Tiberias, a city in north-eastern Israel on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, has had a Jewish majority since the inception of the British Mandate in 1922, according to the website Encyclopedia Britannica.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) reported the mistake to the broadcaster, which proceeded to republish the video with the correct footage.
A spokesperson from Camera told the JC: “Tiberias is a city with a continuous Jewish presence since the 1700s at least.
“By implying that it is a 'settlement' while regularly referring to nearby Arab communities, some far newer, as 'villages' or 'towns', BBC Arabic fuels the antisemitic stereotype according to which Israel's Jews can never be truly indigenous to the land.
“More broadly speaking, given the BBC's long standing and disproportionate focus on Jewish 'settlements', one might expect BBC Arabic editors to at least know what they look like."
The same video also featured an image of a Syrian village, outside the Israeli Golan, with the subtitles: "The settlements are considered illegal according to international law.” The footage was later corrected after Camera’s complaint was raised.
In an email to Camera seen by the JC, a spokesperson from BBC news said: “We apologise for the errors but also do not accept the interpretation of these errors as 'racism'.”
It comes as the broadcaster is facing scrutiny after using the son of a senior Hamas official as a narrator in its documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
Last week, BBC Chair Samir Shah admitted “serious failings” in the development of the documentary, which he told a parliamentary select committee were a “dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s reputation.
He said that the topic of Middle East coverage would form the basis of the BBC’s next “thematic review” – an annual report compiled by independent media consultants assessing a specific area of the broadcaster’s news output.
This is not the first time the BBC has described internationally recognised Israeli territory as settlements.
On a post on the BBC Arabic website from November 15, 2024, an image was published of the western outskirts of Palestinian village, Za'tara, with the caption: “A Palestinian man looking at an Israeli settlement".
On receiving a complaint from Camera, the broadcaster apologised and changed the caption to: “A Palestinian man looks at a village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.”
The original caption read: 'A Palestinian man looking at an Israeli settlement.' (BBC Arabic)[Missing Credit]
In another video on BBC Arabic from May 22, 2024, about “which countries recognise a Palestinian state and which ones oppose it”, a voiceover said: “[The issue of] Israeli settlements remain[s] without a solution.”
The Palestinian town of Eizariya featured in the original BBC Arabic video before it was amended. (BBC Arabic)[Missing Credit]
The narration occurs when footage of the Palestinian town of Eizariya, bordering East Jerusalem, is shown.
Following a complaint from Camera, the broadcaster amended the video.
A BBC spokesperson told the JC: “BBC News Arabic is committed to reporting news from across the Middle East accurately and impartially. When mistakes are made, we acknowledge them and make the appropriate corrections.”
