Israel’s Ambassador to Britain. Aharon Remez, has been instructed to lodge a formal protest with the British Broadcasting Corp, over the inclusion of an unsubstantiated El Fatah propaganda claim in its world news broadcasts Sunday, it was learned here today. According to the El Fatah claim, 120 Israeli officers and soldiers were killed or wounded in an attack on an Army camp near Jericho. Israeli military spokesmen dismissed the claim as a typical Arab “pipe dream.” But it was featured on 12 BBC newscasts before a denial was broadcast. According to spokesmen here, the BBC correspondent in Israel could have easily verified the nature of the El Fatah claim since the latter gave the exact geographical position of the alleged attack. But the BBC man did not bother to ask the Foreign Ministry and waited ten hours before consulting military authorities about the authenticity of the El Fatah story. As a result, 15 hours elapsed between the first bulletin and the denial.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
