Friday, October 7, 2005
Speaking of fictional histories, this BBC synopsis for the documentary, Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace, originally read:
The story of how Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak persuaded President Clinton to devote his last 18 months in office to helping make peace with Yasser Arafat. But Barak got cold feet twice. Then Ariel Sharon took a walk around Jerusalem's holiest mosques, and peace making was over.
After complaints, it has been changed to:
The story of how Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak persuaded President Clinton to devote his last 18 months in office to helping make peace with Yasser Arafat. But after tense negotiations the deal was never made.
Would you trust the people who wrote that first paragraph to tell you the story of the last few years of Middle East peacemaking?
I have to tell you, it took a lot of emailing to the powers that be in the BBC to get that wording changed...
If I hadn't seen the advert for the programme on telly last night, I'd never have known to have looked for it!