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The BBC Is Severely Biased Against Israel: Here Are 10 of the Most Egregious Examples

Protesters outside the BBC headquarters in London on March 6, 2025. Photo: Nathan Lilienfeld/Campaign Against Antisemitism

Yet again the BBC has come under increased scrutiny in the fallout over alternative hip-hop duo Bob Vylan‘s incendiary performance at the Glastonbury Festival. Despite chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF,” the UK’s national broadcaster continued airing the live feed and kept the recording on its VOD service for several hours.

That Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, was physically present at Glastonbury on the day has only added to the pressure he is facing. But this controversy is only the latest in a string of embarrassing Israel-related scandals to plague the BBC since Davie’s 2020 appointment.

As the UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, recently stated in the House of Commons, “When you have one editorial failure, it’s something that must be gripped. When you have several, it becomes a problem of leadership.”

As many question whether Tim Davie’s head should roll, here’s a reminder (in no particular order) of some of the most egregious examples of Israel-related controversies that have marred the BBC’s image during his tenure:

1. The BBC Refuses to Refer to Hamas as “Terrorists”

Since 2021, the UK has designated the entirety of Hamas as a terrorist organization, widening its 2001 terror designation of the Palestinian group’s “military wing.”

Despite this official designation by the UK, its taxpayer-funded broadcaster refuses to refer to Hamas and its members as “terrorists,” preferring the more neutral and legitimizing term, “militant.”

In an attempt to justify this policy, the BBC’s World Affairs editor John Simpson explained that it doesn’t refer to Hamas as “terrorists” in order to maintain an objective tone and does not tell people “who to support and who to condemn.”

However, as HonestReporting discovered, the BBC has no qualms about using that term when referring to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, or other international terror organizations.

It seems that for the BBC under Tim Davie’s leadership, you’re a “terrorist” if you attack American or British targets but only a “militant” if you target Israelis.

 

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2. Gaza Documentary Pulled for “Serious Flaws”

In February 2025, the BBC was forced to apologize for “serious flaws” in a documentary that it had commissioned on the lives of Gazan children during the Israel-Hamas war.

Titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” the documentary was pulled from the British broadcaster’s streaming platform after investigative journalist David Collier revealed that the film’s teen narrator was the son of a Hamas minister and that his mother had been paid by the production company.

It was also discovered that there were several instances of mistranslation in a bid to sanitize the interviewee’s language. This included translating the Arabic word for “Jews” as “Israelis” or “Israeli forces” and translating “Jihad” as “battle” or “resistance.”

3. Parroting Hamas on Al-Ahli Hospital Blast

On October 17, 2023, the BBC fell for Hamas propaganda when it uncritically parroted the terror group’s claim that an Israeli airstrike had killed 500 people at Al-Ahli Hospital.

Hours later, it was determined by Israeli and American intelligence that it was a parking lot that had been hit and not the hospital building itself, that far fewer than 500 people had been killed, and that the blast was caused by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket and not an Israeli strike.

While the BBC was not the only mainstream media organization to willingly spread Hamas’ falsehoods without a second thought, the broadcaster’s correspondent Jon Donnison was so certain in the veracity of Hamas’ propaganda, that he took it even one step further, authoritatively declaring for his international audience that it was “hard to see what else this could be really given the size of the explosion other than an Israel airstrike or several airstrikes because when we’ve seen rockets fired out of Gaza, we never see explosions of that scale.”

4. Al-Shifa Hospital: Vilifying Israel, Whitewashing Hamas

Another Gaza hospital and more BBC misreporting.

For years, it was known that Hamas was using the area of Al-Shifa Hospital as a command and control center and was breaking international law by embedding its terrorist forces within the civilian hospital complex.

However, when the IDF finally pushed to rout Hamas from the hospital grounds in November 2023, the BBC chose to misrepresent Israel’s actions and to whitewash Hamas’ criminal activities.

First, when initial reports were emerging that the IDF was operating in Al-Shifa, the BBC anchor read out the libelous claim that the military had announced that it was targeting medical professionals and Arabic speakers. In fact, the IDF had announced that it was bringing medical teams and Arabic speakers into the hospital in order to provide aid to the patients there.

The BBC later apologized for “this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards.”

5. The BBC Spreads 14,000 Babies Libel

In a May 2025 interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher made the baseless claim that 14,000 Gazan babies would die within the next 48 hours if a flood of aid was not allowed into the blockaded enclave.

To the BBC’s credit, Fletcher’s statement was challenged during his interview, and the broadcaster conducted further investigation, proving that this claim was unfounded and was based on a gross misrepresentation of data about possible malnutrition in the coming year.

However, despite the appearance of journalistic due diligence, HonestReporting uncovered that the BBC was continuing to repeat Fletcher’s statement in various reports without any proper context or clarification.

When it comes to Israel, it seems that Tim Davie’s BBC prefers clickbait misinformation over proper journalism.

6. BBC News Presenter: “The Israeli Forces Are Happy to Kill Children”

Even before the current Israel-Hamas war, the BBC had no qualms about spreading misinformation and libels about Israel and the IDF.

In a July 2023 interview with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett about an Israeli counter-terror operation in the Palestinian city of Jenin, BBC News presenter Anjana Gadgil questioned if the IDF had set out to kill children since four of those killed in the operation were under the age of 18 (while simultaneously ignoring that they were claimed as members by Palestinian terrorist organizations).

After Bennett ably handled her malicious question, Gadgil doubled down and accused the IDF of being “happy to kill children.”

Rather than asking serious journalistic questions, Gadgil seemed content to use her interview with Bennett as a means of amplifying her own anti-Israel libels.

7. The BBC Misrepresents Hebrew Cry For Help as Anti-Muslim Slur

In November 2022, the UK media regulator Ofcom castigated the BBC for its continued misrepresentation of a Hebrew cry for help as an anti-Muslim slur.

In December 2021, a bus full of Jewish youths celebrating Hanukkah was surrounded by a group of men performing Nazi salutes and spitting at them.

After footage from inside the bus was leaked, the BBC claimed that the phrase “dirty Muslims” could be heard from within the bus. However, it was determined that it was rather a Hebrew speaker saying to “call someone, it’s urgent.”

Even when the BBC’s report was called into dispute, the broadcaster refused to apologize and continued to hold that an anti-Muslim slur could be heard from inside the bus.

In its report, Ofcom observed that the BBC failed to “observe its editorial guidelines” and “made a serious editorial misjudgment.”

8. BBC Panel: Are Jews an Ethnic Minority?

In March 2021, the BBC came under fire for hosting a panel discussion of mainly non-Jews on whether the Jewish people were an ethnic minority.

The panel was a response to a mistaken tweet by the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party that her party’s new leader was the “first ethnic minority leader of a political party…anywhere in the UK.” This claim appeared to discount Ed Miliband and Michael Howard, both Jewish former heads of the Labour and Conservative parties, respectively.

Instead of simply reporting on the erroneous tweet, the BBC chose to turn it into a panel discussion on the Jewish people’s status as an ethnic minority and whether they could be considered as such due to their successful integration within the UK.

As HonestReporting noted at the time:

To their credit, none of the panelists belittled the issue or dodged the issue, uniformly criticizing Rayner for her ill-advised tweet. That the panelists could do so, but the BBC couldn’t grasp how to properly frame the conversation, made for a striking juxtaposition.

9. The BBC’s Coddling of Gary Lineker’s Anti-Israel Activity

Another embarrassment that has marred the BBC under Tim Davie’s leadership has been the broadcaster’s coddling of Gary Lineker’s anti-Israel social media activity.

Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid star, had a long history of posting incendiary items on social media, receiving a light punishment for it, and continuing to enjoy the state-funded spotlight despite his crude antics.

In one notable example from January 2024, Lineker reposted a call by the pro-boycott Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) for Israel to be suspended from the global soccer federation (FIFA). Aside from the call to boycott Israel, the post also referred to the IDF’s fight against Hamas in Gaza as a “genocide.”

Ultimately, Lineker deleted the post following a public outcry and, despite the heinousness of the post, the BBC chose to ignore the episode and claim that it didn’t violate its social media guidelines.

In the end, Lineker left the BBC in May 2025, after reposting a condemnation of Zionism that featured an antisemitic motif.

Turns out that the BBC could only turn its back to Lineker’s social media antics for so long.

10. BBC Chair Met With Palestinian Envoy to Discuss Coverage

Under Tim Davie’s leadership, the Israel-related controversies haven’t only remained at the level of journalists and presenters but have even risen to senior management.

One example of the rot at the top is a 2022 meeting between BBC chairman Richard Sharp and Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Authority envoy to the UK,  to “discuss the BBC’s reporting of developments in Palestine.” The meeting was commemorated with a photograph of the two men in front of a map of “Palestine” that encompasses the entire State of Israel.

Aside from this questionable photo, the fact that Sharp chose to confer with a man who whitewashes Palestinian terrorism, defends the PA’s pro-terror policies, and has been accused of denying the Holocaust shows a terrible lack of judgment at best and an explicit anti-Israel bias at worst.

Despite its claim to impartiality and accountability, the BBC’s coverage of Israel, the Middle East, and Jewish life has been plagued by an immense bias against the Jewish state, an uncritical reliance on Palestinian narratives, and a lack of sensitivity to the experiences of the British Jewish community.

Under Tim Davie’s leadership, this flagrant bias has become an embarrassment for the British national broadcaster, miring it in unnecessary scandals and controversies.

Will the latest scandal at Glastonbury be the final straw that ends Davie’s career at the BBC and leads to a rehabilitation of the media behemoth’s journalistic integrity?

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 The BBC Is Severely Biased Against Israel: Here Are 10 of the Most Egregious Examples first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Harvard Faculty Oppose Deal With Trump, Distancing From Hamas Apologists: Crimson Poll

Harvard University president Alan Garber attending the 373rd Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

A recently published Harvard Crimson poll of over 1,400 Harvard faculty revealed sweeping opposition to interim university President Alan Garber’s efforts to strike a deal with the federal government to restore $3 billion in research grants and contracts it froze during the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.

In the survey, conducted from April 23 to May 12, 71 percent of arts and sciences faculty oppose negotiating a settlement with the administration, which may include concessions conservatives have long sought from elite higher education, such as meritocratic admissions, viewpoint diversity, and severe disciplinary sanctions imposed on students who stage unauthorized protests that disrupt academic life.

Additionally, 64 percent “strongly disagree” with shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, 73 percent oppose rejecting foreign applicants who hold anti-American beliefs which are “hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence,” and 70 percent strongly disagree with revoking school recognition from pro-Hamas groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC).

“More than 98 percent of faculty who responded to the survey supported the university’s decision to sue the White House,” The Crimson reported. “The same percentage backed Harvard’s public rejection of the sweeping conditions that the administration set for maintaining the funds — terms that included external audits of Harvard’s hiring practices and the disciplining of student protesters.”

Alyza Lewin of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law told The Algemeiner that the poll results indicate that Harvard University will continue to struggle to address campus antisemitism on campus, as there is now data showing that its faculty reject the notion of excising intellectualized antisemitism from the university.

“If you, for example, have faculty teaching courses that are regularly denying that the Jews are a people and erasing the Jewish people’s history in the land of Israel, that’s going to undermine your efforts to address the antisemitism on your campus,” Lewin explained. “When Israel is being treated as the ‘collective Jew,’ when the conversation is not about Israel’s policies, when the criticism is not what the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism] would call criticism of Israel similar to that against any other country, they have to understand that it is the demonization, delegitimization, and applying a double standard to Jews as individuals or to Israel.”

She added, “Faculty must recognize … the demonization, vilification, the shunning, and the marginalizing of Israelis, Jews, and Zionists, when it happens, as violations of the anti-discrimination policies they are legally and contractually obligated to observe.”

The Crimson survey results were published amid reports that Garber was working to reach a deal with the Trump administration that is palatable to all interested parties, including the university’s left-wing social milieu.

According to a June 26 report published by The Crimson, Garber held a phone call with major donors in which he “confirmed in response to a question from [Harvard Corporation Fellow David M. Rubenstein] that talks had resumed” but “declined to share specifics of how Harvard expected to settle with the White House.”

On June 30, the Trump administration issued Harvard a “notice of violation” of civil rights law following an investigation which examined how it responded to dozens of antisemitic incidents reported by Jewish students since the 2023-2024 academic year.

The correspondence, sent by the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, charged that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a torrent of racist and antisemitic abuse following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, which precipitated a surge in anti-Zionist activity on the campus, both in the classroom and out of it.

“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the four federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”

The Trump administration ratcheted up pressure on Harvard again on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.

Citing Harvard’s failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated other forms of hatred in the past, The US Department of Educationthe called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.

“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Harvard Faculty Oppose Deal With Trump, Distancing From Hamas Apologists: Crimson Poll first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Balancing Act: Lebanese President Aoun Affirms Hope for Peace with Israel, Balks At Normalization

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, March 28, 2025. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday carefully affirmed his country’s desire for peace with Israel while cautioning that Beirut is not ready to normalize relations with its southern neighbor.

Aoun called for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, according to a statement from his office, while reaffirming his government’s efforts to uphold a state monopoly on arms amid mounting international pressure on the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah to disarm.

“The decision to restrict arms is final and there is no turning back on it,” Aoun said.

The Lebanese leader drew a clear distinction between pursuing peace and establishing formal normalization in his country’s relationship with the Jewish state.

“Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment,” Aoun said in a statement. “As for the issue of normalization, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy.”

Aoun’s latest comments come after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar expressed interest last month in normalizing ties with Lebanon and Syria — an effort Jerusalem says cannot proceed until Hezbollah is fully disarmed.

Earlier this week, Aoun sent his government’s response to a US-backed disarmament proposal as Washington and Jerusalem increased pressure on Lebanon to neutralize the terror group.

While the details remain confidential, US Special Envoy Thomas Barrack said he was “unbelievably satisfied” with their response.

This latest proposal, presented to Lebanese officials during Barrack’s visit on June 19, calls for Hezbollah to be fully disarmed within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from its five occupied posts in southern Lebanon.

However, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem vowed in a televised speech to keep the group’s weapons, rejecting Washington’s disarmament proposal.

“How can you expect us not to stand firm while the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, continues to occupy the five points, and continues to enter our territories and kill?” said Qassem, who succeeded longtime terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah after Israel killed him last year.

“We will not be part of legitimizing the occupation in Lebanon and the region,” the terrorist leader continued. “We will not accept normalization [with Israel].”

Last fall, Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive, following the group’s attacks on Jerusalem — which they claimed were a show of solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas amid the war in Gaza.

In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.

Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.

However, Israel maintained troops at several posts in southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline, as its leaders aimed to reassure northern residents that it was safe to return home.

Jerusalem has continued carrying out strikes targeting remaining Hezbollah activity, with Israeli leaders accusing the group of maintaining combat infrastructure, including rocket launchers — calling this “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

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Peace Meals: Chef José Andrés Says ‘Good People’ On Both Sides of Gaza Conflict Ill-Served By Leaders, Food Can Bridge Divide

Chef and head of World Central Kitchen Jose Andres attends the Milken Institute Global Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, US, May 5, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake.

Renowned Spanish chef and World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder José Andrés called the Oct. 7 attack “horrendous” in an interview Wednesday and shared his hopes for reconciliation between the “vast majority” on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide who are “good people that very often are not served well by their leaders”

WCK is a US-based, nonprofit organization that provides fresh meals to people in conflict zones around the world. The charity has been actively serving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. Since the Hamas attack, WCK has served more than 133 million meals across Gaza, according to its website.

The restaurateur and humanitarian has been quoted saying in past interviews that “sometimes very big problems have very simple solutions.” On Wednesday’s episode of the Wall Street Journal podcast “Bold Names,” he was asked to elaborate on that thought. He responded by saying he believes good meals and good leaders can help resolve issues between Israelis and Palestinians, who, he believes, genuinely want to live harmoniously with each other.

“I had people in Gaza, mothers, women making bread,” he said. “Moments that you had of closeness they were telling you: ‘What Hamas did was wrong. I wouldn’t [want] anybody to do this to my children.’ And I had Israelis that even lost family members. They say, ‘I would love to go to Gaza to be next to the people to show them that we respect them …’ And this to me is very fascinating because it’s the reality.

“Maybe some people call me naive. [But] the vast majority of the people are good people that very often are not served well by their leaders. And the simple reality of recognizing that many truths can be true at the same time in the same phrase that what happened on October 7th was horrendous and was never supposed to happen. And that’s why World Central Kitchen was there next to the people in Israel feeding in the kibbutz from day one, and at the same time that I defended obviously the right of Israel to defend itself and to try to bring back the hostages. Equally, what is happening in Gaza is not supposed to be happening either.”

Andres noted that he supports Israel’s efforts to target Hamas terrorists but then seemingly accused Israel of “continuously” targeting children and civilians during its military operations against the terror group.

“We need leaders that believe in that, that believe in longer tables,” he concluded. “It’s so simple to invest in peace … It’s so simple to do good. It’s so simple to invest in a better tomorrow. Food is a solution to many of the issues we’re facing. Let’s hope that … one day in the Middle East it’ll be people just celebrating the cultures that sometimes if you look at what they eat, they seem all to eat exactly the same.”

In 2024, WCK fired at least 62 of its staff members in Gaza after Israel said they had ties to terrorist groups. In one case, Israel discovered that a WCK employee named Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part in the deadly Hamas rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Qdeih was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in November 2024.

In April 2024, the Israel Defense Forces received backlash for carrying out airstrikes on a WCK vehicle convoy which killed seven of the charity’s employees. Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the airstrikes were “a mistake that followed a misidentification,” and Israel dismissed two senior officers as a result of the mishandled military operation.

The strikes “were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war,” Andrés alleged.

“It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by” the Israeli military, he claimed in an op-ed published by Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “It was also the direct result of [the Israeli] government’s policy to squeeze humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”

In a statement on X, Andres accused Israel of “indiscriminate killing,” saying the Jewish state “needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”

The post Peace Meals: Chef José Andrés Says ‘Good People’ On Both Sides of Gaza Conflict Ill-Served By Leaders, Food Can Bridge Divide first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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