The BBC: enough is enough

Our state broadcaster is now a global vector for antisemitism

How many damned times??

It is no longer hyperbole to say the BBC has fostered a climate of Jew-hate in the UK reminiscent of 1930s Europe. The evidence speaks for itself.

An independent analysis by lawyer Trevor Asserson found over 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s own editorial guidelines in just four months of Israel-Hamas war coverage. The BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism while depicting Israel as the aggressor. In fact, the study recorded that BBC reports associated Israel with terms like “genocide” 14 times more often than Hamas (283 vs. 19 mentions).

Such skewed coverage is not just “anti-Israel”; it has real-world consequences for Jews. The Campaign Against Antisemitism notes that 86% of British Jews believe anti-Israel media bias fuels antisemitism in the UK. When the nation’s flagship broadcaster constantly portrays Israel as a war criminal and avoids describing Hamas as terrorists, it is no surprise that British Jews feel under siege.

Even insiders have raised concerns. Former BBC Television director Danny Cohen produced a detailed report outlining “systematic bias against Israel across all BBC platforms” and stated that the BBC’s reporting has “fuelled anti-Jewish hate”. Cohen’s analysis emphasises how, as Israeli civilians were being murdered on 7th October, the BBC’s website prioritised headlines about Israeli “revenge attacks”, strangely portraying Jews defending themselves as villains.

The BBC initially refused to even describe Hamas as “terrorists,” hiding behind vague editorial guidelines until public outrage prompted a partial reversal. Such institutional cowardice has seriously damaged the BBC’s reputation and, more crucially, emboldened antisemites. Over 200 Jewish BBC staff and contributors, deeply disturbed by the broadcaster’s coverage and internal culture, signed a letter listing “extensive…mistakes” and calling for an investigation; a request that BBC leadership inexplicably rejected. If the BBC refuses to listen even to its own Jewish employees, there is clearly something wrong at Broadcasting House.

Hamas propaganda funded by BBC licence fees

The rot extends beyond news reports. Astonishingly, the BBC even funded and broadcast Hamas propaganda. In February, it emerged that the BBC’s online documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”, ostensibly a human-interest film, featured a 13-year-old narrator who was Hamas royalty. This blatant conflict of interest was never disclosed to viewers. Once revealed, the BBC quickly removed the film from iPlayer, but the damage had already been done. British viewers discovered that their mandatory license fees had financed a Hamas promotional video. According to The Sun, at least £400,000 of public funds went to the production company behind this documentary. Investigative journalist David Collier, who uncovered the narrator’s Hamas links, stated plainly:

“Our money has been used by the state broadcaster to produce a Hamas propaganda documentary… £400,000 has done so, [which] is beyond sickening. Heads must roll for this.”

Heads did not roll.

In fact, the scandal worsens. A Telegraph investigation uncovered that the documentary’s makers mistranslated or removed explicit anti-Jewish language from interviewees to soften extremist views for viewers. References to “Jews” were deceitfully replaced with “Israelis” or “Israeli forces” in subtitles. In one instance, a Gazan praising Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar for “jihad against the Jews” was subtitled as if he said “fighting Israeli forces.” This was a blatant attempt to mask genocidal antisemitism as merely “anti-Israel” sentiment.

The line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism at the BBC is not just blurry; it has been deliberately obscured. The assertion that “we’re only anti-Israel, not anti-Jew” has served as a cover to justify rhetoric that, in reality, targets Jewish people. To emphasise the point, the Telegraph also revealed that one of the film’s cameramen publicly celebrated Hamas’s 7th October massacre on social media. This is what the BBC licence fee funds: unvetted Hamas affiliates spreading their message and being given the credibility of the BBC brand.

The BBC’s response was an internal review and canned statements about impartiality. We can forgive British Jews if they do not feel reassured. When the BBC aired a film that literally whitewashed calls for killing Jews into acceptable anti-Israel criticism, it lost any moral high ground. The atmosphere this fosters is one where Jew-hatred is normalised as just another opinion. It is terrifying, and entirely reminiscent of how 1930s media in Europe legitimised hatred of Jews as mainstream.

From music festival to hate rally

The BBC has also brought this toxic atmosphere into living rooms under the guise of entertainment—case in point: Glastonbury 2025. This weekend, BBC viewers were treated to a live broadcast from the famed music festival that descended into a neo-Nazi rally. During a performance by punk duo Bob Vylan, the frontman led a crowd of thousands in chanting “Death, death to the IDF”, followed by the notorious call for the genocide of Israelis: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” For good measure, he shouted that sometimes you have to “get your message across with violence,” openly encouraging violent action.

The BBC’s excuse was that a viewer discretion warning about discriminatory language was displayed on-screen during the live stream, as if a tiny disclaimer in the corner justifies amplifying a virulently antisemitic spectacle to the nation. This feeble response only highlighted the broadcaster’s complete lack of judgment. The Glastonbury set was effectively an anti-Jewish tirade, complete with eliminationist slogans straight out of Hamas’s playbook. Yet, BBC executives thought it enough to flash a warning and carry on. Imagine if any other minority were targeted with chants of death on air. It would be a national scandal and career-ending. But for Jews? The BBC is backpedalling hard, calling the set “deeply offensive” and refusing to show it On Demand.

In a word, this is bollocks. The BBC can keep their trite condemnation.

This bile was shouted from a stage in Britain, cheered by a mob, and the BBC broadcast it without bleeping a word. The BBC is so deep in the hole of normalised antisemitism that a BBC producer in the control room saw a crowd being incited to roar for the death of Israelis, effectively a call for the death of Jews, and chose to keep the cameras rolling, but with a poxy disclaimer. In 2025 Britain, Jew-hate has been mainstreamed to the point that the national broadcaster treats it as acceptable live entertainment until called out.

A despicable antisemite, platformed by the Glastonbury Festival and the BBC. Photo: Getty

Nor is this an isolated misstep. It is part of a pattern. Never mind Gary Lineker being allowed a Match of the Day final hurrah after sharing a video on Instagram comparing Jews to rats. The Glastonbury debacle followed on the heels of another controversy involving Irish rap group Kneecap, who were slated to play immediately after Bob Vylan. Kneecap has courted outrage with their hardline pro-terror, anti-Israel antics. At a London show last year, a band member waved a Hezbollah flag and shouted “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” on stage. (Both Hamas and Hezbollah are proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK. Openly praising them is literally a crime.)

The same trio also displayed messages like “F**k Israel. Free Palestine” in giant letters during a California festival performance, prompting even rock icon Sharon Osborne to remark that Kneecap had turned the event “into a Hamas fan club”. This is the band the BBC planned to feature at Glastonbury, despite their record of glorifying groups committed to killing Jews. The BBC was prepared to hand a megaphone to performers under police investigation for inciting violence (“Kill your local MP,” one Kneecap member yelled at a prior gig), and who literally draped themselves in a terrorist flag.

This is not just poor oversight; it is symptomatic of a BBC that has become desensitised to antisemitism. If today’s BBC programmers had a time machine, you get the sense they would happily broadcast a Nuremberg rally so long as someone slapped an “offensive content” advisory in the corner.

Warning: very strong and discriminatory language

Qatari influence and hollow excuses

How did the BBC sink so low? Part of the answer lies in the intellectual climate it has fostered. The BBC’s much-lauded “Verify” fact-checking unit has, perversely, relied on academics funded by Qatar, the petrostate that supports Hamas, to shape its narratives. For example, the BBC publishes analyses by lecturers from King’s College London about Qatar’s role in Middle East conflicts, without disclosing that their department was officially under contract with the Qatari regime for £26 million.

Other academics invited to comment on Israel have previously held long-term contracts with the Qatari state. BBC audiences are being fed “obvious Qatari spin” by experts presented as impartial. Is it any wonder that such voices downplay Islamist extremism and criticise Israel at every opportunity? The integrity of the BBC’s information gatekeepers is compromised when they are effectively in the pocket of an Emir who openly hosts Hamas leaders in Doha, yet BBC editors either did not know or did not care about these blatant conflicts of interest. They certainly failed to inform viewers. This is Qatarification of the BBC’s coverage: a subtle tilt that excuses jihadist narratives and demonises Israel, under the guise of expert analysis.

Now we come to the tired refrain we hear whenever Jews complain: “Being anti-Israel isn’t the same as being antisemitic.” The implication is that Jews are hysterical, conflating legitimate criticism of Israeli policy with bigotry. That excuse simply no longer suffices. Not after we have seen BBC content quite literally swapping out the word “Jews” for “Israelis” to sanitise hatred, or witnessing a BBC-platformed stage show turn into a “Death to Jews” chorus in all but name.

The line between anti-Israel and antisemitic has been so blurred by BBC-approved voices that any distinction now appears meaningless. When anti-Israel commentary dominates the airwaves in such a one-sided, vitriolic manner, it energises those who hate Jews, because they see their beliefs echoed and validated by respected media. The BBC might think it can hide behind semantic hair-splitting, but British Jews experiencing a surge of harassment and assaults understand better. As Danny Cohen wrote, the corporation’s “ideological bias is now shamefully clear”, and it is our Jewish community that bears the cost.

No more impunity for the BBC

It is difficult to overstate the breach of public trust that has taken place. The BBC’s charter requires impartiality and truth. Instead, it has promoted moral relativism and propaganda. We have a state-funded broadcaster accused of displaying an institutional crisis of bias, yet its leaders respond with dismissals and half-measures. This cannot go on.

Britain in 2025 should not feel in any way like Germany in 1933, yet I have had actual Holocaust survivors tell me that the atmosphere of demonisation and fear is chillingly familiar. The BBC must accept its responsibility here. By normalising extreme anti-Israel (and by extension, anti-Jewish) views, the BBC encourages the thugs on the streets who daub Stars of David on synagogue doors, chisel mezuzahs off front doors and shout “Gas the Jews” at rallies. When challenged, BBC apologists mumble about free speech and nuance. There is nothing nuanced about mainstreaming calls for violence against Jews.

Enough.

The era of polite complaints is over. The era of righteous, evidence-based anger has arrived. The facts are clear. The Asserson report’s more than 1,500 violations, the Cohen report’s conclusion of systematic bias fuelling hate, the Hamas propaganda fiasco, the Lineker free pass, the Glastonbury disgrace, and a series of editorial failures, from mislabelling kidnapped Israeli grandmothers as “prisoners” to initially blaming Israel for a Hamas rocket’s carnage at Al-Ahli hospital. No more hiding behind vague words. Critiquing Israel’s government is one thing. After all, we live in a democracy, but what the BBC has done is something entirely different. It has fostered a hostile environment where anti-Israel sentiment is treated as the socially acceptable cover for old-fashioned antisemitism. That cover has become paper-thin. We all see what is beneath.

If the BBC wants to regain any credibility (and frankly, its very funding model should be at risk, now), it must undertake a thorough reform. Begin by issuing a genuine apology: not the non-apology of “regret if some were offended,” but a clear confession of failure. Initiate the independent inquiry that Britain’s Jews and their allies have been calling for, for months. Clean house of those who thought airing a “Death to the IDF” sing-along was acceptable. Last weekend should be a career-ender for those responsible.

Sack the producers and editors who paid Hamas operatives to produce films. Stop using academics funded by authoritarian regimes as “neutral” analysts. Above all, draw a firm line that anti-Israel demagoguery will be given no quarter when it devolves into dehumanisation or conspiracy, as it so often has.

The BBC might claim it is all a misunderstanding, that it never intended to stoke antisemitism. Well, intentions be damned. Look at the results. Jewish Britons are feeling under assault, and the BBC’s output is a big reason why. It is high time the BBC is held to account for this poisonous legacy. In an era when Jews are once again having to hide their kippahs and Stars of David in the streets, the usual excuses (“we’re just being critical of Israeli policy”) ring hollow. We see through the charade. Being “anti-Israel” has become an acceptable cover for hating Jews, and the BBC has played an outsized role in making that so.

No more. My call-out is evidence-based; the BBC’s own content and reports testify against the Corporation.

The verdict of history on appeasers of antisemitism is not kind. The BBC must change course now, or wear the shame of having abetted a new dark chapter for Britain’s Jews. The era of giving the BBC a pass on this is over. We must demand accountability, or seize it through legal means if the BBC continues on this path.