BBC no longer needs to reform its Arabic channel. It needs shutting down

In 2011, revelations about phone-hacking at The News of The World led the newspaper to be seen as a toxic liability. In particular, after facts emerged in relation to the murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler, it became simply too damaging and embarrassing to its owners, and they summarily shut it down. There was no agonising or public debate. The owners just announced on 7 July 2011 that it was closing, and on 10 July its final edition was published.

I suggest the moment has now arrived for the BBC to take the same decisive action at its Arabic Service.

BBC World’s News Arabic has become a toxic embarrassment that has been shown to incite Israel hate and Jew-hate and has been doing so for a significant number of years. It needs to be axed.

Phone-hacking at the NoW caused regrettable anguish to Millie Dowler’s family; it caused discomfort and embarrassment to a number of high-profile celebrities. It was shut down. So how much more urgent is it to axe News Arabic with its overt anti-Israel bias that has fuelled Israel-hate and antisemitism and, who knows, may have contributed to Jews being targeted in Manchester on Yom Kippur.

In 2021 an investigation revealed numerous examples of apparent anti-Israel bias by BBC Arabic News, suggesting the Arabic service consistently flouted the corporation’s own impartiality guidelines in its Middle East coverage.

As well as systematically downplaying terror attacks on Israelis, the alleged infringements included repeatedly using Islamist-inspired language and showcasing extreme views without challenge.

The service published a map in which Israel was erased, while a dossier detailing alleged breaches found an average of one correction per month for two years in response to “mistakes” in its coverage.

BBC Arabic has also regularly given a platform to Abdel Bari Atwan, who declared on Lebanese TV that he would “go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight” if Iran attacked Israel.

In May 2020, BBC Arabic featured social media comments celebrating a sci-fi drama envisioning Israel’s destruction. More recently, social media posts from the Arabic service have been at the centre of controversy, with accusations that its channels have hosted and failed to moderate comments and content that appears to support Hamas.

There are instances of staff allegedly liking posts that celebrate terror attacks on Israel, expressing solidarity with Hamas, praising Hitler and promoting conspiracy theories about Jews.

Hate speech targeting an Israeli football reporter remained on its YouTube channel and Facebook pages for more than three weeks, whilst a post on a BBC Arabic YouTube page calls on “ God” to “not leave a single Jew around.”

It is worth noting that when offensive comments have been posted with regard to other subjects — such as following the death of the Queen — BBC Arabic locked its social media sites.

In the 2021 report, whistleblowers described a “toxic atmosphere” in the BBC Arabic newsroom that left staff  “afraid to voice their concerns” about bias, and describing the BBC Arabic department in Broadcasting House as like stepping “into a world with different standards.”

A leading expert on journalism in the Arab world said “journalists working for BBC Arabic often saw themselves as ‘non-elected representatives of their people’. As such, the expert claimed, some follow their own ideologies rather than BBC guidelines and those who did not conform to the prevailing culture reported “discrimination” in the newsroom.

Although senior BBC officials insist the Arabic service has “exactly the same principles of accuracy and impartiality as BBC News in English,” insiders suggest that the language-barrier may lead to [Arabic-speaking] producers and reporters “playing BBC senior people for fools.”

Arnold Roth, who won an apology from the BBC after its Arabic service broadcast a “fawning” interview with the terrorist who killed his 15-year-old daughter in a 2001 terror attack in Jerusalem, said there was “a toxic culture at BBC Arabic” and said his encounter with senior BBC management made him feel “they don’t know what’s going on. “No credible news organisation should ever give a platform to someone who boasts of blowing children to pieces,” he said.

There is another consideration that may appeal to the chairman and board of a beleaguered institution alleged to be institutionally biased against Israel; alleged to be antisemitic and under fire for actively promoting a Palestinian narrative – all confirmed, for those who claim such allegations are a “Zionist conspiracy,” by that hefty memo from BBC insider, Michael Prescott.

And that consideration is craven self-interest, since the even more overt anti-Israelism clearly visible at BBC News Arabic is inflicting further damage across the BBC, axing a service – funded in part by licence fee – could help the rest of the BBC to survive.

Four years ago an insider said that if the BBC wanted “to protect its reputation for impartiality, it needs to reform its Arabic channel.”

The BBC’s reputation for impartiality has now been brutally and deservedly shredded. It no longer needs to reform its Arabic channel. It needs to shut it down.

• Jan Shure is a writer, editor and blogger