Campaign Against Antisemitism has today published its projection of investigative journalist David Collier on BBC Broadcasting House.
In the projection, Mr Collier speaks about the scandal at the BBC earlier this year surrounding the documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’, in which he revealed that licence-fee money had been handed to a family member of Hamas.
The video ends with Mr Collier calling on people to join him at Britain’s March Against Antisemitism, organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism for Sunday 7th September.
You can watch the full video here.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism: “Finally, the issue of antisemitism is on the BBC. Literally.
“We can’t tackle antisemitism in Britain without tackling antisemitism at the BBC. From broadcasting chants of ‘Death to the IDF’ and enabling taxpayer funds to go to a family member of Hamas to Gary Lineker publishing a post reminiscent of Nazi propaganda and a BBC Arabic journalist having to apologise for downplaying the 7th October massacre, this year has seen the BBC lurch from one scandal to another. Our polling consistently shows that when it comes to Jews, our public broadcaster is failing, with 92% of British Jews rating its coverage of matters of Jewish interest as unfavourable.
“The BBC is not just another organisation — as a national institution, it has become a symbol of just how bad things have become in our country for Jews. This issue cannot continue to go unaddressed. That is why we encourage everyone to join us on Britain’s March Against Antisemitism on Sunday 7th September.”
David Collier’s remarks on the projection
My name is David Collier and I’m speaking to you from the BBC. As a proudly Jewish and Zionist journalist, this will likely be the closest I’ll ever get to appearing on the BBC, so I’d better make this count.
The BBC is a national institution, and one that millions of Brits have grown up with and relied on to give us the facts. It is the benchmark for journalism.
Or at least it used to be.
Earlier this year, the BBC aired Hamas propaganda, thinly veiled as a documentary on Gaza. Four days later, they took it down only after I uncovered the fact that the narrator of the documentary was actually the son of a Hamas official. I later revealed that licence fee money went to the family of that Hamas official.
Yes, you heard me right. Money from the British public went to the family of a terrorist, courtesy of the BBC.
There were further findings about the film as well.
Let’s be clear: They didn’t take the film down because it was Hamas propaganda. The only reason the BBC took it down was because they got caught, and for once, they had no excuses to hide behind.
I do not work in a large department. I have no research staff or fact-checkers to call upon. I sit in a small room, working alone and investigating the bias in media output with nothing but motivation and a keyboard. And it took me just a few hours to work out that the BBC had used the family of a Hamas official as the star of its show. If I found it so quickly, it means the BBC never even bothered to look.
Through gritted teeth, the BBC announced an internal review. Months later, it released its pitiful findings, which yielded no new insight and read as an exoneration of the BBC. Ofcom have now stepped in to announce an external investigation, something that I, Campaign Against Antisemitism and others called for from the very start.
And that’s just one incident. Gary Lineker, who was the highest-paid presenter at the BBC for years, repeatedly aligned himself — knowingly or recklessly — with individuals and content that promote antisemitic narratives or trivialise violence against Jews. The BBC, which claims to value impartiality and integrity, repeatedly shielded him from consequences.
The final straw came when he shared a social media post which used a dehumanising rat cartoon in relation to “Zionists”. Jews were frequently depicted as rats by the Nazis. He eventually offered an apology, but for once the outrage was too much, and the whistle was finally blown on his career at the BBC.
Then there was Glastonbury, when the BBC broadcast in full a musician chanting “Death to the IDF” and “From the River to the Sea” and rants about his former “Zionist” boss in front of thousands. Senior BBC staff were on the ground at the time, and could have taken immediate action, but didn’t. Another outrage.
We haven’t even touched on journalists like Jeremy Bowen, Orla Guerin and others, or BBC Arabic, which was forced to issue an on-air apology after one of its presenters claimed there was no evidence of Hamas terrorists burning families during its barbaric 7th October attack. That’s just one of countless examples from that department.
Over and over, the BBC is finding itself at the centre of antisemitism scandals, and its reporting on Israel — the world’s only Jewish state — is viewed by many as being not merely inaccurate and biased, but harmful.
Polling shows the overwhelming majority of British Jews — a staggering 92% of us — believe media bias against Israel fuels antisemitism, and look on the BBC’s coverage disfavourably. Can you blame us?
Britain deserves better than what the BBC is delivering. It’s time to let it know. I encourage you to join Britain’s March Against Antisemitism on Sunday 7th September to say no to antisemitism and extremism. We cannot deal with antisemitism in Britain without dealing with the BBC.
Sign up now at antisemitism.org/march.
Image credit: Jeremy Coleman/Campaign Against Antisemitism
