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1,500 Breaches of Editorial Guidelines: BBC Excoriated in Scathing Report on Israel-Hamas War Coverage
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA.
On December 6,2023, HonestReporting highlighted significant issues with the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, nearly three months after the October 7 Hamas massacre.
After multiple serious violations of its editorial guidelines by journalists covering the conflict, we questioned whether the publicly-funded broadcaster’s reputation could recover. We also called out the corporation’s unconvincing defense of its editorial mistakes, as the BBC sought to justify its errors by claiming that its journalists were “reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions.”
This excuse was particularly troubling in the case of Jon Donnison’s coverage of the Al-Ahli Hospital incident, especially given that Donnison was reporting from Jerusalem, not Gaza.
The BBC’s coverage has shown little improvement since then, with HonestReporting repeatedly exposing further breaches of the corporation’s guidelines in its coverage of Israel (see here, here, and here).
This week, a damning report exposed the full extent of the BBC’s anti-Israel bias during the Israel-Hamas war.
The analysis, spanning four months of the broadcaster’s coverage starting on October 7, uncovered a staggering 1,500 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines and highlighted systemic failures to maintain its commitment to impartiality and accuracy during a conflict that has fueled a troubling rise of antisemitic bigotry worldwide.
The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times at the height of Israel’s war against Hamas according to this professional study in the @Telegraph: #BBCbiashttps://t.co/M6feRf7dPT
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 8, 2024
The 199-page report, reviewed by HonestReporting, was the result of an extensive investigation carried out by a team of around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists, led by UK lawyer Trevor Asserson and his firm. The findings expose significant bias, with a consistent pattern of language and reporting that favored Palestinian narratives while downplaying or misrepresenting key facts about the conflict:
Broadcast of False Information — The Al-Ahli Hospital Incident
One of the most notable examples of the BBC’s reporting failures involved the Al-Ahli Hospital blast in Gaza on October 17, 2023. BBC correspondent Jon Donnison, reporting live, speculated that an Israeli airstrike was the most likely cause of the explosion that he claimed had killed 500 people. However, it soon emerged that the explosion occurred in the hospital’s grounds and was caused by a misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad, not an Israeli airstrike. Despite this, Donnison stated, “it is hard to see what else this could really be other than an Israeli airstrike.” Even after the truth was established, the BBC delayed issuing a clear correction.
Repeated Failure to Label Hamas a Terrorist Organization
Throughout its coverage, the BBC refused to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization, despite its official designation as such by numerous countries, including the UK.
Instead, the BBC often portrayed Hamas in sympathetic terms, framing the group as a “resistance movement” and its fighters as “soldiers.”
This failure to accurately label Hamas contributed to a skewed portrayal of the conflict, in which the brutality of Hamas’ attacks, including the kidnapping of over 250 Israelis, was downplayed or presented in a neutral tone.
Particularly outrageous was a headline describing Hamas’s October 7 attack as a “spectacular” operation.
According to @BBCNews, “It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”
And yet the BBC does a damn good job of portraying Israel as the bad guys. https://t.co/syr6Kvi2ys
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 11, 2023
Glorification of Hamas in BBC Arabic Coverage
In BBC Arabic coverage, the glorification of Hamas was even more pronounced.
For example, a report from October 8, 2023, showed celebratory scenes in Ramallah, with residents handing out sweets following Hamas’ attack on Israel. Rather than questioning or contextualizing these celebrations, the BBC Arabic segment amplified Hamas’s propaganda under the headline: “Hamas’s military prowess has shocked Israelis.”
Why does @BBCArabic cameraman Jehad El-Mashhrawi omit that the tragic death of his son in 2012 was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket?
Is there anything else he omits in his heartbreaking firsthand Gaza experience in order to blame Israel?https://t.co/F2Xh01lpLc
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 21, 2023
Sympathy Imbalance in Favor of Palestinians
The report used artificial intelligence to calculate a “sympathy ratio” in the BBC’s coverage, revealing a stark imbalance favoring the Palestinian narrative. Headlines and body text overwhelmingly evoked sympathy for Palestinian casualties, while the suffering of Israeli victims was largely ignored or downplayed. Even when articles did include sympathy for Israel, it was often buried deep within the text, whereas sympathy for Palestinians was prominently displayed in the headlines.
This was especially evident in the coverage following the October 7 massacre, where, despite the unprecedented brutality of this attack, the BBC focused disproportionately on Israel’s immediate military response.
“Palestinian forces.”
Is this how you describe armed Hamas terrorists, @BBCWorld?
And you seem to have forgotten the bit where they infiltrated Israeli villages and towns, murdering and kidnapping Israeli men, women and children. It was more than just a rocket attack. https://t.co/AgLeA1nrk9
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 7, 2023
Inconsistent and Inadequate Corrections
The BBC’s failure to issue prompt and transparent corrections for its reporting mistakes was another critical issue highlighted in the report. In one example, after falsely reporting that Israel had executed 137 Palestinian civilians, this inaccurate information was repeated in six different broadcasts before the BBC finally issued a correction — 12 days later.
Downplaying Palestinian Terrorism
The BBC has consistently downplayed Palestinian terrorism while portraying Israel as a militaristic, aggressive nation. According to the report, the BBC suggested that Israel faced “no substantial threat,” effectively delegitimizing Israel’s right to defend itself. By contrast, the coverage of Hamas’s military strength and its role as a terror organization received far less attention.
Misleading Comparisons in Coverage
The report highlighted a specific example from BBC Arabic in November 2023, where a roundup of newspaper coverage contrasted a photograph of a Gazan girl after an air raid with a photo of an ultra-Orthodox Jew carrying a machine gun. The context of the second image was entirely omitted: the man was returning from the funeral of a Jewish student shot by Palestinians in the West Bank.
Furthermore, the photo was taken in October 2000, more than two decades before October 7, 2023.
Minimizing Israeli Victims
The BBC’s coverage frequently minimized the suffering of Israeli victims while giving detailed attention to Palestinian casualties. For example, a picture of Israeli hostage Noa Argamani used by the BBC on January 1, 2024, showed her smiling before the war, rather than the distressing image of her abduction by Hamas, which had been widely circulated.
Yet, even in the face of the evidence presented in the Asserson report, the BBC continues to deny that there is any substantial problem with its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
In response, the BBC stated it would “carefully consider” the findings but quickly moved to undermine the credibility of the research, questioning both the methodology and the use of AI. In the BBC’s typical evasive fashion, a spokesman for the corporation told The Telegraph: “We don’t think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context.”
The corporation’s World Affairs editor, John Simpson, who previously justified the BBC’s refusal to call Hamas terrorists by stating, “It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn,” also dismissed the Asserson report on X.
The BBC says it has serious questions about the methodology of the attack on BBC reporting of Gaza in today’s Sunday Telegraph. Jeremy Bowen and Lyse Doucet, who are singled out for vicious criticism, are known worldwide as two of the finest correspondents in world journalism.
— John Simpson (@JohnSimpsonNews) September 8, 2024
His statement perfectly illustrates the BBC’s ongoing issue of prioritizing neutrality over accuracy, and creating the false impression of two equal sides where none exists. This approach has long been part of the BBC’s defense, and Simpson’s justification for his employer mirrors the broadcaster’s broader reluctance to admit bias, even when faced with undeniable evidence.
This denial is not a new phenomenon.
More than 20 years ago, the Balen report similarly identified bias in the BBC’s coverage of Israel, yet the broadcaster has never released the findings to the public. For years, the BBC has fought legal battles to keep the Balen report under wraps, a telling sign of its damning contents.
The Asserson report is merely the latest in a long line of warnings. It reveals not just isolated errors, but a consistent pattern of bias that undermines the BBC’s journalistic integrity. But how can the BBC begin to address its failings when it refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem?
The question remains: how long can this continue? Can the BBC withstand any further blows to its credibility?
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post 1,500 Breaches of Editorial Guidelines: BBC Excoriated in Scathing Report on Israel-Hamas War Coverage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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We Must Give Our Jewish Youth Hope, Not Despair
College students hold dueling demonstrations amid Israel’s war with Hamas in April 2024. Photo: Vincent Ricci via Reuters Connect
Walk into any Chabad on campus, scroll through Instagram, or attend a panel on “Jewish identity in 2025,” and you’ll feel it: exhaustion.
The faces are younger, but the weight they carry is old — heavier than it should be for college students trying to find meaning, connection, and joy in their heritage. Antisemitism is surging, yes. The headlines are overwhelming. The betrayal of supposed allies stings. But here’s the deeper crisis we need to talk about: we’re burning out the very generation we’re trying to awaken. And we’re doing it with good intentions.
We’ve built an identity around crisis. Every gathering starts with the stats: “This amount of hate crimes.” “These many campus protests.” “These politicians failed us.” The algorithm serves us fear on a loop. The message? Being Jewish today means being a victim. Being Jewish means you’re losing. Why, then, are we surprised that some young Jews are opting out?
They aren’t indifferent. They’re uninspired. They’re not apathetic. They’re allergic to despair.
Victimhood Is Not an Identity
Jewish history is filled with trauma, but it is also filled with triumph. For millennia, our people have turned pain into purpose, exile into renewal, and scarcity into genius. We are not here because we were victims. We are here because we are survivors, builders, dreamers, and creators.
But in the last few years, we’ve allowed antisemitism to dominate the narrative. Every Jewish conference has a keynote on Jew-hatred. Our newsletters lead with the latest outrage. Our talking points are soaked in fear. The result? We’ve made Judaism feel like a burden, a fight, a cause to defend — rather than a light to share.
We’ve turned off the very people we need to turn on.
They Don’t Want a Protest Movement. They Want a Purpose.
Young Jews don’t want to be told their identity is something to protect. They want to be told it’s something to celebrate. And they want to celebrate it in their own way — not just through Holocaust remembrances and antisemitism awareness panels.
They want to build startups with a Jewish soul. Create art that reflects our ancient values. Reimagine what it means to be a Jewish leader in politics, tech, fashion, or sports. They want to innovate, not litigate their existence.
And we should let them.
If we only hand them a Judaism defined by its enemies, we shouldn’t be surprised if they reject it. If all we offer is a defense mechanism, why would they embrace it with pride?
Being the Light Isn’t Just a Slogan
The world doesn’t need more Jewish martyrs. It needs more Jewish mentors.
We must tell stories of Jewish greatness — not to brag, but to build. To show that our strength is not theoretical, but proven — and that being Jewish is not about surviving the storm; it’s about being the lighthouse.
We’ve produced scientists who changed medicine. Filmmakers who shaped global culture. Economists, engineers, scholars, and soldiers. The IDF doesn’t just defend Israel — it’s a school of leadership, innovation, and moral clarity. The same values pulse through the veins of Jewish entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and changemakers everywhere.
This is the Judaism that inspires. Not one built on fear, but one built on fire.
Let’s Not Scare Them Into Silence
There’s another danger to our obsession with antisemitism. We’re not just exhausting our youth; we’re intimidating them.
If every interaction with Jewish life feels like a moral war zone, many will choose to remain on the sidelines. Not because they don’t care, but because they’re overwhelmed. We’ve created an emotional toll booth at the entrance to Jewish identity. Pay in trauma, or move along.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Do you know what’s actually countercultural? Joy. Confidence. Pride.
Instead of telling young Jews how bad it is to be hated, let’s tell them how good it is to be chosen. Not “chosen” in the arrogant, exclusivist sense that critics distort — but chosen to bring light, to pursue justice, to elevate the mundane.
Being Jewish isn’t about what others think of us. It’s about what we think of ourselves.
You want to energize a generation? Tell them the truth: Judaism is not the losing team. It’s the longest-running success story in human history. We are a tiny people with a massive legacy. We don’t need pity. We need purpose.
From Complaint to Campaign
Let’s be clear: fighting antisemitism is essential. But it cannot be our identity. It must be a chapter, not the cover.
The future of Judaism won’t be written in the language of grievance. It will be written by those who build, create, and lead with confidence –who wear their Jewish identity not as armor, but as a beacon.
The next generation doesn’t want to join a protest. They want to join a movement. Not just against something. But for something. For beauty. For wisdom. For joy. For life.
Let’s give them that movement. Let’s give them that story. Let’s give them back their pride.
Steve Rosenberg is the Principal of the Team GSD, the Regional Director for NAVI in Philadelphia and the author of the book: Make Bold Things Happen: Inspirational Stories from Sports, Business And Life.
The post We Must Give Our Jewish Youth Hope, Not Despair first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A View From the Classroom: The War Against Israel on Dutch University Campuses
March 29, 2025, Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands: A pro-Palestinian demonstrator burns a hand-fashioned Israeli flag. Photo: James Petermeier/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Outside of America, the war against Israel is also being fought on European university campuses — a second, often overlooked front.
While most attention is focused on the US, equally troubling developments are unfolding across Europe — particularly in the Netherlands.
Maastricht University exemplifies this concern. Student organizations like Free Palestine Maastricht (FPM) routinely host demonstrations marked by extremist rhetoric, inciting violence and antisemitism. Chants include explicit calls for violence such as “Long live the armed resistance, there is only one solution, Intifada revolution,” and “Falasteen horra horra, el sahyouni barra barra” (Palestine free, Zionists out), creating a deeply hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty.
Beyond rhetoric, FPM engages in fundraising disguised as humanitarian aid, funneling funds to extremist-linked entities in Gaza.
One Gazan recipient, the Sanabel Team, publicly celebrated antisemitic violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans in Amsterdam in November 2024, framing these acts as continuations of Hamas atrocities on October 7, 2023. Alarmingly, FPM reposted and endorsed the chilling call: “Kill all Zionists.”
After platforms like PayPal and GoFundMe blocked extremist fundraising, FPM continued through direct transfers and cash collections, coinciding notably with reports of severe financial difficulties faced by Hezbollah, Hamas’ ally.
Faculty complicity further deepens the crisis. A lecturer from Radboud University in Nijmegen reposted propaganda from Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, implicitly endorsing violence. He also explicitly called for disrupting a lecture by Syrian peace advocate Rawan Osman at Maastricht University, enthusiastically acted upon by FPM. The event escalated dangerously, prompting municipal authorities to advise its termination. Protesters surrounded the building, aggressively banged on windows, hurled antisemitic slurs, and attendees required police protection to exit. Subsequently, Jewish students who organized the lecture were denied permission for future events, while FPM continues freely.
Both Nijmegen and Maastricht universities have historical connections with Samidoun, designated by several countries as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist entity. Samidoun advocates for prisoners involved in terrorism, amplifies extremist rhetoric, and participates actively in anti-Israel propaganda.
Maastricht University maintains partnerships with Iranian universities linked to Iran’s extremist regime, yet simultaneously froze ties with Israeli institutions after FPM occupied a faculty building’s garden, declaring it a “Zionist-free” zone. This double standard underscores alarming institutional complicity. Additionally, FPM has spread the shocking accusation on social media that the Hebrew University of Jerusalem uses stolen Palestinian organs for scientific research — a modern revival of antisemitic blood libels — yet Maastricht University has taken no action against this dangerous and inflammatory propaganda.
This troubling climate exists on campuses across the Netherlands, as confirmed by recent research conducted by Dr. Eliyahu Sapir and myself. Our findings document widespread intimidation, threats, and explicit antisemitism at Dutch universities, including professors penalizing students who object to antisemitic remarks, campus protests equating Israel with Nazi Germany, and confrontations specifically targeting visibly Jewish students.
Campus-driven extremism directly impacts Dutch policy and public opinion. In 2024, intensified activism led the Dutch Court of Appeal to halt exports of essential components for Israel’s F-35 jets. Public opinion has also shifted markedly; an April 2025 Ipsos poll revealed 54% of Dutch citizens now support harsher policies toward Israel.
These campus developments mirror shifts within the Dutch government. Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp consistently aligns his rhetoric with Hamas, advocating ceasefires to facilitate hostage releases, rather than insisting on the prior release of hostages. He criticized pro-Israel groups, labeling their humanitarian support for Jewish settlements “undesirable,” yet offered no similar scrutiny to Hamas-linked funding groups. Veldkamp even prematurely suggested Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu could face arrest due to an ICC ruling, deliberately setting a confrontational diplomatic tone.
The gravity of this situation is internationally recognized. At the upcoming European Jewish Association (EJA) Annual Conference in Madrid (May 12–13, 2025), over 150 Jewish community leaders will address antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment on European campuses, highlighting Maastricht as a key example.
Given this hostile climate and complicity in extremist activities, Israel should seriously reconsider academic partnerships with Dutch universities. Taking decisive action would send a clear message: institutions tolerating antisemitic propaganda must face meaningful consequences.
There are few dissenting voices against this extremist narrative — I am one of them. Consequently, I have received racist and sexist slurs, faced online death threats explicitly stating that I am a legitimate target to be destroyed, vaporized, or made to “disappear.” I have found pigeons slaughtered on my car, and my car door smeared with blood. These attacks are not personal; they are part of the broader war against Israel.
Let’s win it.
The author is Associate Professor at Maastricht University.
The post A View From the Classroom: The War Against Israel on Dutch University Campuses first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Disgusting News: Pulitzer Prize Winner Excused Abduction of Israelis by Hamas
Released British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari arrives at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, after being held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, in this image obtained by Reuters on Jan. 19, 2025. Photo: Maayan Toaf/GPO/Handout via REUTERS
The Pulitzer Prize was awarded last week to a Gazan poet who excused the abduction of Israelis by Hamas, HonestReporting revealed on exclusively, while calling for the prestigious award to be rescinded.
Mosab Abu Toha, who also spread antisemitic content and fake news on his social media platforms, won the top honor in journalism on Monday (May 5) for his essays published in the New Yorker describing the ongoing war in the enclave.
But it seems that both the magazine and the Pulitzer committee failed to check Abu Toha’s virulent social media posts against Israeli hostages whom Hamas brutally abducted on October 7, 2023.
HonestReporting exclusively shared these posts with Fox News Digital, which reached out to Abu Toha, The New Yorker, and the Pulitzer Prize organization for comment.
Meet Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha. He justifies the kidnapping of Israelis on Oct. 7.
We aren’t going to congratulate him for his prize. Instead, we’re going to ask @PulitzerPrizes whether they bothered to check his social media.
Because we did, and it’s not pretty.
pic.twitter.com/qQAMQGi0IK
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 7, 2025
“How is this girl called a hostage?”
Abu Toha, who currently lives in the US, specifically disparaged female Israeli hostages, questioned their hostage status and implicitly justified their abduction.
Toha posted the following about Israeli hostage Emily Damari on January 24, 2025:
How on earth is this girl called a hostage? (And this is the case of most ‘hostages’). This is Emily Damari, a 28 UK-Israeli soldier that Hamas detailed on 10/7… So this girl is called a ‘hostage?’ This soldier who was close to the border with a city that she and her country have been occupying is called a ‘hostage?’
Damari, an Israeli civilian, was shot twice and abducted from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7. Hamas held her for 471 days. But Abu Toha thinks that she cannot even be considered a hostage because she was a “soldier.”
A similar post by Abu Toha, posted on February 3, 2025, targeted former Israeli hostage Agam Berger:
The Israeli ‘hostage’ Agam Berger, who was released days ago participates in her sister’s graduation from an Israeli Air Force officers’ course. These are the ones the world wants to share sympathy for, killers who join the army and have family in the army! These are the ones whom CNN, BBC and the likes humanize in articles and TV programs and news bulletins.
Hamas held Agam Berger hostage with none of the rights due to a prisoner who has gone through a legal process. But that doesn’t matter to Abu Toha.
Toha also cast doubt on the forensic evidence that showed that the Bibas children — 9-month-old Kfir and Ariel, 4 — were killed by their captors.
Toha posted February 21, 2025:
Shame on BBC, propaganda machine. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said ‘forensic findings’, which have not been seen by the BBC, suggested the boys had been killed with ‘bare hands.’ If you haven’t seen any evidence, why did you publish this. Well, that’s what you are, filthy people.
An Israeli forensic analysis found that the two small boys were killed by the murderers’ “bare hands.” Heart-wrenching footage from October 7 showed Shiri Bibas and her two boys being kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Abu Toha’s rush to cleanse Hamas of their brutal murder could be considered to be justifying it.
Antisemitic Slurs
Other posts by Abu Toha constitute a clear violation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
When Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimeh was arrested by Swiss police in Zurich, Abu Toha blamed “the Zionists,” echoing antisemitic tropes about Jewish control over state bodies, government, and the media.
Another pattern in Abu Toha’s posts is the demonization of Israeli soldiers and symbols. According to Abu Toha, Israeli “terror soldiers” celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah is “what true antisemitism looks like.”
He also thinks that Israeli soldiers’ blood is forfeit when they are off duty — implicitly supporting harming Israeli civilians, most of whom served or still serve as reservists in the IDF due to Israel’s mandatory conscription law.
In another breach of IHRA’s definition, Abu Toha minimized the Holocaust by comparing it to Gaza’s “genocide.”
Abu Toha also seemed to mouth Hamas propaganda and fake news, accusing Israel of having bombed Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. In the initial hours after the blast, mainstream media outlets parroted claims made by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry that Israel bombed the hospital, killing as many as 500 people.
But international authorities quickly concluded that it was the hospital’s parking lot that was hit by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile, resulting in a death toll a fraction of what Hamas had first alleged.
A Blemish on the Pulitzer Prize
The exposure of Abu Toha’s posts prompted HonestReporting executive director Gil Hoffman to call for the prize to be rescinded:
The Pulitzer Prize is the top award in journalism and should not be blemished by bestowing it to a man who repeatedly twisted facts,” Hoffman said. “Abu Toha justifies abducting civilians from their homes, spreads fake news, and calls lighting a Menorah on Hanukkah antisemitism. That doesn’t sound prizeworthy to me.
Hoffman’s words are all the more poignant given that last year, HonestReporting campaigned against giving the Pulitzer Prize to photographers who crossed the border from Gaza with terrorists on October 7, 2023, and broke both physical and ethical boundaries.
When Reuters won the prize for international photography, there were no pictures from that day in the winning bid. Reuters later confirmed that images obtained from infiltrators were deliberately excluded so the win would not be marred.
Meanwhile, Israeli Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, told Fox News Digital that “these posts are an absolute disgrace, and this man should be condemned for his comments, not given a Pulitzer Prize. Reading these posts should make any decent person absolutely sick to their stomach.”
HonestReporting believes it’s necessary to unequivocally condemn Abu Toha and rescind the prize if the Pulitzer organization wishes to uphold its reputation as a beacon of excellence and ethics in journalism that must not be tarnished.
HonestReporting is a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Disgusting News: Pulitzer Prize Winner Excused Abduction of Israelis by Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.