Government urged to close media loophole after antisemitism aired by UK based channel

The government is facing renewed questions about the ability of extremist media organisations to operate in the UK, after a London based Arabic-language TV Channel ran an interview in which an individual claimed that “on Jewish Passover they have to get a gentile child – a non-Jewish child – and knead the matzah they eat in the morning with his blood.”

Al-Hiwar, a TV channel based in Acton, West London, ran an interview with Dr Mona Sobhy, an Egyptian family therapist, last week, in which she claimed that Israel “is the offspring of Western culture”, where Jews have been gathered “in order to get rid of their traditions, the problems they cause, and their usury”.

In the interview, which was translated by the MEMRI (Middle East Media and Research Institute) watchdog, which referred to Al-Hiwar as a “Muslim Brotherhood TV channel”, Sobhy cited what she called “a very famous story in the Levant, in Damascus…it used to be a Christian neighbourhood, but on Jewish Passover they have to get a gentile child – a non-Jewish child – and knead the matzah they eat in the morning with his blood.”

At this point the interviewer interjected, but only to affirm the existence of what they referred to as “the blood matzah”.

Sobhy went on to claim that the Jews “couldn’t find” a child, because “the Muslims would take precautions, and hide their children before Passover. They would not let them go out to the street. The neighbourhoods were closed down, and no stranger could go in.

“So they found themselves in a pickle, they needed gentile blood. So they had no choice but to trick one priest, who worked as a doctor and would do rounds, with his bag and everything. They told him ‘we have someone sick in the Jewish neighbourhood’, and they killed him and took his blood. It is hatred towards Islam, towards Christianity, and all the non-Jewish communities.”

The interview itself was reportedly filmed in Turkey, but subsequently run by Al-Hiwar. CST, the key security organisation for the Jewish community in the UK, published a report about Al-Hiwar last year, detailing how the channel has “repeatedly broadcast content that is at least sympathetic to, and at times appears to be supportive of, Hamas, a proscribed terror organisation”. The report also described how “other programmes broadcast by Al-Hiwar include antisemitic views and expressions of hostility towards Jews, especially by viewers via phone-in shows. Sometimes this is challenged by the show’s host, but at other times it is broadcast without any challenge and without the caller being cut off by Al-Hiwar.”

The CST report also noted that “Currently, if a viewer watches Al-Hiwar via its existing satellite broadcast, the content is regulated according to the Broadcasting Code. However, if that same viewer watches that same programme on the same TV via YouTube, on Al-Hiwar’s official branded YouTube channel, it is subject to a different regulatory framework. This is nonsensical and ought to be changed.”

At the time, Ofcom responded to a story in The Times by saying that “Al Hiwar stopped broadcasting in the UK in 2023, and prior to that, we twice found it in breach of our rules. Our Broadcasting Code does not apply to its YouTube channel.”

MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky said:

“Dr. Sobhy’s interview on the London-based Hiwar TV is a blatant example of incitement and reflects the Muslim Brotherhood’s long-standing strategy of spreading antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and hatred. Her remarks revive the medieval blood libel—one of history’s oldest and most dangerous antisemitic falsehoods. It is deeply disturbing that, in 2026, such rhetoric is being broadcast from the United Kingdom, where Islamist networks and jihadist supporters continue to operate and where the Jewish community faces an increasingly hostile threat environment.”

Salinsky went on to describe the clip as “significant for another reason: it illustrates how the Muslim Brotherhood continues to operate from Turkey, where it enjoys close ties to the government and, alongside Qatar, maintains one of its most important international bases. Through years of monitoring the Muslim Brotherhood, MEMRI has documented extensive links between Brotherhood networks in Turkey and individuals and organizations operating in the UK. Those connections have become increasingly visible at the same time that violent antisemitism and Islamist extremism have escalated across Britain.

“The British government should view this as a serious warning. Rather than allowing the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated networks to continue operating with relative freedom, it should undertake a comprehensive review of the organization’s activities, finances, institutions, and influence inside the UK. Britain should also consider following the example of the Trump Administration, which designated the Muslim Brotherhood’s branches in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). Allowing the Brotherhood’s ideology and infrastructure to flourish unchecked risks further fuelling radicalization, antisemitism, and threats to public security.”

A CST spokesperson said: “This is exactly the type of content that demonstrates why the current regulatory loophole is so dangerous. Al-Hiwar has previously used its status as a UK-based broadcaster to provide a platform for extremist and antisemitic views, and this latest example appears to be another instance of blatant antisemitic propaganda being broadcast to a large audience.

“As CST highlighted in our research, content that may attract regulatory scrutiny when broadcast on television can still be disseminated through the same broadcaster’s official YouTube channel, reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers while falling outside the scope of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. That creates a significant gap in the regulatory framework and allows harmful antisemitic narratives of this nature to be spread with insufficient oversight. The continued availability of such content underlines the need for government, regulators and platforms to address this loophole as a matter of urgency.”

The 1840 “Damascus Affair” saw the disappearance of a monk and his servant while in the Jewish Quarter. At the urging of Christian authorities and the local French consul, who was already known for antisemitism, Jews were arrested and tortured until they ‘confessed’ to the crime of killing the pair to use the blood for Passover Matza. Scores of Jewish children were then held as hostages by the local authorities in an attempt to pressure their mothers to ‘reveal’ the location of the blood. The incident led to a soaring number of antisemitic attacks on the city’s Jewish community from both Muslims and Christians.

The Ottoman Empire was in a period of intense upheaval at the time, which had aided in the countenancing of the falsehood. It was only later that year, when Istanbul retook control of Syria, that all charges were dropped and Sultan Abdülmecid I issued a public announcement decrying the blood libel accusations, saying “We cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth.”

Despite the complete falsehood of the charges against the Jewish community, the historic accusation has become widely accepted as fact within the Arab world within the last few decades. It was promoted by Senior Officials within Syria’s Assadist regime, most notably the Minister of Defence, Mustafa Tlass, and was later popularised in Egypt via articles published by one of Egypt’s widest-selling daily papers, Al Akhbar, in 2000 and 2001.

A spokesperson for the CAMERA UK media watchdog said: “”It seems Al Hiwar’s management would rather have the British public believe their output merely targets Zionists, ignoring that the vast majority of Jews identify as such. In reality, it endangers all Jews worldwide. Mona Subhy’s monologue invoking the 1840 Damascus blood libel—an antisemitic trope that long predates modern Zionism—makes that abundantly clear.”