BBC presenters given mugs with the message: Palestinians are under occupation

The BBC’s head of news and current affairs, and some of the organisation’s most senior presenters, have received innovative reminders this week that the Palestinians are an occupied people whose land is still being stolen from them.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign has sent its mugs, printed with maps showing just how much of their land Palestinians have lost to Israel since 1948, to BBC Broadcasting House in London.

James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, Today presenters, John Humphrys, Mishal Husain, Sarah Montague and James Naughtie, and News at Ten anchors, Fiona Bruce and Huw Edwards, were sent the mugs this week, along with letters reminding them who is the occupier and who is the occupied.

Sarah Colborne, Director of PSC, said the BBC needed the reminder in the wake of its one-sided reporting of October’s violence, which has seen more than 50 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in three weeks.

She added: “Despite the huge number of Palestinian fatalities, which have included children as young as two, the BBC’s reporting has focused on attacks on Israelis and presented the occupier as the victim.