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    • BBC accused of pro-Israel bias as Hamas war rages on in Gaza – Israel News
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    BBC accused of pro-Israel bias as Hamas war rages on in Gaza – Israel News

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    More than 100 BBC staff have signed a letter to BBC director-general Tim Davie calling on the station to “re-commit to fairness, accuracy and impartiality” in reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, The Independent.

    The letter accused the BBC of failing to provide “consistently fair and accurate evidence-based journalism in its coverage of Gaza”.

    The signatories demanded that the BBC include in every article that “Israel does not give foreign journalists access to Gaza; clarifying when there is insufficient evidence to support Israeli claims; clarifying where Israel is the perpetrator in article titles; including the usual historical context prior to October 2023; and strongly challenging Israeli government and military representatives in all interviews.”

    The October 2023 date referred to in the letter is likely a reference to October 7, when Hamas launched a massacre in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed by the invading terrorists and Hamas kidnapped more than 250 people, sparking a war in Gaza that UN officials say has created a humanitarian crisis.

    The BBC rejected the collective claims of the signatories, saying the broadcaster “strives to live up to our responsibility to deliver the most reliable and impartial news”.

    A spokesman said the Independent“When we make mistakes or have made changes in the way we report, we are transparent. We are also very clear with our audience about the limitations placed on our reporting – including no access to Gaza and restricted access to parts of Lebanon, as well as our continued efforts to get reporters into those areas.”

    A PRO-PALESTINIAN protester blasts the BBC after admitting it was wrong to blame Israel for the Al-Ahli Hospital blast, while another sign calls for ‘Resistance against the Zionist entity’, in London. (credit: REUTERS/HANNAH MCKAY)

    “I have never, in my entire career, seen such low levels of staff confidence,” one employee told the British newspaper. “I have colleagues who have left the BBC in recent months because they simply do not believe our reporting on Israel and Palestine is honest. So many of us feel paralyzed by the level of fear.”

    “Palestinians are always treated as an unreliable source, and we consistently give primacy to the Israeli version of events, despite the IDF’s well-documented track record of lying,” another employee said. “It seems we often prefer to leave Israel out of the headlines if possible, or question who might be to blame for the airstrikes. The level of scrutiny expected of anything related to Gaza far exceeds the norm for other countries.”

    The BBC said in response to the concerns raised: “This conflict is one of the most polarizing stories to be reported on and we know that people feel very strongly about how this is reported, not only at the BBC but across the media. The BBC holds itself to very high standards and we strive to fulfill our responsibility to deliver the most reliable and impartial news – by weighing and measuring the words we use, fact-checking and seeking a wide range of interviews and expert opinions.”

    While admitting that “the BBC does not and cannot reflect any worldview”, a spokesman insisted to the Independent that it receives almost an equal measure of complaints alleging bias towards Israel as bias against it.

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    They added: “This does not mean we assume we are doing something right and we continue to listen to all criticism – from within and outside the BBC – and reflect on what we can do better.”

    BBC accused of anti-Israel bias

    As the spokesperson noted, the BBC has been repeatedly accused of having an anti-Israel bias and having a problem with systemic anti-Semitism.

    More than 200 BBC staff, contractors, suppliers and contributors have written to the board and BBC chairman Samir Shah in July called for an inquiry into the broadcaster’s alleged “anti-Jewish racism”.

    Shah refused the inquiry request and claimed the corporation is “successful” in creating an “inclusive work environment where people from all backgrounds feel welcome, safe and supported”.

    “I am satisfied, however, that where I made errors, the executive acted appropriately and handled the issues in accordance with the guidance applicable to my colleagues,” Shah said. “Following your correspondence, I have asked the executive to review the documents you sent and see if there is anything included that was not previously considered.”

    The Telegraph also published a report last month, based on research led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, which found that the broadcaster breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during war coverage.

    The research found that there was a “deeply worrying pattern of bias against Israel” and that Israel was associated with the genocide 14 times more than the terror group Hamas was during the BBC coverage analysed.

    “Our analysis reveals a significant departure from this standard, particularly in its reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, where the broadcaster showed a clear bias towards one side. This bias was even more pronounced in the BBC’s Arabic content,” Asserson said. “Such conduct not only breaches the BBC’s Royal Charter, but also calls into question its suitability for continued public funding.”

    As Asserson noted, the BBC’s Arabic service has been repeatedly attacked. Former BBC Arabic guests have claimed they suffered mistreatment when interacting with the broadcaster.

    Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli with a large online presence, claimed in March “They fail to meet journalistic standards; their coverage is unbalanced. One of the anchors stopped me mid-sentence while I was talking about the issue of sexual violence and rape and scolded me, arguing that there was no evidence.

    “In another case, I talked about the viral videos of Gazans complaining that Hamas is hiding among them and using them as human shields, and the anchor flatly denied the existence of these videos. Their questions are pre-framed against me specifically or against Israel – they rarely want to expose the truth; rather he tries to approach me personally. And of course they don’t refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization, which is also true of their English-language channels.”

    Idit Bar, researcher and lecturer on the Arab world and the Arabic language, he told him Jerusalem Postis Ohad Merlin in March that he had a similar experience to Haddad.

    Bar claimed that he was given less time to speak than his fellow panelists and “Sometimes the presenters themselves take the liberty of responding to my comments to other panelists rather than acting somewhat neutral and allowing others to respond” .

    “The last thing they are interested in is listening to Israeli guests. Sometimes facilitators add their personal opinion as fact or as part of the wording of their question. Other times, when I finished a comment, they added a personal comment against me without even allowing me to respond and immediately moved on to the next question,” she testified. “When I come back, they do everything to prevent me from completing my point, either by repeated interruptions or by changing to another subject. For example, I showed a moderator a screenshot showing a Palestinian flag flying next to the Nazi flag and added that some Palestinians sympathize with the Nazis. The moderator immediately cut me off and changed the subject: “And what about the siege? And what about the attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque?'”

    OHAD MERLIN, JERUSALEM POSTAL STAFF contributed to this report.



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