Nick Robinson says he ‘should have been clearer’ over Israel ‘murders’ claim

BBC presenter Nick Robinson has said he “should have been clearer” when describing Israel attacks in Gaza as “murders” and that it was not his view or that of the corporation.

Robinson addressed criticism he received after interviewing Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, on this morning’s Radio 4 Today programme.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “My final question was about the perceived “morality” of the government’s position — in particular the “risk” that their position could “appear” to look like active support for Israel when it is under attack but nothing other than words ‘when Israel attacks or murders tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians’.

“I should have been clearer that I was not expressing my own view let alone that of the BBC when I used the words ‘murders’.

“In this 15-minute long interview I asked the foreign secretary why ministers had supported Israel militarily; why they didn’t go further and support Israel in confronting Iran; why they weren’t tougher in confronting Israel over Gaza and ended with that question about the perceived ‘morality’ and the ‘risk’ of how the government’s position ‘appears’.

“It was a lengthy and detailed exploration of the policy choices made by the government.”

Robinson, whose grandparents fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s, was earlier accused of “shocking bias” by former Tory cabinet minister Theresa Villiers.

Robinson, a long-time supporter of communal organisations such as the Holocaust Educational Trust, had put it to the foreign secretary that: “Western governments appear to back Israel the moment that Israel is under attack, but when Israel attacks and murders tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, we say the words, but we do almost nothing.”

Cameron said he did not agree “at all” with this argument and that people can see that “the truly malign actor in the region is Iran”.

Robinson has been a solid supporter of several communal organisations in the past including the Holocaust Educational Trust and Reform Judaism.