Report: 55% of UK Jews ‘unsatisfied’ with BBC handling of antisemitism complains

More than 55 percent of British Jews are unsatisfied with the BBC’s handling of antisemitism complaints, a new report by a Jewish charity has revealed.

Data unveiled Campaign Against Antisemitism claims 22 percent of respondents were ‘somewhat unsatisfied’ and 33 percent were ‘very unsatisfied’ with its handling.

This is significantly higher than ITV (18 percent), Channel 4 (29 percent) and Sky News (19 percent). Its study, entitled the ‘antisemitism barometer‘, also indicated that 68 percent of respondents said the BBC gave either somewhat or very unfavourable coverage to Jewish issues, compared to ITV (24 percent), Channel 4 (45 percent) and Sky (23 percent.) On media bias, the study found that 90 percent of those polled either agree or strongly agree’ that “media bias against Israel fuels persecution of Jews in Britain.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The BBC has an abominable reputation within the Jewish community, and deservedly so, but for the first time we have quantified quite how deep that sentiment runs.

“Given that the BBC has abjectly failed to discipline prominent journalists … the BBC’s abysmal standing in the Jewish community is entirely warranted. That almost half of British Jews also held an unfavourable view of Channel 4 shows that these two publicly-funded broadcasters have very serious questions to answer.”

“The BBC is rightly sensitive to the feelings of other minorities in Britain, but when it comes to the Jewish community it is sanctimonious and wilfully deaf.”

CAA’s commissioned King’s College London to survey British adults’ attitudes towards Jews in 2020 using YouGov, designed and analysed by Dr Daniel Allington. CAA worked with partners to survey British Jews’ responses in consultation with by Dr Daniel Allington of King’s College London.