The Beeb, Farage, Asylum and Us
JVL Introduction
On this Torat Albion blog, Joseph Finlay offers some astute insights into three current media obsessions and how Jewish communal organisations have responded to them.
The issues are the Beeb, Farage and asylum.
In the case of the BBC, he points out, many have tried to make the story about Jews when it wasn’t. Most of it is standard right wing culture war stuff, focusing largely on the BBC’s “unbalanced” anti-Trump stance; a small part zoomed in on the BBC’s supposedly anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian stance.
The Board of Deputies, the JC and others couldn’t resist, jumping in with their bovver boots, Rabbi David Walker of Heaton Park even suggesting that BBC coverage was responsible for the Manchester synagogue attack…
In the case of Farage, however, “nobody in the organised Jewish community wanted to make the story about Jews even though it clearly was.”
And with regard to asylum and the most draconian and anti-migrant legislation proposed for a very long time, our mainstream institutions have remained studiously stum.
Or worse. When Zack Polanski said “I am Jewish, and we have seen this with Nazi Germany”, Jewish News condemned him quoting Holocaust Educational Trust’s Karen Pollock as saying: ‘There is absolutely no justification for these appalling Holocaust comparisons… To invoke any of this for cheap political point-scoring is not only deeply inappropriate but utterly disgraceful.”
As though using our history and experience to express solidarity with others is a unique crime.
“We urgently need to invert this paradigm,” says Finlay. To refuse to be coopted by conservative projects that want to deny rights to migrants, trans people, Muslims, and others; and to use our history to building solidarity amongst racialised minorities, for the abolition of poverty and for collective liberation.
RK
This article was originally published by Torat Albion on Tue 25 Nov 2025. Read the original here.
The Beeb, Farage, Asylum and Us
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An excellent, cogent piece of writing. How one wishes that something similar might appear in the mainstream press. Oddly enough, it never does, even in such allegedly liberal organs as the Guardian.
Farage’s, no doubt whispered, tormenting of a Jewish student was the absolute worst kind of bullying and I felt a chill run through my body when I read it, though I am not Jewish. This bullying speaks to the character of the man, who lives up to the meaning of his name.
The later part of the article addressed Mahmood’s immigration measures, which seem to have split our society, once again, in it’s reactions to her intention of confiscating jewelry to help pay for the burden of supporting immigrants I wrote a comment on an earlier article featuring “Mahmood’s Monstrous measures” unfortunately 200 words too long. Suffice to say I can see two sides to the issue. Some people seeking asylum do arrive with large amounts of Jewelry, hardly surprising as it is the people with sufficient means who find a way to escape the violence of war or oppression.
Many Jewish people who escaped the Nazi Holocaust did so with Jewelry sewn into their coats. Occasionally these stories surface on television shows such as the antiques road show and it’s American equivalent. I don’t blame them. I would have done the same. At the same time there was no social support system and human rights law that meant the society they escaped to was obliged to take care of them. Their fate depended on the kindness of strangers, and the need of a Landlord for a tenant.
We now live in a different society, the country is in debt up to the gunwales and many people, it seems, are arriving expecting to live in luxury at the expence of the resident population. This is nothing like the confiscation of jewelry from Jews as they entered the concentration camps. If this measure needs to be put to Parliament I am sure it will be inundated with amendments. The difficulty will be in the valuation of any Jewels.
Thoughtful article. Sadly confirming that UK Chief Rabbi didn’t see fit to demand a response from N Farage about his alleged behaviour, although I’m sure I saw he did write a large newspaper comment accusing Corbyn of anti Semitism on very thin grounds just prior to the 2017 general election.
I thought I might have missed the official Jewish reaction to reports of gross anti Semitic bullying by a leading politician but, very disappointingly even the chief rabbi hasn’t even bothered. Does he condone it, or is it of too small importance? What are we meant to infer from the silence?
I find all racist behaviour awful and I’m very conscious that the UK is now a country where obvious racism isn’t even recognised! I mean, amongst other disgusting examples, Jenricks assumption “integration isn’t happening cos I only see brown people” and Reform / Tory policy of judging one’s worth on whether one works outside the home – were my indigenous white housewife grandmothers non contributors by Badenocks reckoning? No; only foreigners must prove themselves worthy. I work with a lady who is Chinese and now collects her dad from his restaurant job by car as he’s become uncomfortable trusting his personal safety to the train after his restaurant shift ends at 10pm. I actually thought the racism of anti Semitism was still taboo, a behaviour that someone in Farage s position wouldn’t survive , but turns out it might be live-downable, ironically helped with the silence of official Jewry as well as the revolting elements of the great British public. How shameful. No wonder net immigration is sharply dropping, who’d want to come here? Seems British Values are hypocrisy, bullying and violence to “others”.