Polling by the organisation, Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), suggests 86 percent of Jews in Britain either “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” when asked if they were satisfied with the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas crisis.
It found 71 percent of those questions “strongly disagreed” that they were satisfied with the BBC and another 15 percent “disagreed” while only 1 percent “agreed.”
On Monday, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, called for a “sustainable ceasefire” but added, “Israel obviously has a right to defend itself against what was an appalling terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas, but it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law.”
Ben Wallace Criticises Israel’s ‘Killing Rage’
Mr. Wallace, writing in The Telegraph, said Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had missed the Hamas attack in the first place and he added: “But if he thinks a killing rage will rectify matters, then he is very wrong. His methods will not solve this problem. In fact, I believe his tactics will fuel the conflict for another 50 years.”In June she told the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee she supported the BBC as an institution but added, “But it does need to understand its duties in relation to partiality.”
The BBC was widely criticised after it refused to use the word “terrorists” to describe the Hamas gunmen who burst out of Gaza and slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7 and 8.
The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, has previously told Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, the Jewish community was outraged, “at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’s barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians.”
Trust in the corporation among British Jews was already falling before the Hamas attacks.
Last month the leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, said she hoped the BBC would, “reflect on what has happened over the last few weeks” after a Conservative MP, Sir Michael Ellis, said, “the anti-Israel bile and bias is there for all to see.”
Ms. Mordaunt told Sir Michael: “The BBC is usually very good at these sorts of things but I think there are questions that I certainly, as a licence fee-payer, would want to be answered in this respect.”
A BBC spokesman told The Times: “The BBC holds itself to high standards of impartial reporting and rejects the suggestion that we are biased against Israel. The conflict is a challenging and polarising story to cover, and we are dedicated to providing impartial reporting for audiences in the UK and across the world.”
“BBC News will continue to listen carefully to all audience feedback,” the spokesman added.
