BBC in hot water over comparison of 'fanatical Jews' with 9/11 terrorists

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) once again prompted outrage over its coverage of Jews, particularly in its Arabic department, after a false equivalence of “Jewish fanatics” from the Roman era to 9/11 terrorists that attacked the United States.

The article headlined “the story of suicide bombers throughout history: from the fanatical Jews, through the [Order of] Assassins, to the jihadists," as verified by i24NEWS.

“It is believed that the first suicide attacks in history were carried out by a group of Jewish fanatics who spread terror among the Romans and Jews after the Romans occupied Jerusalem,” the BBC claimed.

Throughout the paper, Jews are referred to as "fanatics" and "extremists" that spread “terror," and only the Order of the Assassins were deemed worthy of also being labeled extreme and terror spreading, although not fanatics. No one else, throughout history, per the BBC article wording, were either extreme, or terrorists, or fanatics.

Further on, after the Japanese Kamikaze pilots from the Second World War, the article alleged suicide attacks were "almost" non-existent until the outbreak of the 1982 Lebanon War.

The BBC explanation blamed the reoccurrence of suicide bombings, that killed Americans, French, and Israelis, as well as many other casualties, because “Israel invaded Lebanon,” without specifying context leading up to the war, such as Palestinian terror attacks and counter-attacks by the IDF.

"The anti-Israel bias of the BBC in general and the BBC Arabic service in particular have been of great concern to many members of the Jewish community in Britain for a number of years," director of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner, told i24NEWS.

"However, the BBC is a very powerful institution, very resistant to criticism and very difficult to change," Turner added.

In terms of what's being done, Turner said: "The media monitor CAMERA-UK does excellent work and has had a number of complaints about BBC Arabic upheld recently." 

"HonestReporting, another media monitoring organisation also does some good work on the BBC. But we have a mountain to climb and limited resources," he explained.

“The Sicarii [the ‘fanatical’ group referred to by BBC Arabic] did not travel to Rome and murder thousands of Roman civilians doing their normal work. Judea was then under Roman imperial rule — in contrast to the 9/11 terrorists who were from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Lebanon,” Turner had told the Jewish Chronicle (JC).

The piece was “the most bizarre example of false equivalence by the BBC I have seen,” Turner added.

Media monitoring group CAMERA-UK tweeted that BBC Arabic had once again allowed “ignorance and bias enter its output, this time by shoehorning ancient Jews into an unrelated historical narrative about suicide terrorism on the one hand, and understating Palestinian suicide attacks against Israeli civilians on the other hand.”

“Here we go again… the BBC is available to apologize for antisemitic outbursts - after the fact. Isn’t it time for some corporate introspection inside the BBC to tackle anti-Semites in their midst?” the Simon Wiesenthal Center posted on X (formerly Twitter).

However, BBC Arabic did not apologize in a comment to JC, saying the broadcaster “offers independent and impartial news and information. As with all content produced by the BBC, their output is subject to the BBC’s rigorous Editorial Guidelines. We reject any notion that there are wider issues with the service’s 24-hour, multi-platform output.”

The Jewish Chronicle also reported that BBC Arabic has had to make 130 corrections since 2021, averaging more than once a week, following complaints about inaccuracies or bias against Israel or Jews.