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Adam Levick, co-editor of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis UK (CAMERA UK), spoke to a February 20th Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about the British Broadcasting System’s (BBC) anti-Israel bias in its reportage and promotion of Islamists on its broadcasts. The following is a summary of his comments:
CAMERA UK monitors Arabic media outlets associated with Western media brands, such as the BBC, in order to hold journalists accountable and to fight the “demonization of Israel, antisemitism, and extremism in the media.” Journalists from BBC Arabic, Sky News Arabia, and other outlets who express their hateful comments on social media in Arabic feel free to “operate with some degree of impunity” because most people in the West are not fluent in the language.
The BBC, which broadcasts globally in more than forty languages, was particularly egregious, for example, in its willful blindness to complaints about Abdel Bari Atwan, an “ideological extremist” and BBC contributor who consistently spewed anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric from 2007 through 2022. A Palestinian-born, London-based editor-in-chief of an Arabic online newspaper, Atwan’s comments included favoring a nuclear attack against Israel, claiming “Jews and Zionists” are “trying to control British society,” and accusing “British Jews, as a collective, of bombing Gaza.” He defended Osama bin Laden’s attacks against America and Israel, praised jihadi terrorists for massacring Israeli civilians, expressed support for the Taliban, and argued that it is the “duty” of all Muslims and Arabs around the world to join terror groups to commit violence against the Jewish State.
In an “official statement” issued last year, the BBC responded to the complaints, defending Atwan’s appearances as “in the public interest.” CAMERA UK then joined forces with the Jewish Chronicle, “the oldest and most prominent Jewish newspaper in the UK,” to increase the pressure by publicizing Atwan’s comments as a “clear breach of BBC standards.” The publicity generated greater exposure to his comments beyond Jewish media. Finally, “in December, this past December, the Jewish Chronicle reported based on information provided to sources inside the BBC, that Atwan is no longer going to be used by the corporation as an analyst.”
As a result of CAMERA UK’s campaign exposing BBC and BBC Arabic’s biases, a parliamentary investigation chaired by the UK government’s former anti-terrorism czar, Lord Carlile, will scrutinize the network’s coverage of Israel and Jews and present a report to the BBC next year. Atwan is only one example of the BBC’s Arabic-speaking journalists who “spread inflammatory rhetoric” on BBC Arabic. There is “inadequate” oversight from the network’s management to uphold “Western standards of journalistic ethics” or adequately vet the commentators they hire to report on Israel-related issues.
The BBC’s “double standard” is attributable to its embrace of today’s identity politics that turns “perceived victims into heroes.” Levick describes this concept as the “aristocracy of victimhood” which grants “extra legitimacy” to an “oppressed group identity.” Moreover, Jews have been largely successful, and Israel is now also “economically, diplomatically, [and] militarily” successful. Therefore, the vilification of meritocracy that is part of this new paradigm separates people into categories of those who are “privileged” and those who are not, thus making the Jews a less sympathetic minority.
The BBC’s “double standard” is attributable to its embrace of today’s identity politics that turns “perceived victims into heroes.”
Another contributing factor is Britain’s history of colonialism, which results in a “post-colonial guilt” coloring the lens through which the opinion class perceives the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the U.S., anti-Israel circles view the conflict in terms of race because “America’s biggest sin has been with slavery.” Perceptions about race and colonialism have nothing to do with the conflict but are more about the guilt felt from both the U.S.'s and UK’s flawed histories, which anti-Israel groups then “project” onto Israel.
The victimhood narrative popularized in “intellectual and academic circles” spread to the mainstream media, which assigns Israelis and Jews as the oppressors. Israel-haters such as Atwan are thereby judged on a “moral curve.” Professor Richard Landes explains this dynamic as “lethal journalism,” whereby progressive media aim to "[afflict] the comfortable while comforting the afflicted.” Many journalists are unaware how cultural distortions in “the public discourse” have “filtered into their ecosystem” and manipulated media reportage. Jews are on the receiving end of “the burden of bad ideas” which are at odds with Jewish rights and equal treatment. In turn, Jews are subject to emboldened forces specifically aligned against them and Israel, and more broadly, against Western values. Levick is hopeful that this “fight worth fighting” will “prevent what would be an even worse situation for Jews, and Israelis, and pro-Israel Americans and Britons if we weren’t here.”
