Voice of the Jewish News: BBC’s ‘sorry’ hasn’t earned forgiveness

This week's editorial reflects on the national broadcaster having to apologise for giving a platform to a mass murderer of Israelis

For the most part, the nation can be very proud of the BBC, but occasionally dear old Aunty gets it so badly wrong it almost leaves you lost for words.

This week’s front page story details such an occasion, after BBC Arabic somehow decided that it was a good idea to give airtime to a -Palestinian terrorist who smiled when told that her bomb had killed eight Jewish children rather than three.

Ahlan Tamimi has never regretted her leading role in a 2001 suicide bombing in Jerusalem, unlike the Beeb, who must surely be regretting very deeply the decision of the editor to broadcast her personal appeal for her husband’s Jordanian residency.

Bad? It gets worse – the husband is also a convicted terrorist, who killed an Israeli student in 1993.

The pair were released in 2011 as part of the controversial prisoner swap for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which was tough enough for us all to take, but the idea of British taxpayers’ money now helping them in a personal matter is altogether too much to stomach.

In such situations, typical anodyne apologies are never sufficient, yet sure enough that is exactly what the families of Tamimi’s victims got.

It was so bad it made you wince.

Broadcasting House gets a lot right, but there is no point extolling its high standards if mistakes of this magnitude are still being made and swept under the carpet with a “sorry”.

We hope that this is the last such instance we ever have to report.