BBC coverage ‘fuelled global spike in antisemitism’
THE BBC’s coverage of the Gaza-Israel conflict since October 7 has “led to a spike in antisemitism globally”, furious MPs claimed yesterday.
The corporation has been accused of “comprehensively failing” the public, inflaming community tensions and harming diplomatic efforts.
Sir Michael Ellis, who opened a debate in Westminster Hall, cited examples of what he described as “biased content” including its failure to identify Hamas as a terrorist group.
The former attorney general said this amounted to hypocrisy after the BBC News website later reported on a “terror attack in Brussels linked to Daesh”.
And he added that by refusing to call the Islamic extremist group terrorists, the corporation was “complicit in Hamas’s disinformation campaign”.
Sir Michael also referenced a report in which a BBC reporter speculated that an explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza was likely to have been perpetrated by Israel. The Israeli military said that the facility was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants. The BBC later conceded that a mistake had been made.
Sir Michael, who is Jewish, claimed the BBC was “institutionally antisemitic” and “complicit in peddling misinformation and allowing antisemitism to fester” in the UK and across the world.
He added that it was time to remove the BBC’s ability to mark its own homework.
Leeds MP Alec Shelbrooke said his Jewish constituents are “terrified”, partly due to “inbuilt bias with the BBC”. He claimed his voters believe the corporation is almost trying to justify those who launch antisemitic attacks.
Humberside MP Andrew Percy cited a poll that said 77% of Jews do not believe the BBC’s coverage of the war has been fair, and that should be taken “as a cry of pain from the Jewish community”.
Mr Shelbrooke warned if the BBC loses confidence from licence fee payers many will stop paying the TV levy. He compared it with the poll tax, which was axed after people refused to pay it.
A BBC spokesman said: “We don’t agree with this opinion, which we reject entirely and is not borne out by the facts.”