ACADEMICS and historians have slammed the BBC after the corporation cancelled a pro-Palestine professor from a podcast series.
Sixteen experts have written to director-general Tim Davie after Israeli professor Ilan Pappe was kicked off a podcast series named The Conflict with no explanation on the day he was supposed to record his contribution.
The series claims to “take a look at what history can teach us about the conflict in the Middle East”.
Professor Pappe – who was replaced on the November 30 podcast by a BBC staffer – is well known for his research-based criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Just weeks earlier, more than 100 BBC staffers accused the corporation of failures in providing “fair and accurate evidence-based journalism in its coverage of Gaza”.
Last year, reports came out of BBC journalists allegedly "crying at work" and taking time off over the broadcaster's "dehumanising" reporting of Palestinians.
Professor Avi Shlaim, who teaches international relations at Oxford University and signed the letter, accused the BBC of having “cowardly” bosses, adding the broadcaster’s coverage was “difficult to distinguish from the propaganda of the victors”.
“The BBC bosses follow the loudest drums which in this region are the Zionist ones.
“The result is unbalanced news coverage which consistently privileges the dishonest Israeli narrative and fails to do justice to the Palestinian narrative. In some cases, BBC News is difficult to distinguish from the propaganda of the victors.”
Professor John Chalcraft – who teaches Middle East history and politics at the London School of Economics – added: “An impartial BBC would challenge Israeli propaganda, not reinforce it by cancelling a leading historian and educator.
“Ilan Pappe’s voice is one that the public desperately needs to hear amid the veritable crisis of representation in the mainstream media on this vital issue.”
The letter to Davie expresses “dismay” over the abrupt withdrawal of Pappe, who has written more than a dozen books on the period covering the creation of the state of Israel and the Nakba in which half of the Palestinian population either fled or were expelled from their homes.
Professor Pappe’s books on Palestine and Israel include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians (with Noam Chomsky, 2010), and Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic (2024).
The letter demands an apology from the BBC for the “disrespect” shown to both Pappe and licence fee payers.
“Professor Pappe is well-known for his critical posture towards the current Israeli government and its assault on Gaza where, plausibly according to the International Court of Justice, it is carrying out a genocide,” the letter said.
“The perception of pro-Israel bias in the BBC’s coverage of the Israel/Palestine nightmare is widespread, not least among the BBC’s own staff.
“We write to say the BBC owes both Professor Pappe and its own licence fee payers an apology for the disrespect shown to him and them and for the continuing bias in its output.”
At the start of November the BBC was accused by more than 100 of its staff of giving Israel favourable coverage and criticised for its lack of “accurate evidence-based journalism”.
A letter sent Davie and chief executive Deborah Turness said: “Basic journalistic tenets have been lacking when it comes to holding Israel to account for its actions.”
BBC chairman Samir Shah said earlier this year the BBC’s coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza should be subject to a “deep, systematic” review.
He made the comment after an AI-driven review published by an Israel-based British lawyer claimed the BBC had broken its own editorial guidelines more than 1500 times in its reporting of the conflict.
A previous report conducted by two data scientists also found the BBC had displayed “bias” in how it was reporting deaths, with words such as mother, father, daughter and son far more likely to be linked to Israelis rather than Palestinians.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The programme team finalised the contributors at a late stage in the production process. As you can hear on the Conflict podcast, the programme includes a broad range of views. We are sorry not to have been able to include Mr Pappe on this occasion but look forward to interviewing in at a future date.”
