Mariam Al-Sayeh

- London - The television interview that the presenter Kay Burley conducted on the British "Sky News" channel with the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in London, Hussam Zomlot, sparked widespread controversy.

Especially since his meeting was followed by a dialogue conducted by the presenter herself with the Israeli ambassador, Tizbi Hotveli, in which the same questions were not used.

During the meeting, Zomlot responded to the Israeli ambassador's claims and said that she did not present the numbers of Palestinian victims who were killed by Israeli settlers, including Khairi Alqam, the grandfather of the perpetrator of the recent Jerusalem operation, who was killed by a settler without being prosecuted.

Zomlot spoke about the invasion of the Jenin refugee camp a few days ago, the bombing of its homes using grenades and missiles, and the killing of 10 Palestinians, including a 61-year-old woman who was killed while she was praying in her home.

In addition to a list that included 230 Palestinians who lost their lives at the hands of the occupation forces and settlers last year, without the killers being subjected to criminal trial until now.

During his speech, Burley interrupted him, asking, "A 15-year-old boy kills 7 Israelis, including a newly married couple who were helping the wounded who were shot outside a synagogue on World Holocaust Remembrance Day. Will you condemn this?"

Zomlot replied, "Absolutely every human life that is lost is a real tragedy. No one is working on a non-violent solution more than us."

"Do you condemn him?" Burley insisted, to which Zomlot replied, "No, I condemn the cause that led to that and this is what we must do."

She repeated the question, "So you don't condemn the operation?"

He replied again, "We can sit here until tomorrow morning to talk about the convictions. We must stop the cycle of violence, and this is what we must do, and we must search for the root cause of it."

On her Twitter page, the British broadcaster shortened the interview with the Palestinian ambassador, with his replies refusing to condemn the Jerusalem operation.

Kay: 15yr old boy kills 7 Israelis including a newly married couple helping the injured – do you condemn that? @hzomlot : Every life lost is a tragedy…

Kay: But do you condemn it?

Palestinian Ambassador: No.#KayBurley FC pic.twitter.com/vvI9toNNuK

— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) February 1, 2023

Zomlot's refusal to condemn the Jerusalem operation, which was carried out by a 21-year-old and not a 13-year-old, as the anchor said, sparked a wave of controversy, and soon he was attacked by several British media outlets, with headlines such as "Why does the Palestinian ambassador not condemn the killing of civilians?"

In "Spectator" magazine and "Palestinian ambassador refuses to condemn the terrorist attack" on the Jewish News Syndicate website.

Other tweeters asked whether Zomlot's refusal to condemnation was real, or if Burley had implicated him by briefly speaking in a small tweet.

Tim Jobsel said that what the British broadcaster did was a breach of journalistic ethics (Getty Images)

A question for the Palestinians only

In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Tim Jobsell, head of the "Independent Journalists - London Branch" of the Union of Journalists in Britain, commented that what came in the meeting was expected .. They do not ask Israeli officials whether they condemn the attacks on the Palestinians, but they always ask this question to Palestinian officials.

"This is neither racism nor Islamophobia, but absolute support for the Israelis. It is support for the United States. Israel is its favorite people and that's it," Jobsel added.

He is also the Official Press Ethics Officer for the British Federation of Journalists and was elected a member of the Federation's Ethics Council and is the supervisor of the Professional Code of Honor for Journalists in Britain.

Jobsel said that Zomlot "answered the fair answer because Israel does not show solidarity with the Palestinian victims. The anchor did not ask the same question to the Israeli ambassador."

He added, "The ambassador is not blamed because she has no moral obligation with regard to altering words or adhering to the journalistic code of honor, but the journalist is bound by the journalistic code of honor."

Jobsil described the anchor's brief tweet as "inaccurate".

He said, "This is not the only breach of media ethics. Rather, the broadcaster also violated the standards of professional ethics because she did not ask the same question to both sides."

He added, "The media covers every Israeli 'victim', but this does not happen with the Palestinian side, and of course this is a blatant bias in favor of the Israeli side."

He added, "Israel has no right to what it is doing, but here we are talking about ethics in the media and the balance in coverage between the two sides."

He said that many media professionals "failed to be consistent with the press code of honor when it comes to the Palestinian cause."

100 year old game

For his part, Ambassador Hossam Zomlot said, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the presenter's style is characterized by "double standards and bias."

He said, "We did not find, not once, insistence on the Israeli officials and their ambassadors to denounce and kill Palestinian civilians. Of course, the number of Palestinian victims is much higher."

Zomlot added, "The traditional Western international media game, in particular, is a 100-year-old game, since the Balfour Declaration until today. There is a continuous and systematic process of obscuring the atrocities committed by the occupation since the Nakba until now."

In his opinion, "Palestinian victims at the hands of the occupation forces are not covered, but when there are "victims" and dead Israelis, they cover up," as he put it.

The ambassador believes that "there is framing and ideology by limiting the story to specific terms and certain boxes, where the Palestinians are linked to violence while the vocabulary of the Israeli Western media is linked to defense, and I do not mean all media but specific platforms."

One Israeli attack killed 10 Palestinians and injured others in the Jenin camp at the end of last January (European)

Only when settlers are killed

Zomlot explained that he was only invited twice over the past three months to the media.

The first was when a 16-year-old Israeli boy was killed in Jerusalem, where he was invited for an interview on Channel 4, and the second time was the special interview on "Sky News" following the Jerusalem operation in which 7 Israelis were killed in front of a synagogue.

The ambassador said, "Between the two interviews, and during January only, 35 Palestinian civilians were killed in separate targeting and assassinations, and the Palestinian people faced a terrifying and unprecedented level of violence, but I was not invited to speak to the media."

During the period mentioned by Zomlot, the channels did not host the Israeli ambassador or ask her if she condemned the killings against the Palestinians, which Jobsell considered a clear violation of the ethics of journalism accepted in Britain.