UK Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot criticised the BBC’s coverage of Israel-Palestine during on-air clash with a BBC presenter Lewis Vaughan Jones, who pressed the diplomat to condemn Hamas’ Saturday attack on Israel.

The interview began with Jones asking Zomlot what went through his head when he first heard about Saturday’s attack.

Zomlot responded: “Regret that the international community has not heeded our warnings for all the years. Regret that this was allowed to fester for decades. Regret that there is attention now, on the be BBC and all over the world, only because blood has been spilled… I wish we did not get to this moment.”

“So you listed a number of things you regret there. Do you regret the loss of innocent life in Israel?” Jones furthered.

“Every loss of life is regrettable, of course, and tragic. Absolutely,” the diplomat replied.

Coughing and interrupting Zomlot, Jones sought to bring the interview back from historical context to push for condemnation of the Hamas attack.

Zomlot replied that this was “not the right question” before Jones insisted it was an “important question.” The debate became more heated when Jones accused Zomlot of refusing to condemn the violence.

He said: “You just condemned Israel for killing civilians and you won’t condemn Hamas for killing civilians.”

“How many times has Israel committed war crimes?” Zomlot responded. “Right live on your own cameras? Do you start by asking them to condemn themselves? Have you? You don’t? You don’t?

In a lengthy response, Zomlot went on to accuse the BBC and Western media of disparity in coverage: “And the mainstream media for 75 years. You bring us here whenever it is the Israelis who are killed. Did you bring me here when many Palestinians in the West Bank [were killed], more than 200 over the last few months? Do you invite me when there are such Israeli provocations in Jerusalem and elsewhere?

He continued: “What Israelis have seen [in the recent Hamas attack], which we started by saying tragic, the last 48 hours, the Palestinians see every day for the last 50 years. You know, the situation in Gaza, you’ve just described it. This is the biggest open-air prison.”

Zomlot, who was appointed head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK in October 2018, has been a vocal critic of the BBC’s coverage of the region.

In April the diplomat announced he would boycott the broadcaster over what he called its “unethical editorial policy.” This came after a wave of online criticism over a BBC headline described al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem as a “contested holy site.” Following backlash the headline was subsequently changed.

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