Approximately a month after the war began, the popular Israeli satire program Eretz Nehederet published an English satirical language interview in which a BBC reporter is shown expressing sympathy with the leader of Hamas.
The clip went viral on social media and garnered millions of views, but also drew significant criticism against the British network and joined those who accused it of one-sided and biased reporting against Israel. Among those who criticized the channel was a surprising name – Danny Cohen, the network’s director of television until 2015.
“I had not criticized BBC in any forum before the 7th of October, because I’ve been there myself and know that you can feel like it’s coming from all sides,” atCohen stated in a recent interview with the podcast UNHOLY. “Their refusal to use the word ‘terrorist’ to describe Hamas was misjudged and offensive, and then they doubled down.”
“Every large organization makes errors. When the errors keep coming, does that tell you it’s just a sequence of bad luck, or is there more to it? In my view, this reveals institutional anti-Israel bias, and in some cases racism against Jews. I don’t believe they take anti-Jewish racism as seriously as other forms of racism, because I don’t think this would keep happening if they did. You get the same line over and over again – ‘BBC takes this very seriously’. I think the senior management is more focused on dealing with the crisis than rooting out racism against Jews.”
“The impulse to defend the BBC and get through the crisis rather than dealing with the problem, which is continuing. I have heard from many Jewish workers at the BBC, who feel that bias, and felt that if they spoke out they would lose their jobs. I have heard horrendous stories of antisemitism at the BBC, from workers who felt they could not tell their stories or that the management doesn’t get it.”
He gave one example: “They made two recordings of You’re Fired, a spin-off show from The Apprentice, one with an antisemite and one without. They eventually used the one without – but what on earth was going on? What if he had been racist against any other group?”
He addressed the controversial Oscar acceptance speech by Jonathan Glazer as well. ‘I fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this. my support for Israel is unwavering. I believe very strongly that the continuation of the war is the fault of Hamas, which continues to hold and abuse the hostages and doesn’t use its tunnels to protect the civilian population.’
He also claims the speech has undercut the message of the film The Zone of Interest, which won the award: “It was a bit of a disappointment. It was a triumph for filmmaking and is one of the truly great films about the Holocaust, and will survive as such for decades – but the discussion this week is about the speech, not the film.”