Anger as notorious anti-Israel director made a patron of top TV documentary body

A charitable organisation set up to honour the most talented people in the television documentary world is facing calls to review its decision to make a film director known for his extreme criticism of Israel a patron.

On Wednesday the Grierson Trust announced that Asif Kapadia had been appointmented one of three new patrons alongside Dorothy Byrne and Louis Theroux.

Grierson Trust Patrons, who include Sir David Attenborough and Sir Grayson Perry, represent the Trust by “lending their knowledge, influence and contacts to help bolster the charity’s work in fostering a strong, vibrant and diverse community of documentary filmmakers.”

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Confirming the new appointments Lorraine Heggessey, chair of the Grierson Trust said Kapadia “has elevated the feature documentary genre, drawing millions of people in to watch films on the big screen around the world.”

But the decision to honour Kapadia immediately sparked anger amongst some of the most high-profile Jewish figures in the industry who highlighted the BAFTA and Grammy Award-winning film director’s prolific attacks on Israel over social media including the sharing of a post on X that included a scene from the classic Schindler’s List Holocaust movie with the claim “The same thing is happening in real time. They are Nazis.”

Underneath the same post was a claim that Israeli soldiers were targeting children.

Kapadia also shared an openly antisemitic cartoon on X, which depicted Benjamin Netanyahu dining on a blood-soaked table with a dead baby on it, with the caption “kosher” above his head.

Amongst numerous other posts, Kapadia shared a claim by the pro-Iranian activist Richard Medhurst that claim Israel is facing an “unprecedented crisis” as “their bogus claims of antisemitism” were being ignored and that “Everyone can see Zionism’s true colours.”

Film producer Leo Pearlman is now openly critical of the Grierson Trust’s decision to make Kapadia a patron, demanding to know why its trustees and management team had not seen the documentary maker’s “social media posts that referred to Israelis as Nazis” and his “reposting of a disgusting cartoon” featuring Netanyahu.

Broadcaster Neil Grant also said the Grierson Trust’s decision had left him “aghast” adding they had overlooked “the enormous offense and insensitivity the appointment Asif Kapadia has now caused within the Jewish community and from amongst Jewish colleagues. ”

Grant added:”This isn’t a debate about the pros and cons of the current Middle East conflict, this is about calling out unequivocally anti-Jewish hatred. We cannot remain quiet given the level of antisemitism we are daily confronting. ”

Both Pearlman and Grant also raised an incident last year when a person made antisemitic statements to a number of Jewish individuals at the U.K.’s Grierson Documentary Awards.

Following an investigation, the person, who was female, was banned from attending the awards, and other events organised by them in any capacity for the next 10 years, in a move aimed at repairing tensions with the Jewish community.

Referencing this move, both Pearlman and Grant asked why the Grierson Trust’ would “bestow the honour of patronage” on “an individual who has stated far worse, far more often..”

They both called for the Trust to now review the decison to make Kapadia a patron.

Jewish News has contacted the Grierson Trust for comment.