Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has expressed its strong disappointment with Sky News for accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. In a recent news item  dealing with a U.N report on house demolitions in the West Bank, the item carried the headline ‘Ethnic Cleansing’.

Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chair of The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, issued the following statement:

“I really expected more sensitivity and accuracy from Sky News.

While Sky News is entitled to carry a report from the U.N, biased and prejudiced as it may be, they are not entitled to defame and malign Israel by accusing it of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Such an incendiary and extreme anti-Israel slur does not belong in a respected news channel, and only serves to bolster those Israel haters who wish to advance a shameful agenda that associates the Jewish state with Nazi Germany and with other genocidal regimes.

This false, inflammatory and offensive charge has long been part of a campaign to demonise and delegitimize the Jewish state.  There has never been an Israeli ideology or policy to exterminate or expel the Palestinian population. Over the four decades, the population growth rate in the West Bank has been over 200 percent greater than among Israelis.

Since the founding of the State of Israel, there have been Arabs who are full citizens of the state with equal rights, and Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is the one place people of all races and religions can live freely. We call on Sky News to apologise for this error and to ensure that such offensive and misguided rhetoric, which does nothing to advance a greater understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is not used again.”

J-Wire asked Sky News to comment but has received no response.

For the full J-Wire article:http://www.jwire.com.au/sky-news-ethnic-cleansing/