Raffi Berg is a television news journalist who has been Middle East Editor at the BBC since 2013. He has almost complete control of BBC's online coverage of Israel's war on Gaza and is ensuring that all events are reported with a pro-Israel bias. According to an investigation by Owen Jones, published by Drop Site News on 28 December 2024, thirteen current and former staff members have exposed that Berg exerts tight control over the broadcaster’s coverage of the war, ensuring that all reports favour Israel.[1]
Dehumanising Palestinians
Staff have stated that BBC coverage consistently dehumanises Palestinians while ignoring the crimes being committed by Israel, which has resulted in the deaths of nearly 45,500 Palestinians. One former journalist revealed that Berg’s role is to “water down everything that’s too critical of Israel.” Another source described Berg’s power as overwhelming, with a strong internal culture of Israeli propaganda at the BBC.
Downplaying reports
Berg’s influence over the narrative is evident in the downplaying of significant reports, such as Amnesty International’s documentation of Israeli genocide in Gaza. In this case, Berg emphasised Israel’s denial, using the headline “Israel rejects ‘fabricated’ claims of genocide” and delayed the story’s publication for 12 hours. This report was not covered by the BBC’s flagship programs like News At One or Newsnight.[2]
Mossad book
On August 23, 2020, Berg posted an image of Israel's Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu taking a phone call at his desk. In his post, Berg has zoomed in on and circled a copy of
Red Sea Spies visible on a bookshelf behind the prime minister. "First time I’ve been on a prime minister's bookshelf! I know I’ve got one of #Israel PM @netanyahu’s books on mine—but wow!", Berg twitted.
[3]
The story for his 2020 book Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad's Fake Diving Resort, a puff piece for the agency, was handed to Berg by a Mossad operative[4] Berg received extensive cooperation from Mossad for the book, including over 100 hours of interviews of past and present agents and Navy and Air Force personnel. In an interview to promote the book, Berg said he collaborated on the project with "Dani," a former senior Mossad commander he described as a "legend" who later became "a very close friend."[5]
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