Another Panorama, more bias and factual inaccuracy
JVL introduction
Once again BBC’s Panorama documentary film makers have weighed into the argument about antisemitism allegedly emanating from the Palestine solidarity movement.
Half the length of John Ware’s 2019 epic Is Labour Antisemitic? but arguably just as insidious, the latest film, Antisemitism: “Why British Jews are Afraid”, peddles the line that Jews in Britain are victims of an irrational prejudice that is rife among supporters of the Palestinian cause. First broadcast on April 20, it is available to view on iPlayer.
JVL’s media officer Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi has written the following analysis and is asking Panorama editor Karen Wightman for appropriate corrections and clarifications.
NWI
Dear Karen Wightman,
I am writing to you in your role as Panorama Editor following the broadcast on Monday April 20 of Antisemitism: Why British Jews are Afraid. I would be grateful if you could forward my comments to reporter Judith Moritz, executive producers Marc Sigsworth and Leo Telling and producer/director Claire Burnett.
As media officer of a Jewish-led organisation that has been monitoring BBC and other media coverage of the issues touched upon by Monday’s Panorama for the past decade, there is a great deal for me to comment on. Let me start with a factual error which needs correcting.
Factual inaccuracy – Palestine protest arrest figures massively overstated, essential information about pro-Palestinian protest omitted
About 15.30 minutes in, viewers were shown footage of a Palestine march passing along the Strand, police separating counter-demonstrators with Israeli flags from the main demonstration and officers dragging away one unidentified person.
Judith Moritz’s voice-over says: “Since 2023 more than 3,500 people have been arrested on pro-Palestinian protests and marches, nearly 3,000 of them in London.”
There can be only one interpretation of the combination of images and audio in this sequence – it tells your audience that police have arrested more than 3,500 pro-Palestinians on street protests over a 30-month period, implying that the demonstrations have been violent and hateful.
This is not true. More than 3,000 people have been arrested in the 9 months since July last year, not on pro-Palestinian marches but taking part in sedentary actions, carried out in large part by elderly people, many of them (like me) Jewish, protesting at the designation of one particular organisation as terrorist – a government move which has provoked widespread opposition from organisations and individuals invested in citizens’ right to protest. This is a hugely important element in the whole story which is entirely omitted from your programme.
There have been fewer than 500 arrests associated with the many marches since October 2023, and of these 145 were mainly of far-right counter-protesters. Here is the BBC News report on November 12, 2023:
‘The Met Police said 145 people were arrested – the “vast majority” of whom were counter-protesters – and nine officers were injured on Saturday.
‘It condemned violence from right-wing counter-protesters who it says set out to confront the pro-Palestinian march.’
Numbers arrested in street demonstrations for Palestine are fewer than 10 percent of the numbers stated by Panorama. Your report failed in its duty to convey accurate information. A correction needs to be issued.
Bias – Palestine solidarity demonised as fuelled by hate;
- The only Jewish viewpoint presented is a partisan pro-Israel one
- Failure to platform any explanation from the pro-Palestinian perspective
- Zionists represented as innocent victims of irrational hostility
The misrepresentation of the numbers arrested mirrored the programmes consistent misrepresentation of the nature of the Palestine solidarity movement, demonising it as fuelled by hate. The programme was biased from start to finish, arguing a completely one-sided case: that British Jews are afraid because, as Judith Moritz said in the first minute, ‘Protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza have fuelled fears about hate speech.’
At no point did it reflect on the possibility that programmes like this themselves fuel Jewish fears by wrongly presenting support for Palestine as motivated by hatred of Jews. Panorama could have explored the considerable evidence that this is not true and calmed Jewish fears. Instead it chose to reinforce them.
Jonathan Hall, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, said “It’s a quick step” from hating Israelis to hating Zionists to Jews.
Dave Rich from the Community Security Trust said “some people” go on demonstrations “ for human rights reasons” but they demonstrate alongside people “expressing antisemitic conspiracy theories, that Jews or Zionists control the government, supporting Hamas, calling for intifada, calling for armed struggle, violent resistance, that sort of thing.”
Rabbi Julia Neuberger said antisemitic tropes were prevalent and criticism of Israel is a smokescreen for antisemitism: “mostly what happens is people use the cover of criticising the actions of the Israeli government to be antisemitic…”
These and similar assertions, and more from other interviewees and the reporter herself, were presented as uncontested facts, which they are not. Not only did the programme fail to interrogate them, they were interwoven with references to Islamic State terrorism, the Bondi beach massacre, arson attacks on Hatzola ambulances in Golden Green, killings at a Manchester synagogue and Jews describing feeling threatened and unsafe, building an unrelenting, one-sided picture of Jews being in danger due to the pro-Palestine protest movement.
The Palestine protest footage mentioned above was followed immediately by Jonathan Hall saying “There is open hatred on the streets”. Then came a seamless segue into examples of violent Nazi language on social media, from fascist Nick Fuentes among others, and a frightening story of an Israeli music composer being kidnapped by a gang intending to ransom him for money.
The programme showed one short clip of a Palestine Coalition representative, Chris Nineham, testifying to the Home Affairs committee on the movement’s determination to exclude any expressions of antisemitism from the protests, and a written statement from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign condemning all forms of racism and saying the marches do not constitute a threat to Jewish people.
At no point was there any insight into the actual motivation of Palestine solidarity activists, including Jews.
It is inexcusable that no representative of the demonstrators, Jewish, Palestinian or otherwise, was invited to explain why they were there. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life in the UK have joined a mass movement fuelled not by hatred but by human empathy, by outrage at the Israel state’s cruelty and our government’s failure to hold it to account. No pro-Palestine activist was given the chance to answer the serious charges laid against them in the programme. There was no pretence of balance between competing views.
Judith Moritz fleetingly showed a Jewish contingent on a Palestine demonstration. Viewers deserved an explanation as to why, if the marches were threatening to Jews and fuelled by hatred of Jews, there has been a sizeable Jewish Bloc on every single one of them.
The dozen or so Jewish organisations forming the bloc have a presence on social media and coherent spokespeople who could have offered illuminating insights. They could have pointed out that the relentless identification in the media of Jews and Israel, and the insistence that Jewish identity is inextricably tied up with Israel and Zionism, associates Jews with Israel’s actions firmly in the public mind. This is a major cause of hostility towards Jews as revulsion grows against Israeli attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Iran. Panorama could have provided an opportunity for its audience to learn about the sizeable and growing body of Jewish opinion which rejects that identification and aligns with Palestinians and others – Christians, Muslims, atheists – opposed to the Israel state and its ideology. These are Jews who are not afraid of the Palestine solidarity movement. They are far more afraid of programmes like Panorama spreading the falsehood that Jewish identity is always tied up with Israel and Zionism.
Jewish opposition to Zionism has been a feature of its history since its development in the late 19th century, based on abhorrence at the injustice that the Zionist project has always entailed for the Palestinian people and also on the danger it poses to Jews confronting antisemitism in Christian-majority countries where they face the charge of being loyal to a foreign entity. If Panorama seriously wanted to examine Antisemitism: Why British Jews are Afraid, these are critical issues that the programme makers should have addressed. To ignore all these factors renders the narrative presented in the programme shallow, misleading and biased.
Anti-Zionist anti-Israel sentiments presented as anti-Jewish hate
The evidence presented of “open hatred on the streets” was based on interpretations by Jewish interviewees stating that they felt unsafe in the presence of flags, slogans and chants which left “British Jews feeling under threat”. Certain phrases were put forward as examples of antisemitism being normalised. Judith Moritz said of the phrase “Globalise the intifada”: “some say [it is a call for uprising against injustice,” but many Jews see it “as a call for violent action against them wherever they are.” These are wildly differing interpretations, but there was no attempt to establish the material foundation of either. Why do “many Jews” feel threatened by a phrase which many of the people using it regard as a call for justice? How come many Jews comfortably take part in demonstrations where the phrase is used, and even use it themselves?
The programme referred to government reviews of alleged hate speech in universities and the NHS. A student described seeing slogans chalked on the ground condemning apartheid and saying “Zionists off our campus”. She expressed fear about students having their identity questioned by other students. A midwife said that “activism around anti-Israel, anti-Zionist sentiment makes us feel very unsafe, very unwelcome.”
These statements raise obvious questions which are not even noted in the programme.
What aspect of a student’s identity is threatened by the slogans cited? Is it their Jewishness, or their identification with Zionism and a state widely perceived as guilty of apartheid?
When the midwife says certain kinds of activism make “us” feel unsafe”, who is “US”? Is it Jews as Jews, or is it those who adhere to a pro-Israel, pro-Zionist ideology?
The overall thrust of the Panorama programme is that “The Jewish Community” – invariably referred to as if it were an undifferentiated homogeneity – is made up of victims of an irrational prejudice that is rife among supporters of the Palestinian cause. Members of “The Jewish Community” are portrayed as proportionately more at risk than Muslims. But, as the Centre for Media Monitoring has pointed out in a number of reports, it is Muslims who are the butt of widespread, open and unapologetic abuse, their concerns sidelined or ignored, in marked contrast to the treatment of complaints from mainstream Jewish organisations. CFMM has responded directly to the Panorama programme.
A number of interviewees in the programme stated that criticism of Israel or Zionism was entirely acceptable as long as it did not hold Jews responsible for the actions of the state. This is a position I share, as do the vast majority of campaigners for Palestinian rights. But the whole thrust of the Panorama programme was that any criticism which made a supporter of Israel or Zionism feel uncomfortable was a form of hate speech. There was no mention made of the tsunami of cases, in academia, the NHS and elsewhere, of supporters of Palestinian rights being disciplined, harassed or even sacked for their views. It was the programme itself, and the leading participants in it, who made the conflation they insist must not be made. When the Chief Rabbi insists that “you cannot separate Judaism and Zionism” and hails IDF attacks on Gaza as commendable actions of “our heroic soldiers”, it is worse than disingenuous of a flagship BBC programme to accuse supporters of Palestinian rights of conflating Jew and Zionist.
Rather than using a dubious reading of data from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research to promote the idea that Jews are fleeing the UK for Israel because of rising pro-Palestinian antisemitism, Panorama could have performed a service for community cohesion by highlighting tentative moves among Jewish organisations to speak out against what Israel is doing and publicly back calls for it to stop. Informing the public about this might demonstrate to people who care about Palestine that Jews are not synonymous with the state that is responsible for Palestinian suffering. Irresponsible portrayals like this Panorama programme give the opposite impression, increasing the likelihood that some people will recoil from Jewish expressions of support for Israel and express their fury in anti-Jewish terms.
The programme referred to vile abuse circulating on social media. This is true and it is getting worse. Putting the spotlight on Jews as the most affected victims, when the ether is awash with vile caricatures and “terrorist” tropes about Muslims, is another example of bias which can only exacerbate the situation.
There is more that could be said about a dangerously misleading and unbalanced Panorama programme, but I believe I have outlined the most important features. Could you please ensure that the programme makers address the points I have made and issue appropriate corrections and clarifications.
Yours sincerely,
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Media Officer, Jewish Voice for Liberation.
This well written letter should be available to a broader public. Put it in newspapers.
I confess to having not watched the programme, the title itself gave the game away as I am a British Jew and I am not afraid. I really couldn’t take an hour of listening to the BBC telling me why I should be. I am therefore grateful Naomi for a) confirming my worst fears about the programme itself and b) for the time and effort spent articulating counter views to the presenters.
Here! Here! They occupy our institutions and they try to occupy our minds, but the Zionists, their media mouthpieces, and their “victim actors”, wont destroy the ideas of freedom and justice for Palestine.
A dignified, searching,informed
and accurate analysis for those reasons alone it will be ignored such is the BBC today,The MSM the Judiciary to name but a few in the unending
A tragedy a betrayal
Well done, it will be interesting to hear the response!
1. There is currently other data showing that more Jewish people are leaving Israel and coming to Britain than the other way around – because they feel Israel is dangerous. Sorry can’t remember where this info came from. Israel is also having to encourage (bribe?) Jewish people from Asia to go and live there.
2. Declassified – the journalist organisation – has just published a report with useful stats comparing bias in the BBC, Sky News and The Guardian on Palestine etc. More people are needed to sign the letters of complaint it has produced alongside the report.
3. There is evidence that Israel is deliberately spreading fear amongst Jewish people who live outside Israel. Perhaps using a “third force” as they did in apartheid South Africa? The BBC would be a willing media conduit for this.
Would the Orthodox Jews who come to our marches be willing to write to the BBC as well?
A very important letter Naomi that should be published far and wide. The BBC is shameful yet again and as an anti-zionist Jew I am sick of being invisible, ignored and mis-cast as a victim of pro-Palestine antisemitism.
Please put it into the Newspapers as currently the BBC is telling everyone in their “adverts” / that they search for the truth-? More worried about the licence fee I guess! Very balanced riposte to an awful programme. Thank you
Thanks for this Naomi. It is a magnificent account.
The question of how media reporting impacts community cohesion is a serious one. Rather than just focusing on fear, shouldn’t a flagship programme like Panorama also be exploring the actual motivations and diverse backgrounds of the people attending these demonstrations to provide a truly balanced account?
Thanks for this detailed insight into the way that anti semitism continues to be weaponised by the BBC. The BBC states it is impartial. Why was it afraid to give alternative Jewish views like yours Naomi?
Leah’s point that being a secular Jew would not have saved us from the Nazis is also the main point about being Jewish made by David Baddiel. But it should be resisted because we mustn’t let other people define who we are and it should be part of anti-racism generally. The same goes for Israel’s promotion of Jewish exceptionalism and indeed supremacy.
The Jewish part of the solidarity movement has not been very effective in my view, as we see how we are easily bypassed in programmes such as this Panorama and dismissed as cranks by the ‘mainstream’, including of course Labour, which is now going after the Greens.
There is a glimmer of hope with Zack Polanski, but the signs are he’s now caving like Corbyn. Probably the main hope lies with young American Jews abandoning Zionism, as trends indicate, and of course the election of politicians who will stand against imperialism.
But great response by Naomi of course.
Kenneth Stern one of those who helped draft the IHRA definition of antisemitism. He is also Jewish and a Zionist. But his words are remarkably well informed.Antisemitism is more than just about Jews, it’s a threat to democracy, it’s a miner’s canary for the health of societies. But the flip side, frequently ignored, is also true – that hatred of non-Jews can be the engine for antisemitism, something that becomes invisible
when we focus only on parsing what is said about Jews, let alone Israel.When people hate they crave simplicity and certainty, and binary good/bad thinking.This is a human characteristic rooted in how we divide the world into who is “us” and who is “them.” People who combat hate are also human and seek the seductive illusion of simple answers to complicated problems. Now the seductively simple, and illogical, tool is to employ IHRA.Using IHRA in this way also encourages the ubiquitous use of the terms “antisemite” and“antisemitism,” when they are words that should be sparingly used, so they don’t lose their sting. More often, and particularly about Israel, the problem is binary thinking, not
antisemitism.’
Why aren’t you President of the Known Universe, Naomi?
The BBC know exactly what they’re doing. As they’re representatives of the capitalist status quo, the USA’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier in the middle east’ benefits from a not very carefully-crafted propaganda onslaught, dutifully promulgated by the UK’s state mouthpiece, knowing full-well that us anti-Zionists do not benefit from the levers of control which allow Panorama to lie so brazenly on multiple occasions with seeming impunity. We have to write letters, emails & complaints to the laughable BBC, which unlike the programme, never ‘go round the world a thousand times before the truth has its underpants on’. Keep up your relentless, fantastic work. Much admiration.
I was disgusted by the bias expressed in this Panorama and found it just as bad as John Ware’s equally awful programme.
You have expressed in eloquent detail the reasons this broadcast was so disturbing and I look forward to reading the response!
Excellent.
I agree with the content of the letter of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. I am 77 years old and in 1968 I joined Civil Rights marches in Belfast to find myself labelled as an anarchist & IRA terrorist. It is nothing new for biased mainstream media to distort and selectively report on Civil & Human Rights issues and then blame the protesters for the consequences.
Buy Biased Communications … not too overtly, but they need the Licence Fee (or comparable) funding and know which ‘buttons’ to push in order to garner support from a small elite who will influence that decision.
So, sad though it is, the BBC is no longer the purveyor of ‘facts’ (or even of clearly labelled opinions and balancing perspectives); it is an entertainment conglomerate that leans closer & closer to the style of its perceived threats (like TikTok et al).
My point is that Naomi’s extremely well-written and considered assessment of one particular Panorama programme won’t achieve much in general (and almost certainly will have no impact within the BBC).
What IS needed is for more people to read her article than, unfortunately, will probably find it on here – and for many of those readers to be from outside the cohort that understands what is going on (in Gaza, Israel and beyond).
Would it be possible to print, say, a couple of million copies of the article and have them ‘dropped’ through letter-boxes? If it’s alright for some of the political tripe arriving on my door-mat (due to local elections), then wouldn’t this be a wiser and hopefully more productive use of that channel?