‘The BBC does a lot of good work’ says Board of Deputies chief

The President of the Board of Deputies has insisted her organisation is working behind the scenes to repair relations with the BBC following the corporations’s much-criticised coverage of the antisemitic incident in Oxford street last Chanukah.

Marie van der Zyl was among the speakers on the final day of Limmud conference in Birmingham. Together with Adam Rose, a partner at law firm Mishcon de Reya, van der Zyl told a packed room of the steps taken by the BoD in the wake of the reporting in November last year of an antisemitic attack on a bus full of Jewish teenagers – an incident she called a ‘totemic’ issue for the Jewish community.

The BBC appeared to accuse the Charedi youngsters – who faced shouting, spitting and Nazi salutes – of “anti-Muslim slurs”.

Following a complaint pursued by the Board, a damning Ofcom investigation into the BBC’s reporting of the attack uncovered “significant editorial failings” and claimed the BBC caused “distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack and the wider Jewish community”.

But van der Zyl told a packed room at Limmud that the right way forward now was dialogue – appearing to distance herself from the campaign launched by the JC and subsequent probe by a group of parliamentarians.

She said: “I want to make it clear that the Board of Deputies isn’t making a barrage of complaints or a campaign against the BBC itself; we are dealing with the issue. We are the defenders and protectors of this community. When we see things, we will make complaints on merit. We have made complaints before about anti-Israel bias.

“But it’s very important to try and restore relationships with the BBC; they do a lot of good work. At the moment there are discussions with the Director General because dialogue is very important for the community; we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again and things get better.”

Blaming the victims on the bus for being attacked was “absolutely gross,” said van der Zyl, who played audio back to delegates. The Board previously submitted it to digital experts who insisted that the words said were actually in Hebrew: “Tikra lemishehu, ze dachuf”, translating as “Call someone, it’s urgent”.

“I don’t think they would have expected the Jewish community’s representatives instructing lawyers, making complaints or going to the regulator,” said van de Zyl.  “It was very expensive and we’ve never been reimbursed. We never will be but some things are worth more than money. We had to make that stand.”

In October this year, the Met Police dropped its investigation into the incident after failing to identify the youths who were filmed hurling antisemitic abuse and even shoes at the bus by those onboard.