UK
Timeline of controversy: How row over BBC Gaza coverage unfolded
The national broadcaster has refused to call Hamas ‘terrorists’ and been accused of ‘institutional antisemitism’
May 21, 2024 12:37
The national broadcaster has refused to call Hamas ‘terrorists’ and been accused of ‘institutional antisemitism’
May 21, 2024 12:37In the nearly eight months since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the BBC has been accused of misreporting key aspects of the ensuing war, been forced to sack a virulently antisemitic employee and been accused of “shocking bias” by politicians. Here’s how the national broadcaster courted controversy with its reporting about Israel.
7 October
In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s attack against Israel, the corporation refuses to call the group “terrorists”.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said: “If one doesn’t use the term ‘terrorist’, it is as if one is providing a window of opportunity for justification, and nothing can justify this.”
Today, the BBC will only use the term “terrorists” to describe Hamas when quoting others.
18 October
When a blast at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza kills dozens of Palestinians, the broadcaster is quick to blame Israel. Speaking live on BBC News, a reporter declares: “It’s hard to see what else this could be really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike or several airstrikes.”
Soon, however, as the picture becomes clearer a consensus forms that the explosion was most likely caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket. A week later, BBC Director General Tim Davie apologises to MPs for the corporation’s coverage.
27 October
Rami Ruhayem, a BBC correspondent based in Beirut, writes to staff across the broadcaster to argue that they should be using the terms “settler-colonialism” and “ethnic cleansing” in their coverage of Israel.
21 November
l Match of the Day host Gary Lineker retweets an academic who described Israel’s operation in Gaza as a “textbook genocide”. Sharing an interview with Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies, the TV presenter writes it is “worth 13 minutes of anyone’s time.”
“Words like ‘massacre’, ‘slaughter’ and ‘atrocities’ are being used – prominently – in reference to actions by Hamas, but hardly, if at all, in reference to actions by Israel,” he writes.
November 20 Former BBC Director of Television Danny Cohen warns that the BBC’s flawed coverage of Israel Palestine risks pouring “fuel on the fire” of Jew hate in Britain. Speaking to the JC, he says he believes continued mistakes are due to institutional bias at the national broadcaster.¶“What’s clear to me is there is an ongoing issue with anti-Israel bias that there appears to be an inability to control,” he claims.
7 December
The extent of the rupture between the British Jewish community and the BBC is revealed by an opinion poll commissioned by the JC. More than three-quarters – 77 per cent – say the corporation’s coverage of the war in Gaza is biased against Israel, while only 11 per cent say they believe it is impartial.
3 January
The incoming BBC chairman, Samir Shah, says the corporation must review its guidelines following months of criticism over its coverage of Israel. Speaking to MPs, he adds that the BBC must end its “psychodrama” over Lineker’s political posts.
1 February
The JC reveals that BBC Arabic repeatedly interviewed Major General Wasef Eriqat, a former PLO general who celebrated October 7 as a “heroic military miracle”, while billing him as an independent “military expert”.
5 February
The BBC sacks Dawn Quevas, an employee who ranted about the “holohoax” and called Jews “Nazi parasites” among scores of other antisemitic and conspiratorial messages posted to her social media.
16 February
l Writing to all BBC staff, Davie acknowledges that the corporation has a problem with anti-Jewish bigotry: “As many of you may have seen, sadly in recent weeks we have been alerted to some antisemitic behaviour by people who worked with us.”
The community would not take “too much comfort” in the email, however, Danny Cohen replies. “Actions are what matter.”
26 April
The BBC admits after a complaint is lodged that its reporting of the death count in Gaza was flawed. In a statement published on its website, the corporation says: “The passage gave the unintended impression that the figure from the Hamas-run Health Ministry consisted only of civilian dead, whereas it also included combatants.”
Miriam Rich, who complained, says she thinks the BBC’s coverage has been “inherently skewed against Israel” since October 7.
16 May
The BBC apologises for comments made by BBC Radio London DJ Eddie Nestor that community leaders labelled “age old anti-Jewish tropes”. During an interview with Lib Dem mayoral candidate Rob Blackie on April 17, Nestor, a seasoned presenter, implied that the first main mayoral hustings took place at a Jewish community centre — JW3 — because of the “powerful Jewish lobby”.
