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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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Documents Reveal Hamas Uses Gaza Hospitals for Military Purposes, International NGOs Complicit in Operations

Israeli soldiers inspect the Al Shifa hospital complex, amid their ground operation against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Gaza City, Nov. 15, 2023 in this handout image. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Internal documents from Hamas’s Ministry of Interior and National Security dating back to 2020 reveal the Palestinian terrorist group has long used Gaza’s medical facilities for military purposes, according to a new report.

On Wednesday, NGO Monitor — an independent, Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations — released two documents declassified by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), revealing how Hamas has weaponized Gaza’s hospitals for years to shelter its operatives and leaders.

Translated from Arabic, the documents also reveal that international organizations — including the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders — are aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities, even as they publicly deny or downplay it.

“While repeatedly echoing Hamas allegations and condemning Israel’s operations to end the exploitation of hospitals for terror, these groups clearly knew that Hamas exploited these facilities and chose to remain silent,” Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, said in a statement.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hamas’s exploitation of hospitals has drawn heightened attention, with Israel facing international criticism for its operations near medical facilities as it seeks to crack down on the terrorist group.

According to NGO Monitor, the internal Hamas documents show a deliberate strategy of “embedding its military infrastructure, fighters, and leadership within hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza … thereby violating international law and endangering civilian lives.”

The documents also show that foreign NGOs have not only been aware of Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s medical facilities but also have sometimes worked alongside them.

For example, one internal memo notes that the Red Cross occupied a wing in the Al-Shifa medical complex directly adjacent to offices used by Hamas.

Despite international claims to the contrary, the documents show that the Palestinian terrorist group views medical facilities not as neutral spaces but as integral parts of its infrastructure.

“These facilities are considered to be of interest to hostile security parties and an important source for intelligence gathering, especially in times of war, since these health facilities are a place of gathering for the wounded during times of escalation, and these wounded cases hold sensitive positions in the resistance,” one of the internal memos reads.

“Furthermore, these health facilities are a place of gathering for numerous leaders of the movement and the government during times of escalation,” it continues.

The documents also reveal how Hamas closely monitors and controls foreign NGOs working in hospitals due to fears that they might serve as channels for Israeli intelligence.

“Do not let these associations have their own locations to work inside health facilities. When a location is allocated for these associations, it shall be outside the main building of the clinic or hospital, and far away from movement locations, and following security authorization,” one of the internal memos reads.

“Medical members from the Gaza Strip must join incoming delegations, whether the delegations work in hospitals or their own locations,” it adds.

Under this structured oversight, NGO Monitor explains that foreign organizations had to operate according to Hamas’s rules, “making them complicit in a system” that exploits medical centers for terrorist purposes.

“The internal Hamas documents reviewed in this report expose a systematic Hamas strategy to militarize Gaza’s health-care system, using hospitals and medical facilities as extensions of its military and security apparatus,” NGO Monitor says.

“This arrangement is fundamentally inconsistent with the principle of medical neutrality in Gaza, transforming humanitarian spaces into dual-use facilities that serve both medical and military purposes,” it continues.

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Mamdani Maintains Comfortable Lead in New York City Mayoral Race, Despite Jewish Opposition

Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS

Zohran Mamdani maintains a substantial lead in New York City’s mayoral contest, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday, as discontent with City Hall continues to rattle the electorate.

The survey of likely voters found Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, taking 45 percent in a four-way matchup, well ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 23 percent, Republican activist Curtis Sliwa at 15 percent, and embattled incumbent Eric Adams at just 12 percent.

If Adams were to exit the race, Mamdani’s margin would narrow, with 46 percent support compared to Cuomo’s 30 percent. Sliwa would hold 17 percent of the electorate.

The poll underscores Adams’s strong standing among certain demographics, particularly Jewish voters, who make up a crucial bloc in several boroughs. Among Jewish voters, Adams receives 42 percent support, while Mamdani and Cuomo are tied at 21 percent each. Moreover, 75 percent of Jewish voters view Mamdani unfavorably, according to the poll, highlighting a key vulnerability for the progressive candidate.

The results came days after another poll showed similar results.

Mamdani holds a commanding 22-point advantage over his chief rival in the mayoral race, Cuomo, 46 percent to 24 percent, according to the poll by the New York Times and Siena College. Sliwa polled at 15 percent, and incumbent Adams polled at 9 percent among likely New York City voters.

Perhaps most striking, the survey found that Mamdani would still beat Cuomo in November’s election, 48 percent to 44 percent, if the other candidates dropped out and it was a one-on-one matchup.

Adams and Cuomo are both running as independents.

A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination.

Mamdani has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.

Mamdani also initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.

Mamdani’s overall strength appears to rest not only on name recognition among progressives but also on enthusiasm. Approximately 91 percent of his supporters say they’re enthusiastic about their choice, far outpacing backers of other candidates, the Quinnipiac data found. Cuomo, despite his experience and political legacy, is hurt by a 56 percent unfavorable rating.

Voters rank crime — 30 percent — and affordable housing — 21 percent — as the most pressing concerns, with inflation a distant third.

Moreover, Mamdani’s adversarial and combative rhetoric aimed at President Donald Trump seems to help him in the race.

“The name not on the ballot but seen having influence on this race is President Trump. And likely voters in New York City make it clear they want the next occupant of Gracie Mansion to stand up to Trump when it comes to issues inside New York City,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Mary Snow.

The findings paint a picture of a fractured electorate, with Mamdani consolidating left-leaning voters while Adams maintains strongholds among more moderate constituencies, including Jewish neighborhoods, and Cuomo tries to galvanize support among voters as various scandals loom over his campaign. Sliwa remains in the mid-teens but could play spoiler if the race tightens.

Mamdani has also sought to distance himself from some of the most radical policies he previously advocated for, such as defunding the police. Mamdani’s attempt to strike a more moderate tone seems to be paying dividends thus far. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a Democrat from a swing district, endorsed Mamdani on Wednesday.

“@ZohranKMamdani fights for the PEOPLE. Andrew Cuomo is a selfish POS who only fights for himself and other corrupt elites. I know whose side I’m on. I’m with the people. I’m with Zohran,” Ryan posted on social media.

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‘Pro-Hamas Terror Ties’: US Sen. Tom Cotton Warns of CAIR’s Push Into Philadelphia Schools

CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war

CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has warned in a letter to the Department of Education that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a nonprofit advocacy group long accused of having ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas, is seeking to infiltrate the city of Philadelphia’s public education system.

The letter was dated Tuesday, about two weeks after the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR announced that it was partnering with local schools.

“CAIR-Philadelphia is partnering with schools this year to make sure every student feels seen, safe, and supported,” the group said in an Instagram post. “Invite the CAIR Philly staff for a training to educators and staff on cultural competency, anti-bullying, and inclusive practices.”

“The CAIR Philadelphia staff works not only with staff and administration, but also directly with students!” the post continued. “We can visit classrooms as guest facilitators to lead student-centered discussions.”

Given CAIR’s controversial history, the federal government should act to prevent such a program from becoming reality, according to Cotton.

“It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in the letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “As I noted in a previous letter, the Department of Justice listed CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in the largest terrorism-financing case in US history. Further, CAIR-Philadelphia’s executive director, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, stated that Israeli ‘occupation’ was the reason for the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.”

Cotton’s letter cited materials which CAIR distributes across the city and promotes in its programming — notably its “American Jews and Political Power” course — and other attempts to revise the history of Sharia law, which severely restricts the rights of women and is opposed to other core features of liberal societies.

One of CAIR’s most controversial documents demands that teachers omit key facts about the 9/11 terrorist attacks which, in addition to destroying the World Trade Centers and severely damaging the Pentagon, claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans.

“Avoid using language that validates the claims of the 9/11 attackers by associating their acts of mass murder with Islam and Muslims,” CAIR insists in the material. “For example, avoid using inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists.’”

Additionally, since the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, CAIR-Philadelphia has lobbied the state government to enact anti-Israel policies and accused Gov. Josh Shapiro of ignoring the plight of Palestinians.

In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim, despite government trial exhibits indicating its founders participated in meetings with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia. The organization has asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”

“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children,” Cotton wrote in his letter, urging the Education Department to “ensure” that CAIR is not able to push its ideology on American schoolchildren.

“Sen. Cotton’s comments bring much needed scrutiny to the alarming trend of unchecked outside groups influencing public school curricula. CAIR, with their ties to Hamas, should have no involvement with the Philadelphia School District,” said Steve Rosenberg, Philadelphia Regional Director for the North American Values Institute (NAVI). “This raises serious concerns about balance, transparency, and educational integrity, not to mention basic decision making. Parents and taxpayers deserve assurance that their children aren’t being exposed to ideologically driven lessons — especially from groups with dangerous political affiliations.”

CAIR’s pushing into K-12 education comes at a time of rising antisemitism in public schools.

In August, for example, the Education Department promptly opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) following the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) filing a complaint regarding the matter.

Jewish students allegedly experienced relentless bullying in BCPS, where students pantomimed Nazi salutes, treated campuses as a canvas for Nazi-inspired and antisemitic graffiti, and sent text messages threatening that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas will be summoned to kill Jewish students the bullies do not like, the ADL complaint said, noting that teachers behaved even worse than students. At Bard High School, an English teacher allegedly performed the Nazi salute three times and later admitted to administrative officials that he did so intentionally to harm “the sole Jewish student” enrolled in his class. Following the incident, he suggested that the student unregister for his class because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be discussed in it.

“The allegations that Baltimore City Public Schools tolerate virulent Nazi-inspired antisemitic harassment of its Jewish students is at once appalling and infuriating. When a teacher allegedly directs a Nazi salute toward a Jewish student, or non-Jewish students harass their Jewish contemporaries by saying ‘all Jews should die,’ we are not simply talking about contemptible bullying; we are talking about a shocking abdication of educator responsibility that constitutes unlawful antisemitic harassment under Title VI,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

Last month, The Algemeiner reported that the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California, which stands accused of refusing to address antisemitism, ruled that a teacher who allegedly showed her students antisemitic, discriminatory, and biased content violated policy when she screened an offensive video about the Holocaust in her classroom.

The move came without the prompting of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, with which two Jewish civil rights groups, StandWithUs (SWU) and the Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC), filed a complaint against the district in April.

Among other things, SWU and BAJC alleged that an SCUSD employee, Wilcox High School teacher Kauser Adenwala, screened a documentary produced in Turkey which compared the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. The graphic film at one point “displays a picture of a young Jewish child who was branded with a number by the Nazis during World War II and then suddenly shows an untraceable image of children with Arabic writing on their arms,” according to the complaint, which alleged the teacher’s conduct violated numerous district policies and potentially state law.

She remains employed by the district to this day.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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