Top British Rabbi: No Cure for Antisemitism at BBC

Deborah BrandJanuary 10, 2022

A top British rabbi resigned from the BBC after 30 years last week, citing the broadcaster’s incurable antisemitism.

Rabbi YY Rubinstein, who freelanced for BBC World Service and numerous other news programs, wrote in an oped piece in the Forward that the broadcaster had been intolerably “infected with the cancer of antisemitism.”

“There is a well-documented culture of low-grade antisemitism that is present throughout the entire organization,” he wrote.

Rubinstein said “something in me simply snapped” over the BBC’s skewed reporting of an incident in which Jewish schoolchildren were threatened by anti-Semitic hooligans giving Nazi salutes.

“When the BBC first reported the story, they alleged that the Jewish kids had shouted an anti-Muslim slur at their attackers. Numerous forensic experts who listened to the recording said that this claim was a complete lie,” he wrote.

“The BBC doubled down and defended their reporting,” he went on. “Even after the “fullest account” has been widely refuted, the BBC still refuses to back down.”

According to Rubinstein, “the BBC cannot fix its antisemitism problem if they refuse to acknowledge that they have one. The BBC is simply unwilling to do so.”

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As Breitbart reported last week, the BBC was ranked third on a “Global Antisemitism Top Ten” list by a major Jewish group, beaten only by Iran and the Hamas terror group.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center also cited the BBC’s reporting of the attack against the Jewish teenagers.

“The BBC falsely reported that a victim on the bus used an anti-Muslim slur. But what was heard on tape was a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew, appealing for help,” SWC Head Marvin Hier said.

SWC also cited a BBC journalist who in 2014 tweeted that “Hitler was right.”

Hier told the Daily Mail that “people might be surprised to see the BBC on our list, but the decision to place the BBC at No. 3 came after months of intense debate and discussion.”

It appears that the BBC has a very serious case to answer here. Incorrectly accusing those experiencing antisemitism of being guilty of bigotry themselves is adding insult to injury. https://t.co/N6en7kq62v

— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) December 3, 2021

“We believe the BBC has been guilty of several antisemitic incidents over the past year,” he said.

“People might think we would designate neo-Nazi groups on our list, but the BBC is there because when a globally recognized organization allows antisemitism to infiltrate its reporting, it makes it all the more insidious and dangerous,” he said.

“People all over the world trust the BBC and rely on it for truthful reporting on world events,” he said.