This week it was revealed that BBC Arabic had asked its viewers the following question about the cold-blooded murder of a 79 year-old Jewish woman by Hamas terrorists: “How do you view this kind of operation, terrorism or resistance?”
Edna Bluestein was among a group of Israeli civilians who were attacked in a car-ramming and stabbing incident in the town of Ra’anana. She was dragged from her car and stabbed to death before terrorists commandeered her vehicle and tried to kill more Jews. Why anyone at the BBC would think it acceptable to pose this question to viewers about a terrorist murder might once have been hard to understand, but these days the reason appears to be very clear.
There is a mountain of evidence to show that BBC Arabic has a severe problem with anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias. From the presenter who suggested a guest should apologise for showing sympathy towards Israel to the use of sources with links to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and from reporters who appeared to celebrate the October 7 massacre to journalists who misrepresented evidence of the terrorist crimes that terrible day, BBC Arabic is consistently failing when it comes to impartiality. Since the October 7 attacks, the BBC has been forced to make more than 100 corrections to its BBC Arabic reporting.
Yet the failures of the BBC’s journalists in the Middle East are only part of the story. More focus must be directed towards those in senior management positions in the BBC who are choosing to consistently cover the tracks of biased journalists and defend their failures. The handling of revelations of bias by BBC executives is as telling as the individual failures of impartiality.
In the case of the BBC Arabic video, which asked whether the terrorist murder of Mrs Bluestein was “terrorism or resistance”, this is how BBC management responded: “BBC News Arabic reflects debates taking place across the Middle East including on polarising and sensitive subject matters around the Israel-Gaza war. As part of this reporting, we invite a wide variety of contributors to provide differing perspectives and routinely question views on air.”
There was no apology, no recognition of the offence caused, and no appreciation of how painful this would be for many in the Jewish community. Why were the BBC’s managers not able simply to acknowledge that its behaviour was unacceptable and be clear with licence-fee payers that they would take the necessary steps to ensure it was not repeated? Defending the BBC’s reputation appears to be much more important than a transparent relationship with licence-fee payers.
More widely, the BBC continues to insist that BBC Arabic is a reliable source of impartial journalism. The BBC has claimed that BBC Arabic “shares exactly the same principles of accuracy and impartiality as BBC News in English and we strongly reject the suggestion that its impartiality is compromised”.
This is nothing short of gaslighting of the Jewish community. It is surely not possible by now to argue with any honesty that BBC Arabic is an impartial news service. Yet it seems that the BBC’s leadership is comfortable to maintain this pretence rather than publicly and transparently acknowledge it has a problem.
Under the tenure of director-general Tim Davie and CEO of news Deborah Turness, the BBC has placed a great emphasis on the importance of transparency and trust. Yet in their continued defence of BBC Arabic, the BBC’s senior leaders are failing in both their commitment to transparency and their duty to maintain an honest relationship with the people who pay for it.
The BBC has become an organisation which gaslights many in the Jewish community, and there are no signs that this will end anytime soon.