Hadar SELA FEB 10, 2019
In
a recent conversation about antisemitism in Britain, an Israeli journalist
commented, “Of course you won’t see antisemitism in the British media.” That
assumption – however logical it may seem – is, sadly, not correct.
While
the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of
antisemitism has been adopted by the British government and many other
countries, the world’s biggest and most influential media organization, the
BBC, still does not work according to that – or any other – accepted
definition.
Viewers
of BBC coverage of events following the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo and
Hypercacher supermarker terrorist attacks in Paris in saw an interview with a
French-Israeli woman who expressed concern about Jews being targeted in France.
The
BBC journalist promptly retorted, “Many critics, though, of Israel’s policy
would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.”
Accepted
definitions of antisemitism include “holding Jews collectively responsible for
actions of the state of Israel.” However, the BBC rejected the many complaints
subsequently submitted, taking it upon itself to define what is and what is not
antisemitism.
The
BBC repeatedly fails to properly identify antisemitism in British politics, and
has facilitated the amplification of antisemitic tropes such as “the Jewish
lobby.” When the BBC has decided to explain antisemitism to its audiences it
has more often than not promoted the Livingstone Formulation (the accusation
that a person raising the issue of antisemitism is doing so in bad faith and
dishonestly), stating, “Others say the Israeli government and its supporters
are deliberately confusing anti-Zionism with antisemitism to avoid criticism.”
The
Community Security Trust’s report on antisemitic incidents in the UK during the
first half of 2018 includes a photograph showing antisemitic graffiti reading
“Jews kill children,” found in the town of Leicester in May 2018. Why would
such graffiti, with all of its medieval overtones, appear in 21st-century
Britain? In late 2012, the BBC vigorously promoted a story claiming that the
infant son of one of its own employees in the Gaza Strip had been killed in an
Israeli airstrike. Four months later, a report issued by the UN stated its
investigation found that the child’s death had, in fact, been caused by “a
Palestinian rocket that fell short.” However, the damage caused by the BBC’s
widespread promotion of an unverified story had already been done, and the
following year, anti-Israel demonstrators were seen in London carrying placards
bearing an image from that story with the slogan “65 years of murder.”
In
2017, the BBC’s Yolande Knell promoted a story about a baby born in the Gaza
Strip who died of congenital heart disease, and claimed that Israel had not
given him a permit to exit the territory.
Yet,
Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said
no such request had even been received from the Palestinian Authority. A
similarly unverified and anonymous story was recently aired on one of the BBC’s
domestic TV channels.
Last
May, the BBC produced several reports claiming that a baby named Leila al
Ghandour had died in the Gaza Strip after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces.
Although Hamas subsequently removed her name from its casualty list – and
despite BBC Watch corresponding with the BBC since June 2018 on the issue – the
claim that Israel was responsible for her death still appears on the BBC News
website.
When Britain’s most influential
and trusted broadcaster promotes unverified stories about the deaths of
children in the Gaza Strip again and again, is it really any wonder such
antisemitic graffiti appears on a Leicester street?
