A state broadcaster that refused to call Hamas terrorists, provides a platform for hate speech calling for the death of Jews, and hands licence-fee payers' cash to the children of Hamas ministers. No, this isn’t an article about Al Jazeera.
Rather, a synopsis of the BBC. A platform which continues to cause serious damage to the Jewish community, apologises, and then does the same again. Rinse and repeat because the Jews don’t count.
If we Jews were even given a second thought, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper and one of the largest voices for UK Jews, the Jewish Chronicle, wouldn’t need a sub-section dedicated to the BBC’s antics.
What does that tell you? That the hate is so frequent that there needs to be a dedicated section for the national broadcaster, which certainly does not discourage it.
Unfortunately, nothing I’m telling you here is new. The BBC has swept their safeguarding efforts under the table for years, where the Jewish community is concerned.
Some of my clearest memories of the BBC date back to the disgusting coverage during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.
The way it spoke about innocent Israeli boys, taken hostage and ultimately murdered, was scarring.
More recent pain, however, will stain the BBC’s legacy for decades to come. By refusing to label those responsible for the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust as terrorists in the days following October 7, Director General Tim Davie and his team have written themselves into the wrong side of the history books.
To put it plainly and simply, I believe the BBC has monumentally failed in its responsibility to protect its Jewish viewers and listeners.
It’s the reason I cut ties as a freelance sports commentator and reporter. How could I represent a broadcaster who, as the recent controversies show, has done nothing to stop those who incite violence against Jews? Even if indirectly or ‘unintentionally’.
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|I had to quit the BBC over its disgusting Gaza coverage. Going to GB News restored my faith - Noah Abrahams
My decision is one I look back on with relief. A year working for a supportive and even-handed broadcaster in GB News somewhat re-instated my faith in UK journalism. It taught me the difference between people who pretend to care and those who genuinely do.
Recently, BBC Radio 5 Live asked if I would provide my take on the handling of Bob Vylan's Glastonbury coverage. I saved myself from the ambush, but told producers in no uncertain terms that as a Jewish people, we will not back down against any form of tyranny.
A memorable quote from this ugly and heavily antisemitic tainted debacle is from the BBC’s promise to “ensure proper accountability”.
We’ll dig that quote back out of the archives when the next documentary airs. Or perhaps at the next music festival.
The Jewish community wants to trust their state broadcaster, and under new leadership, with all antisemitic undertones from its coverage removed, there is no reason why bridges should remain burnt. However, for trust to be restored, changes have to be made.
If the BBC wants stereotypes gone, then the denial has to stop. Peter Johnston, the corporation’s independent head of Editorial Complaints and Reviews, found that the Gaza documentary “did not breach impartiality guidelines”.
That may be enough to please Mr Davie, but a large majority of those who make up the 0.5 per cent of Jews in the UK don’t buy it.
The Israeli embassy in the UK says that “to assert there was no breach of impartiality when the protagonist of the documentary was the 13-year-old son of a paid-up Hamas member is beyond comprehension”. The bigger question remains: how much money did the BBC pay the family of a minister for a proscribed terror group?
One could spend a whole day listing the BBC’s most damaging, dangerous and misleading pieces of coverage. We, as British Jews, may have to fund it.
However, we as British Jews will not tolerate it. George Orwell once said that “the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history”. We know our history, we’re proud of our ancestors, and we’ll protect our futures.
I wholeheartedly support the Campaign Against Antisemitism’s petition to defund the licence fee and would encourage each and every person to sign it to protect the safety of the British Jewish community.