BBC program on Operation Thunderbolt inaccurate, says media watchdog group
On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, a few minutes after leaving a stopover in Athens.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFAir France hostages who were rescued from Entebbe Airport in 1976. The pilot of the plane, Michel Bacos (not pictured), died at the age of 95 on March 25th, 2019(photo credit: GPO FLICKR/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog organization, recently censured the BBC World Service for airing a program on the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue, also known as Operation Thunderbolt, that the monitor claims was inaccurate and included reporting bias.The June 2 Outlook episode titled My Partin a Historic Hostage Rescue, focused on the role of Rami Sherman, who was an officer in the IDF special unit task force that set free 94 Israeli and Jewish hostages and 12 Air France crew members from an airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda over four decades back.The watchdog stated that host Emily Webb's questioning was unfair to Sherman, asking him if he had any "reservations" with "violating Uganda’s territory by taking part in" the operation to liberate the hostages. Referring to the operation itself as "controversial" while failing to refer to hijacking as controversial and referring to the terrorists as "hijackers" throughout the segment. Adding that at times the episode brushed over important facts and distinctions which led the viewer to biased viewpoints."Presenter Emily Webb avoided any use of the word terrorist and throughout the item the term was only mentioned by her interviewee and in an archive recording," said CAMERA. "At no point were listeners were told the name of the terrorist organisation that carried out the hijacking – the PFLP. In an archive recording listeners heard the inaccurate term 'guerrillas' used to describe terrorists who had taken hundreds of civilians hostage."On June 27, 1976, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, a few minutes after leaving a stopover in Athens. The hijacking culminated in a historic raid to save the lives of 103 Jewish and Israeli hostages, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brother Commander Lt. Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, who was killed during the rescue operation.A total of 160 passengers were on board the aircraft. The hijackers comprised two Germans from the Revolutionary Cells, and two Palestinians connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP).On June 28, 1976 – after a brief stop in Libya, where the terrorists presumably beefed up their ranks – hijackers landed the plane in Entebbe, Uganda. The passengers were taken to the old terminal building of the airport where two more terrorists joined the cell. It soon became apparent that the Uganda army was cooperating with the hijackers, especially when Amin permitted additional terrorists to reinforce the hijackers.The terrorists announced their demands via Ugandan radio on June 29, two days after the flight left Tel Aviv. In exchange for the hostages’ release, the terrorists demanded that 53 Palestinian “freedom fighters” be freed from prisons in Israel, West Germany, Kenya, Switzerland and France within 48 hours. If their demands were not met by the deadline, the kidnappers said they would kill the hostages and blow up the airbus.When referring to the prisoner swap, Webb stated that "the hijackers wanted a ransom of 5 million US dollars for the plane itself and demanded the release of 53 Palestinian prisoners, mostly held in Israel.”CAMERA stated that "Palestinian prisoners is not an accurate description of a good proportion of the names on the terrorists’ list," noting that on the list included an archbishop, West German prisoners, the Japanese terrorist responsible for the Lod Airport Massace and other foreign terrorists held in other countries.Additionally, CAMERA notes that when providing background on the Entebbe operation that Webb "whitewashes" the Yom Kippur War, which occurred three years prior to the hijacking."As we have seen in previous BBC attempts to report on that hijacking and rescue operation, not only does the corporation have considerable difficulty telling that story accurately and without politically motivated euphemisms but its 2007 conspiracy theory promoting article on that subject is still available online," the monitor concluded.
