the BBC as neutral ignores the discursive power it has to shape reality (Barkho, 2008). In fact, “contrary to claims by the BBC, […] no discourse can be neutral” (Barkho 2008, p.291). The BBC’s narrative structures hold the power to erase the true nature of Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinians, with linguistic choices working as a categorising function to legitimise the narrative (Barkho 2008, p.384).

Palestinians are continuously denied ‘permission to narrate’ (Khalidi 2017, p.6). Their perspectives are rarely represented in the BBC and are instead presented through an Israeli depiction. The BBC fails to platform Palestinian voices, interviewing over double the number of Israelis than Palestinians (CfMM 2023-24 p.157). Palestinian interviewees were asked to condemn Hamas attacks, but there is no evidence of pressure to condemn Israel’s illegal actions. So, when Palestinians share their stories, their narrative is undermined by interruptions to condemn Hamas. This difference justifies Israel as a settler colonial state (Miladi 2025, p.3), with Israeli officials not being questioned. The justification continues when the BBC uses language promoted by Israeli authorities and criticised by Palestinians, such as ‘settlements’, ‘Jerusalem’, and ‘territories’ (Barkho 2008, p.284), as well as suppressing claims that a ‘plausible genocide’ is happening (CfMM 2023-24, p.158). Israel has established a colonial reality (Khalidi 2017), and the BBC is legitimising it by building a narrative that pushes its harmful perspectives. Since the establishment of the BBC, its professional norms have served a network of power and corporate interests (Mills 2016, p.108).

Plummer’s work on narrative power (2018) can be used as a lens to understand how the power interests of the BBC have shaped its narrative of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As the CfMM (2023-24 p.9) outlines, despite the 34:1 Gaza-Israeli death toll, emotive and humanising stories of Palestinians were only featured twice as often as Israelis in articles. Details of people’s realities build an empathetic picture of individuals’ suffering and resistance (Plummer 2018, p.43). Through decontextualising Palestinian casualties, the BBC has stripped Palestinians of their stories and thus their human value.  Barkho (2008, p.289) evidences this through the headline, “Three killed in West Bank Clashes.” Providing only half the story by leaving out ‘who committed what and to whom’ exposes not just a neglect of claimed neutrality, but a purposeful narrative that Palestinian deaths are not worthy of explaining (Barkho 2008, p.289). These narratives create a hierarchy of human life (Ahmed 2025) where Palestinian suffering deserves less empathy and attention, aligning with the Israeli state and justifying its actions against Palestinians. Part of the incentive to construct this narrative includes pressure from pro-Israel lobby groups such as UKLFI and the Board of Deputies, who threaten editors with legal and political consequences (Ahmed 2025).

Narratives built have the power to influence understandings (Plummer 2018). The BBC’s abandonment of historical and political context when reporting on Palestine and Israel, specifically around Britain’s Role (Barkho 2008), impacts the public’s perception of the genocide and occupation. Miladi (2025, p.8) points out the BBC’s lack of historical context, such as the Balfour Declaration in 1917, issued by the British Foreign Secretary, which denied the national existence and political rights of the Arab majority in Palestine (Khalidi 2017, p.7). Through this declaration, as well as other mandates and British military intervention, it was evident that Palestinian rights did not exist for Britain (p.9). The BBC’s dehumanising and exclusionary reporting echoes Britain’s historical denial of Palestinian rights. Consumers of the BBC, thus, develop a restricted understanding of this colonial history (Miladi 2025, p.8). Their biased reporting reflects the unequal division of power and control between Palestinians and the Israeli state, making it crucial to be aware of the BBC’s ties to corporate interests and political incentives, and move away from relying on it as a main news source.

The BBC’s credibility has undoubtedly declined because of the biased reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza (Miladi 2025, p.10). Evidence of uneven reporting must be used not only to acknowledge the bias, but also the BBC’s failure to adhere to international rulings, such as not declaring that ‘settlements’ are recognised as illegally occupied land (Barkho 2008, p.284). It is necessary to understand what lobby groups and power forces influence the BBC’s narratives (Miladi 2025, p.10). As Palestinians continue to be denied permission to narrate their own experiences, sufferings, and resistance, we must not rely on the BBC. Instead, Palestinian voices and perspectives need to be amplified through independent outlets; their stories deserve to be shared and listened to, not just read in decontextualised reports. As Israel continuously denies Western journalists’ free entry to Gaza, and Palestinian journalists are killed (CfMM 2023-24 p.8), it is more vital than ever to question the institutional framework of the BBC and how it works as an ideological tool for those controlling the narrative (Ahmed 2025).

References

Ahmed, N. 2025. The BBC’s surrender to pro-Israel lobbying: a history of censorship and bias Middle East Monitor 28 February. Available at: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250228-the-bbcs-surrender-to-pro-israel-lobbying-a-history-of-censorship-and-bias/ [Accessed: 3 November 2025]

Barkho, L. 2008. The BBC’s Discursive strategy and practices vis-à-vis the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Journalism studies 9(2), pp.278-294 doi: 10.1080/14616700701848337

Centre for Media Monitoring. 2025. BBC On Gaza-Israel: One Story, Double Standards Available at: https://cfmm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/CfMM-report-2023-24-ePDF-Edited.pdf [Accessed: 3 November 2025]

Khalidi, R.I. 2017. Historical Landmarks in the Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. Journal of Palestine studies 47(1), pp. 6–17. doi: 10.1525/jps.2017.47.1.6.

Miladi, N. 2025. Seeking ‘permission to narrate’: Debunking the global media reporting of the Israeli War on Gaza and the Palestine exceptionalism. Journal of Arab & Muslim media research 18(1), pp. 3-14. doi: 10.1386/jammr_00107_2

Mills, T. 2016. Politics, Power, and Political Bias. The BBC: Myth of a Public Service London, UK: Verso, pp.84-108

Plummer, K. 2018. Narrative Power as a Struggle for Human Value. Narrative Power : The Struggle for Human Value. Cambridge, UK: Polity, pp.42-59.