Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it gets even worse.
Almost every week the BBC blunders its way from one antisemitism scandal to another, each one seemingly more shocking than the last. Now it has excelled itself.
For about 40 minutes, some obscure act at Glastonbury cashed in on the antisemitic notoriety of some other previously obscure act by inciting the murder of Israelis. And who gave it colossal free air time? The nation’s public service broadcaster. Jewish (and of course non-Jewish) viewers have literally paid a tax for the privilege of watching an antisemitic hate fest, courtesy of the BBC. And its many Jewish staff – of which I am one – have yet again been left with a feeling that the corporation we work hard for has an antisemitic blind spot.
Very kind of it to issue a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” – the kind of mild measure that’s taken before certain movies after the watershed just in case some parents might not want their children watching.
Nothing of the kind though on the BBC News’ Facebook page story, where the comments are an antisemitic free-for-all. At time of writing, 3,500 comments – the very first being “watching the zios going crazy in the comments on here is epic” – eliciting 950 thumbs up and 793 laughing emojis.
What are Jews meant to think? This is more than irresponsibility by the BBC, it’s literally created a safe space for antisemites to spread Jew-hate of the most pernicious type.
I have seen the private online conversations which have been going on between multiple Jewish staff at the BBC ever since those disgusting thugs puked out their chant of “Death death to the IDF” and it is very depressing. They are incredibly alarmed, upset and at a loss as to how the BBC could have allowed this to happen.
There is an entire gallery of experienced BBC producers, directors and operators watching every second of every performance at Glastonbury. A decision should have been taken immediately to cut the live stream as soon as this garbage first uttered their antisemitic filth.
All it takes is the push of a button. But no-one made that call. No one in that gallery felt that “Death death to the IDF” crossed a line. No one felt it was bad enough. No, the show must go on. Let’s just put up a warning about discriminatory language, that’ll do.
Sadly, that didn’t do. All it did was reinforce that the BBC has learnt absolutely nothing about antisemitism since 7/10. And now the damage has been done, and the damage is huge. The Jewish community, and others, are clamouring for answers, and very clear answers at that. Why did the BBC allow it to happen, who made those wrong calls, and what will be done as a result. Whoever was in charge made a catastrophic mistake, and they must be held accountable.
Whatever little trust remained between the BBC and its Jewish staff has now evaporated. It is difficult to see what it can do to rebuild it, but rebuild it it must.
The impression though is that this latest debacle will barely be put to rest before the next one comes along.
