BBC Guilty of Anti-Semitism Again

Last week, the BBC called on Jeremy Corbyn to denounce Jews.  Today, the BBC is at it again, this time displaying an even more open anti-Semitism.  They have now attacked Corbyn for having celebrated Passover with a group of Jews, for the sole reason that these Jews do not fit the BBC's criteria for what it is to be Jewish.  They are not alone, of course.  The rest of the Tory media have attacked Corbyn for celebrating Passover with the wrong Jews, and they were provided with fuel for that anti-Semitic attack, by the right-wing of the Labour Party, who also criticised him for associating with the wrong Jews.

The BBC last week called on Corbyn to denounce those Jews who had organised a counter-rally in his defence in Parliament Square.  Now Corbyn is being denounced not for attacking Jews, or failing to deal with anti-Semitism, but for associating with that same group of radical Jews.  This amounts to nothing less than the BBC and other parts of the Tory media taking on the right to decide who can be a Jew and who cannot.  Last week, I was generous to the BBC in describing their anti-Semitism as implicit, as they appeared blind to the existence of all those Jews who do not fit their description of what a Jew should be like.  This week, no such generosity can be afforded to the BBC, because they clearly saw that those with whom Corbyn was celebrating Passover were indeed Jews, but deliberately chose to effectively deligitimate those Jews, by noting that these particular Jews are critical of the "mainstream Jewish organisations".

That is rather like deligitimating radical Christians, because, for example, as Methodists, they are critical of the Catholic Church!  Would the BBC criticise any political leader for having celebrated Christmas with a group of Wesleyans, and accuse them of being anti-Christian for having done so, because Wesleyans are critical of the "mainstream Christian organisations"?  Of course, not.  That the BBC, choose to apply a different set of rules when it comes to Jews than they would apply to Christians, is overt anti-Semitism.  Its time the Head of the BBC called a halt to this rampant anti-Semitism in the organisation, and began suspending all those found guilty of it within the organisation.  Nothing less than immediate action will suffice, including action to root out all of those responsible for placing anti-Semitic and otherwise xenophobic and bigoted comments on the BBC social media sites.

The BBC as with other organs of the Tory media appear to be subordinating the interests of Jews in general to the short term aim of attacking Jeremy Corbyn.  In that they are acting also as the mouthpiece of various sections of the Labour Right.