Protestors gathered outside the offices of the BBC in Newcastle on Tuesday night in response to their biased coverage of Israel’s attack on Gaza reports Mark Tyers

An angry crowd of over 200 people assembled outside BBC Newcastle on Tuesday night to protest against the news corporations dangerously lopsided coverage of the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

The demonstration was called by Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) group and was held at exactly the same time as the protest in London outside the Israeli embassy.

One particular popular chant was “BBC grow a spine / tell the truth on Palestine” which reflected the crowds anger at the BBC continually reporting that “the conflict was started by Palestine” and that “the Israeli military’s massacre of 587 Palestinians (and counting) is a fair-and -proportionate response to the Palestinians desperate attempts to resist their occupation”

As the Palestine Solidarity Campaigns open letter to the BBC points out;

‘We would like to remind the BBC that Gaza is under Israeli occupation and siege… that Israel is bombing a refugee population – Palestinians who were made refugees when they were forced from their land in1948 in order to create Israel…. that Gaza has no army, air force, or navy, while Israel possess one of the strongest militariesin the world’

Accurate reporting of the plight of the Palestinians is vitally important in winning support for them and in undermining the support and aid that Israel receives from the United States and other Western Imperial powers like Britain – without this aid, the Israeli state and army would be crippled.

Newcastle campaigners are now building the Newcastle March and Rally for Gaza this Saturday 26 July- assemble 11.30am outside the City Pool, march down Northumberland Street and rally at Monument. This is part of an on-going nationwide wave of protests for Gaza, including a national demonstration in London on Saturday