Does the BBC realise the hatred it fomented by its anti-Israel misreporting?
The BBC brand is global in its reach - and its Middle East coverage has an impact on wider public discourse
A headline in the Mail on Sunday, disclosing that BBC chiefs are set to review Middle East coverage, has induced a wry smile. Friends and supporters of Israel, even those with concerns about the tone and approach of the Netanyahu government, could not fail to see the paradox.
In the more than two years since 7 October, 2023, and the decades before that, the UK’s state broadcaster treated Israel as if it were a hostile state. There has been scant recognition that Israel is a Western ally standing firm against an arc of Islamist terror across the Middle East. Or that Israel is a critical partner for UK tech and telecoms, health care and trade.
The error strewn BBC broadcasts during the Gaza war, as outlined in a preliminary 13-page dossier, are totally unacceptable. Claims that the International Court of Justice had found ‘a possible cause of genocide’ and unsubstantiated charges of 14,000 Gazan babies at risk of starvation within 48-hours, were appalling distortions. And the list of such canards is endless.
But what is most troubling about the BBC broadcasts and endless criticism of Israel’s conduct in the liberal press is the underlying venom. The hostile tone demonstrates an unwillingness to understand what long-term damage unbalanced coverage has caused. The BBC is not just a national brand but global in its reach. Through the World Service, American news channels, the Arab service and its own websites and pickups on social media, it is more international than it has ever been.
As a great admirer of the BBC (I have the Archers omnibus on in the background as this is written) I always want it to succeed. My objective in criticism is not to dismantle a truly brilliant conveyer of news, culture and entertainment. I want the powers that be to better understand the impact its Mid-East coverage makes on the public discourse.
In the isolation cells of Broadcasting House, Salford, even the Jerusalem bureau, I fear that they don’t know what they do. The instinct of hostility to Israel is among the factors that threaten the latest review of the BBC Charter. Responsibility for replacing the licence may be put down to economic factors, a tumbling yield with young streamers refusing to pay. However, a loss of credibility through its tolerance of misogyny (until uncovered) and its Gaza coverage will be at the forefront.
As the pro-Palestinian anger has raged on British streets over the last two years how often did the BBC seek to understand how dangerous it has been in creating a hostile environment for British Jews? Coaches bringing marchers to central London do not come free.
Similarly, the carefully designed hate posters and technology required for a laser show on Big Ben do not happen without organised support. BBC Verify – the corporation’s truth squad – might have been better employed tracing the money, than trying to justify the BBC’s reporting of happenings in Gaza.
At no time did the news bulletins attempt to explain what a favourite slogan, ‘from the river to the sea’, really means. To achieve that pro-Palestinian ambition would mean removing a population of eight to nine million people, including two and half million or so of Israeli Arabs. It is through the undying work of charity The Abraham Initiatives (of which I am a trustee) that any internal tensions between Jews and Arabs, during the long Gaza war, have been kept at bay.
The slogan ‘Globalise the Intifada’ barely registered with many until the horrifying Chanukah killings at Bondi in Australia, and before that Heaton Park in Manchester. That mantra is no more than a pure invitation to evil, spreading an aggressive anti-Israel and antisemitic aggression – coming from Iran – around the globe. The idea that such sentiments, propagated and supported by a hostile state, could be eliminated by sitting down with march organisers and persuading them to lay down the placards is fantasy land.
It is only since Bondi that such sentiment has been seen as criminally threatening, not just to Jews but to Western democratic values. One accepts that political extremism in Israel is handing the country’s enemies and haters a weapon. Truth is that the weapon has been forged by BBC reporting and sharpened with biased and at times false narratives. The anti-Israel forces, so warmly embraced by parts of mainstream media, have big questions to answer.
They fomented hatred.
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