Hollow Cause

Today, 27th January, is Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, marking the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union on this date in 1945. It has been held on this date since as recently as 2001.

Some might question whether we should be still commemorating such atrocities as occurred in that dreadful death factory and many others under the Nazi's sickeningly named "final solution" nearly seventy years ago, but remember we must. The evil that man does was not liberated on that day, but dispersed instead to new sites of atrocity- like Cambodia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and...

Wherever it happens, human suffering and death caused by the loveless acts of other humans is unfathomable, unacceptable, almost unforgiveable- yet somehow those tragic survivors of even the Holocaust have done this since 1945. Their strength of spirit speaks volumes, and destroys the power of the hatred of their perpetrators. Burning coals indeed to the death mongers. Even as a man of strong faith, could I ever do the same? Please God by grace I could.

Yet I find it hard indeed to forgive the pathetic excuses trotted out by the British Broadcasting Corporation this week for failing to broadcast a humanitarian aid appeal by Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee in the wake of the immense human suffering in Gaza following the recent events there. The BBC's management have decreed that a three-minute charity appeal to the public to give money for the relief of human suffering, with no political agenda at all, should not be broadcast on any of their TV or radio outlets Why? Because it might threaten the BBC's editorial impartiality in news reporting!

This decision seems almost as unbelievable as the horrors must have have been to the cinemagoers seeing the scenes filmed by the lenses of news cameras which was finally revealed in Poland when the death camps were liberated in 1945. Years of human misery came before the world's eyes and aid and relief, practical and financial, followed despite the political turmoil and the difficulties left by six years of war. It was a natural, basic human reaction to the suffering of other humans.

So when in the name of God- whether that God is the one named by Muslims, Christians, Jews or indeed even any non-believer with a shred of common humanity and decency- did impartiality become a superior virtue to compassion? I am sickened and shamed by the actions of BBC management- it damages the reputation of our nation as much as our national broadcaster and is truly inexplicable.

The BBC motto below its crest reads "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation". It was influenced, I think, by the passage in the Hebrew bible which speaks of a future time when "swords shall be turned into ploughshares", a time we all hope for- long for. Yet for much of the early part of this new year, that hope seems as far off as ever in Gaza, in an area which sometimes seems so poorly named "the Holy Land" and where others are still attempting a final solution. A final solution to the carnage and the charnel houses through the tools of war, through bombs and rockets, feebly through diplomacy, or through terror, prejudice and the same words of vitriol and violence which really flamed the crematorium fires of Auschwitz.

No side is blameless here, there is no easy solution to the legacy of thousands of years of seemingly conflicting beliefs and intransigent warmongering. But what we cannot solve, we must at least salve- with medicine, food, shelter and water, regardless of the identity and the cause of perpetrator or victim. That is what decency demands, and what the DEC are trying to achieve. Seemingly the precious BBC has a different view of decency to the great majority of those who pay for them in the first place through their licence fee.

I am not taking the step that many have done over these last few days by way of protest at this astounding decision. I have not burnt my TV licence, and I am still watching BBC programmes. But I cannot stomach the hypocrisy of the corporation right now and most especially of its motto. Which is why I have removed the BBC crest as the visual masthead to my blog entry for 4th July 2007. That, the day when "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are so fervently commemorated in the USA which has so recently welcomed a new Commander-in-Chief, was also when captured former BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, was released from his long captivity. There was another man who one could only admire for his courage and yet his gentle and mild manner on his release.

What a shame, in the original sense of the word, that Mr Johnston's boss, the Director General of the BBC Mark Thompson, a devout Roman Catholic, could not put the message behind Jesus Christ's parable of the good Samaritan ahead of the message that the BBC cannot take sides. Two people walked on by and did nothing for the suffering victim of other's crimes in the parable, but a Samaritan- hated by the Jews of the time- ignored questionable, dogmatic religious rules and instead did what we should all do in such a situation- help!

Last Sunday marked the conversion of St Paul, once the chief Jewish persecutor of the early Christian church who was responsible for the killing of many believers in that same Holy land, even the Holy City of Jerusalem, twenty centuries ago. Yet he brought a life-changing message of hope, love and forgiveness to people of so many lands and cultures. Today of all days, can we not hope that the conveyors of both good and bad news today can yet see the folly of their way, reverse this mad decision and allow the DEC to publicise this just cause, right away?

Meantime, the link from my title today will take you to the DEC website, should you want to give money where the BBC will not give airtime.