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Israel-Palestine: BBC failed to declare Richard Kemp’s links to IDF [1]
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Date: 2023-11
BBC Newsnight failed to declare that a military expert it presented as an independent commentator is a director of a charity bankrolled by the Israeli army.
Appearing on the BBC’s flagship daily news and current affairs programme last week to discuss the war in Gaza and pro-Palestine marches in the UK, Colonel Richard Kemp was introduced as “a former army officer and terrorism expert who sat on the government’s Joint Intelligence Committee”.
But what host Kirsty Wark did not mention was that Kemp is also a director and trustee of an organisation that both raises money for and is funded by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
The findings were made by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based charity that records, investigates and disseminates evidence of armed violence against civilians worldwide.
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AOAV has uncovered at least 80 articles in national and international news outlets – from The Telegraph to Newsweek and the Daily Mail – that have cited Kemp’s opinion on the unfurling horror of Gaza and Israel in the past month.
None has mentioned his role as the head of the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS), the UK branch of AWIS, an Israeli organisation managed by the IDF and headed by General Yoram Yair.
UK-AWIS, the charity part-run by Kemp, appears to blur the lines between raising money for individual soldiers’ welfare and for the IDF's institutional benefit.
Its mission is to relieve the “need and suffering of serving and discharged Israeli soldiers and their families”, as well as supporting their education and providing recreation facilities, according to documents filed to the Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales.
People visiting the UK-AWIS website can make donations for various ‘welfare’ items for current and former combat soldiers, including the construction of gyms and the provision of scholarships.
But potential donors are also given the option to contribute to an IDF “wish list” of core medical equipment, including ventilators, ambulances, field hospital tents and machines to monitor the heart.
Other donation options include “Adopt an IDF combat unit” (£75,000) or contribute to the “IDF Enlistment Festival” (£140,000).
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-newsnight-failed-declare-richard-kemp-link-idf-israel-army-gaza-palestine/
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