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Rabat – BBC presenter Lucy Hockings has sparked further uproar for interrupting a Palestinian man and preventing him from speaking about Israeli occupation forces’ war on Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian man was Karim Ali, the co-founder of Gaza Sunbirds, a professional para-cycling team in the Gaza Strip.
In a televised interview, the BBC presenter stirred indignation as she interrupted Karim when discussing the situation in Gaza.
Disrupting his remarks on Israeli aggression targeting civilians over the 77 days of the war, she sarcastically said: “And civilians have been dying.”
The presenter said her remarks while smiling to convey disbelief over what Karim said.
Persistently cutting off Karim during his statement, the presenter dismissed his efforts to emphasize the gravity of the situation in Gaza.
She then concluded the interview with a dismissive: “Karim, you’ve had your say.”
Many also expressed anger and astonishment over the BBC presenter’s choice of words.
While she referred to civilian Palestinians massacred by Israeli occupation forces, she used “civilians are dying” in an attempt to avoid using terms like “massacre” or “killing” and to mask the Israeli forces’ involvement. Meanwhile, when discussing Israelis, the presenter used the term “killed.”
The situation sparked uproar worldwide, with many condemning BBC’s biased approach to the Israeli war on Palestinians since October 7.
Many have taken to social networks to condemn the BBC’s biased reporting.
“Stop the #GENOCIDE in GAZA. The BBC & other mainstream media are complicit in the ongoing GENOCIDE in GAZA & are whitewashing the GENOCIDE & the israeli apartheid WAR CRIMES. ‘Karim, you’ve had your say!’ A BBC presenter cuts off a Palestinian describing the situation in #Gaza,” one commenter said on X, formerly Twitter.
Another one described the BBC Presenter’s acts as “one of the most disgusting things” she ever witnessed from a BBC presenter.
“And there’s a lot to choose from,” the X user added.
This is not the first time the BBC has received similar remarks for its barefaced bias.
In October, Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zolmot lashed out at BBC’s approach to covering Israel’s relentless shelling of Gaza.
BBC presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones hosted the ambassador in October following the launch of the disastrous war on Palestinian civilians.
The BBC host asked the Palestinian diplomat whether he “condemned” Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
Zolmot unsurprisingly declined to answer the question and asked the BBC host whether he has ever asked the same question of the hundreds of Israeli officials he has hosted in previous interviews.
“How many times has Israel condemned war crimes live in front of your own cameras? Do you start by asking them to condemn themselves? Have you? You don’t. I’ll answer those questions; you don’t,” Zolmot said.
In October, Tunisian journalist Bassen Bouenni resigned from the BBC, citing his professional conscience as the reason for his departure.
In the same month, the Guardian reported that the BBC received 1,500 complaints over coverage of the ongoing Israeli aggression.
The news outlet added that complaints split evenly between those saying that BBC reporting has been biased against Israel and those who said the contrary.
BBC responded to the complaints, saying: “We understand that this is an extremely worrying time for people not only in the region, but also in the UK and around the world, and we have reflected this in our coverage.”
