BROOKE GLADSTONE: The BBC is in hot water with the State of Israel too. At issue now is the re-broadcast of a BBC documentary that examines Israel's nuclear capability -- not subject to inspection because Israel never signed a non-proliferation pact. [CLIP FROM DOCUMENTARY PLAYS - MUSIC]

FEMALE NARRATOR: This mysterious complex in the Negev Desert employed thousands of people - all sworn to secrecy. For years Israel called it a textile factor, never admitting its true purpose --making plutonium for bombs.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:The BBC, says Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's Government Press Office is always putting Israel, quote, "in some demonic context, not as a democracy fighting for survival." In light of this, Israel has decided to cut its ties with the BBC. Daniel Seaman joins me now on the line from Jerusalem. Welcome to the show.

DANIEL SEAMAN: Thank you very much.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So first off, can you explain what it means to "cut ties" with the BBC? What exactly does that entail?

DANIEL SEAMAN: Oh, just want to make one thing clear -- that we're not talking about a boycott -- so the BBC can continue maintaining offices in Israel and pursuing the stories. The cooperation that we have with the foreign press in Israel is not something that's written down in law. It's more an extension of the good will and the assistance of the government, and the thing is that with the BBC they're making it very difficult for us now to extend that good will to them.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:And that good will includes offering official spokesmen for BBC interviews, offering help in speeding through visas, and offering assistance through roadblocks in occupied territories, and that good will has at least for the time being been withdrawn.

DANIEL SEAMAN: Yes. To a large extent they'll be able to do the work but they won't -- if they get stuck in any way or they encounter bureaucracy, then they will not enjoy the assistance of our office.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:You said that the last straw was the network's re-broadcast about a week ago of a documentary dealing with Israel's unconventional weapons arsenal. What specifically in that documentary constituted the last straw?

DANIEL SEAMAN: In this particular program, we've seen it; it was obvious that there, there was no new news there; some of the things were trying to portray Israel in a very menacing light and not to mention a downright lie in the accusation of Israel using chemical weapons in Gaza -- we decided it wasn't worth making an issue out of but they're feeling it necessary to air it again -- and this following a program two weeks ago on the defensive fence that we're building to prevent terrorists from infiltrating Israel and murdering innocent Israeli civilians! They used this to prove that Israel has apartheid policy and is putting the Palestinians in ghettoes. Before that, they aired a program on the targeted killings policy of the State of Israel, and the targeted killings were put in the perspective of Israel supposedly violating international law -- never saying anything about the right to self-defense and that we're targeting ticking bombs. We finally reached a point in this particular program that we said enough is enough. We've exhausted all attempts on our part to try to reach a dialogue with the BBC, so we felt that there's no other avenue left.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But it certainly suggests by this action that the government is saying that it's not okay to criticize the State of Israel!

DANIEL SEAMAN:Not at all. That's not the issue. Israel has a free press here, and I [LAUGHS] -- sometimes the criticisms by the local press is greater than that from outside, so that's certainly not the problem. It's depicting Israel as being a police state -- as not respecting human rights -- and not respecting international law or singling out Israel which we see as the problem. And this kind of biased reporting is done almost on a daily basis by the BBC. Now they'll always assign some kind of title to the prime minister of Israel -- they'll call him the "right wing" or "the general" or always make a reference to Sabra and Shatilah. They don't do that when they speak about an Arab or about Yassir Arafat or a Palestinian leader. They don't say Yassir Arafat the terrorist or Yassir Arafat the murderer. They assign this to the Israeli prime minister in order to show that he's a war criminal. And this to de-legitimize the State of Israel.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:You know, though, some would call cutting off ties with the BBC a counter-productive public relations move on the part of the government. The network isn't going to stop reporting on Israel, but now it's more likely that the government will be seen by BBC reporters as antagonistic and secretive, maybe. Not to mention the incomplete picture that could be created when there are no Israeli spokesmen or women to counter the arguments made by the Palestinian side!

DANIEL SEAMAN: Well this could be true, but when you put it in the broader picture of things, then it's sending a clear message that we don't trust the BBC; there are Israelis [on] other news venues. The-- If we continue cooperating with them, then all we're doing is giving them a fig leaf in which they can hide behind and claim objectivity.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:With regard to the tone of the BBC programs, you did in one publication suggest that that tone was something akin to that of the Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer. Now I know that you've said that you're very careful when invoking the word "anti-Semitism" but in this case the implication is clear.

DANIEL SEAMAN: Obviously. It's not an easy thing to use and we don't use it politely. But when you break down the program, when you -- especially the last one -- when you look at the images; when you look at the innuendo and insinuation in direction of the State of Israel, we as a people have been through this in the past. When I saw the program, when I saw the promos -- all the alarms went off in my -- not in my head - in my gut. And these are things that are happening in the Arab media. From a Western news organization, I would expect them to be particularly sensitive to the way in which they depict the Jewish state.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Okay. Thank you very much.

DANIEL SEAMAN: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Daniel Seaman is director of Israel's Government Press Office. The BBC declined to be interviewed for this story, but Mark Herlihy from the BBC's Press Office sent this statement: "The BBC notes with regret the actions of the Israeli government in withdrawing some cooperation from BBC journalists and programs. these actions will not prevent us from continuing to cover events in Israel, the occupied territories, and the Middle East region with due professionalism and impartiality. The BBC rejects absolutely any charge of anti-Israel or anti-Semitic bias in any specific program or in its news coverage generally. We hope the government of Israel will reconsider its actions and work toward restoring the appropriate relationship with the BBC." He added that the BBC has not as of this broadcast received any notification from Israel that they are withdrawing their cooperation. [MUSIC]

BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, the politics of hydrogen, deregulation in reverse, and when baseball metaphors attack.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media from NPR.

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