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Senior Tory Andrew Percy says Israel has been singled out for special treatment in reports which fail to question figures given by Hamas
The BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict is putting British Jews directly at risk, a senior Jewish MP has warned.
Andrew Percy expressed “serious concerns” about how the corporation had covered the Oct 7 terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and subsequent fighting in the region.
Accusations of bias have been levelled at the national broadcaster and more than three-quarters of Jewish people believe its reporting is weighted against Israel.
Mr Percy, a Conservative and the vice-chairman of the all-party group on anti-Semitism, told a debate in Parliament the BBC was helping to feed negative stereotypes about Jews.
“I am a big supporter of the media and the BBC, and I have never bought into the Defund the BBC campaign,” he said.
“However, I have serious concerns about some of the coverage we have seen – about how Israel has been singled out for special treatment, which is directly putting Jews in this country at risk. It plays into those tropes of bloodlust.
“Hamas’ figures on civilian casualties are reported without qualification or reference to the BBC being unable to verify their figures.”
Mr Percy accused the corporation of reducing the conflict to the image of “a well-armed Israel Defence Forces soldier versus a civilian of Gaza” while failing to emphasise efforts by Israel to “destroy a despotic, terrorist death cult”.
He pointed to a claim by Jeremy Bowen, one of the BBC’s international editors, that “Israelis have hardened their hearts” during the war, as well as the corporation reporting rapes and murders of Israeli women with the caveat it was “unable to verify those claims”.
Lee Rowley, the housing minister, condemned the “pure anti-Semitism” seen among sections of British society in the past three months.
“This might be dressed up as something else. It might be shrouded in a plaintive sense of emotion. It might be a preamble of obfuscation or confusion, it might be an inaccurate reference to fighting for something else.
“It might be the imposition of a horrifying hierarchy where Jewish deaths, Jewish injuries and Jewish blood appear to be less important than any other, or it might be the extraordinary insertion of context into the deaths of 1,200 people on Oct 7.”
Charlotte Nichols, a Jewish Labour MP, told the debate she has now taken “additional measures for my physical safety” after being accosted by a member of the public who “shouted at me that I was a murderer”.
Other MPs shared their constituents’ experiences of anti-Semitism since Oct 7. Nickie Aiken, the Tory MP for Cities of London and Westminster, recalled meeting 10-year-old children on a visit to Parliament who told her they were wearing baseball caps “to hide their kippahs”.
“British children in the House of Commons were hiding their identity for their own safety. How did we come to that? That has to stop.”
Ms Aiken, a deputy Conservative Party chairman, also recalled being told by a Jewish constituent in her seventies that she had “no business being here”.
“We cannot live in a country where we shrug our shoulders when somebody is anti-Semitic,” she said.
“We would not do it if someone was being racist towards a black person or somebody of Muslim heritage. Equally, we must not allow it to happen to the Jewish community.”
Kirsten Oswald, an SNP MP, relayed the experience of Jews in Strathclyde who “expressed a reluctance to wear medals or carry wreaths that showed their Jewish identity” when taking part in Remembrance Sunday events.
A BBC spokesman said: “The conflict is a challenging and polarising story to cover. We are committed to providing impartial reporting for audiences in the UK and across the world.
“Our own audience research shows that BBC News is considered the most impartial provider for coverage of the conflict. We will continue to listen carefully to all feedback.”
English