Many British Jews have come to see the BBC as “institutionally hostile to Israel”, community leaders have said, as they endorsed a report that concluded the broadcaster had failed to cover the Middle East conflict with impartiality.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism and provides security for Jewish communities in Britain, said the broadcaster had also been defensive in its approach to complaints about the matter.
“Inaccurate media reporting on the conflict contributes to the delegitimisation of Israel in the public sphere, which in turn fuels anti-Jewish hatred, and has made British Jews and Jews around the world less safe and secure in their communities. As a global media leader, the BBC carries extra responsibility in these regards,” they wrote in a letter to the Times.
“This has led many British Jews to conclude that the BBC has become, in practical terms, institutionally hostile to Israel, eroding trust in the institution. At least until recently, the BBC’s response to the Jewish community’s legitimate concerns about its coverage has appeared to vary between defensive and dismissive.”
The organisations were responding to a report authored by the former BBC executive Danny Cohen and the former governor of the BBC Ruth Deech.
The report said: “Whenever the corporation is faced with the choice of whose account or narrative to believe, it seldom points in Israel’s direction. For Hamas in this war, proof is rarely necessary. For the IDF and Israel, proof is rarely enough.”
The authors cited several cases where its authors said the BBC had erred in its reporting or used language that demonstrated an anti-Israel bias.
They wrote: “We recognise that reporting complex stories in a war zone and verifying claims and counter-claims can be difficult, but it is clear there is systematic bias against Israel across all BBC platforms, with the vast majority of that bias pointing in the same direction.
“The seriousness of this failure to deliver content that is consistent with the BBC’s editorial mission and guidelines has fuelled anti-Jewish hate in this country and around the world and has seriously damaged the BBC’s reputation as an impartial provider of news and information.”
The Jewish groups, in their joint statement, said the broadcaster had a duty to “deliver news that is fair, balanced, impartial and, above all, accurate”. They added: “However, this new and authoritative report, which we have read and endorse, provides troubling evidence of repeated and systematic failures by the BBC to meet that duty, in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.”
They backed the authors’ call for an independent inquiry into the BBC’s coverage of the conflict.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The Israel-Gaza conflict is a polarising and difficult story to cover and we understand there are a range of views. The BBC has focused on reporting the conflict impartially, bringing audiences breaking news, insight and analysis, and reflecting all perspectives.
“While we do not recognise the overall characterisation of our journalism in this report, we will of course always look at anything raised with us with care and attention.”
