BBC urged to hand police details of caller denouncing Jews and their “rule” over British society
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BBC urged to hand police details of caller denouncing Jews and their “rule” over British society

Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist

By Jenni Frazer

A plea has been made for the BBC to hand over to the police details of an anti-Semitic phone caller.
A plea has been made for the BBC to hand over to the police details of an anti-Semitic phone caller.

A plea has been made for the BBC to hand over to the police details of a phone-in caller, after the man spent nearly 13 minutes on a radio programme denouncing Jews and their “rule” over British society. 

In a phone call to BBC London’s Simon Lederman programme on Tuesday, December 22, the man, introduced as “Andy from St Margaret’s”, began by saying: “They are trying to control us more and more and more. They want to put a chip up our backsides, a ring through our noses, and a vizor for our horizons… the elite… the Rothschilds”.

The presenter, Simon Lederman, who is Jewish, started the exchange – which took place at 5am – by saying that it was a “phone-in amnesty” and that “within obvious limits”, the caller could say “whatever is on your mind”.

Immediately the caller began to complain of “Zionist Jews”, insisting, in a well-known antisemitic trope, that Jews did not come from Palestine but from “an empire called Khazaria.” He said: “Most of the Jews of the world come from eastern Europe, from a place called originally, an empire called Khazaria… The Rothschilds, the people who own the Bank of England, the people who own the Federal Reserve, they’re all Zionist Jews. The people who own corporate America, the media, you’ll find if you just do a little bit of research, they’re all Zionist Jews. We are ruled by Zionist Jews.”

The caller’s comments continued with a long and bad-tempered rant in which he complained of an obsession with the Holocaust and repeated: “We are dominated by the Jews’ system, the financial Jewish system.”

“We keep going on about the Jews… mainstream media, they keep banging on about the Jews and the Holocaust… we keep going on about six million Jews.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “The aim of the programme is to discuss and debate issues raised by our listeners. This was a live phone in and the caller was challenged on his views through out the conversation. Following the interview reaction from other listeners was also broadcast. As of yet we’ve had no formal request from the police for the caller’s details.”

Board of Deputies vice president Marie Van Der Zyl said:  “It is disgraceful that an obviously antisemitic caller was able to speak for 13 minutes on air  in a way which was likely to incite racial hatred against Jews. We call on the BBC to hand his details to the police so that action can be brought against him and also explain why they did not cut the caller off when it was clear that his views were virulently racist.”

Jonathan Sacerdoti, director of communication at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Even for the BBC this is shocking. In this broadcast the radio presenter simply allowed an ignorant racist to speak for nearly quarter of an hour while offering no counter-argument, correction or condemnation of his views that Jews control money, banks, commerce and the media. We expect the BBC to now hand the caller’s telephone number to the police.”

Listen to the programme HERE

 

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