National Front leader hounded out of ‘Stop Blaming Jews’ BBC rally
THE LEADER of a far-right movement was hounded out of a protest against BBC bias held by a Jewish antiracism group on Monday night.
A crowd had gathered to voice their criticism of the BBC over its coverage of the Oxford Street antisemitism incident three weeks ago, which featured a widely disputed claim that the Charedi victims of the abuse could be heard in a clip using an anti-Muslim slur.
Gideon Falter, the head of Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which had organised the rally outside Broadcasting House, addressed the crowd from a podium.
Halfway through his speech, several protesters in the crowd recognised National Front leader Tony Martin, who was filming the event, and attracted the attention of Mr Falter.
A video of the event captured the moment Mr Falter then told Mr Martin to “clear off”, saying: “We don’t want the National Front here, you’re not welcome.”
The crowd then began to chant “racist scum, off our streets”, as Mr Martin made his way out of the crowd, trying to leave via the BBC building, only to be redirected by security staff.
The rally was held as the BBC wrote to the JC doubling down on its claim that one of the victims of the Oxford Street incident could be heard voicing an anti-Muslim insult.
The letter from BBC Nations Director Rhodri Talfan Davies said the corporation’s coverage was “factual” and that the anti-Muslim remark could definitively “be heard in the recording”.
He wrote: “It has been claimed what we considered to be an abusive term in English was in fact someone speaking in Hebrew. We have consulted a number of Hebrew speakers in determining that the slur was spoken in English.
“We understand this was an upsetting incident and people want to stand up for their communities. But our intentions have been misrepresented.”
At the Broadcasting House protest, Mr Falter accused the BBC of turning the story “into a circus” for alleging that the victims of antisemitic abuse
used a racial slur. He also accused the BBC of blaming Jews for the attack on the first night of Chanukah.
He said: “We don’t want to be here, but we have to be here, because we have to say: ‘BBC News, stop blaming Jews’.
“We see no evidence for the BBC’s claim, which is a distraction from the real story, which is that Jewish teenagers were prevented by racist thugs from celebrating Chanukah.”
Supporters of the event included Dame Maureen Lipman and Lord Grade, a former chairman of the BBC, who described the journalism around the incident as “shoddy”.
Other speakers included Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Muslims Against Antisemitism, who said: “It’s sad we have to come out here again, when Jews are blamed by institutions that we think we should have trust in.”
A spokesperson for CAA said the rally “sends a message to the BBC that the Jewish community has had enough of years of the BBC victim-blaming Jewish people for antisemitism, downplaying racism towards Jews, platforming antisemites and fuelling antisemitism in Britain”.
The crowd began to chant ‘racist scum, off our street’