Jewish leaders slam BBC after boss praised Arabic service as ‘almost as trusted as Al Jazeera’

“Jonathan Munro’s comments expose just how far the corporation has drifted from its founding purpose. Taxpayers should not be footing the bill for a service that damages Britain’s reputation on the world stage.”

Al Jazeera’s bureau in Israel was shut down last year following a vote by Israel’s cabinet. Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen said at the time: "The decision to close the incitement channel Al Jazeera is an important step in the fight against bias and lies. We will not allow Hamas supporters to take advantage of Israeli democracy and freedom of the press to encourage terrorism."

It has also previously been banned by both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Al Jazeera has denied allegations of bias against Israel.

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) told the JC that Prescott’s report about the BBC was “deeply alarming”.

“It exposes serious and widespread failings of impartiality, systemic bias and behaviour which falls below the standards we expect of a respected broadcaster. Repeated reports of anti-Israel bias have already eroded the Jewish community’s trust in our national broadcaster”, a spokesperson for the organisation said.

They added: “BBC Arabic’s deeply troubling record has been well-documented for years. This has only worsened since October 7. BBC Arabic’s coverage of the war in Gaza has repeatedly downplayed and whitewashed Hamas’s atrocities and, in some cases, platformed individuals who openly praised or justified the October 7 attacks.”

Baroness Deech, a former BBC governor, told the JC: “The report that BBC Arabic chose to ‘minimise Israeli suffering’ in order to ‘paint Israel as the aggressor’ in the war in Gaza combined with the apparent doctoring of a speech by Donald Trump [as also alleged in the Prescott report] add up to a picture that shake the BBC to its very foundations.”

“The BBC’s credibility has historically been based on the fact it is trusted as a credible news source. I don’t know how the BBC will restore that level of trust”.

She also called on BBC Director-General Tim Davie to resign and for the BBC to publish Prescott’s report in full.

“The BBC should be held to account, and the corporation should fire people found to have knowingly misled the public,” she added.

Her criticism was echoed by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice.

"Multiple people in positions of responsibility at the BBC have serious questions to answer. People are so angry and feel betrayed by the lack of accountability at the BBC News and documentaries”, he told the JC.

“Trust has been completely and utterly destroyed at every level”, he said, referencing the Trump footage and the BBC’s refusal to explicitly refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation, which it is designated according to UK law.

“The BBC News department is in the last chance saloon. There need to be sackings and resignations to restore trust."

It comes after, in December last year, Munro publicly defended BBC Arabic during a grilling from MPs.

Former Culture Secretary Sir John Whittingdale asked Munro and Davie about “a huge number of complaints about the coverage by BBC Arabic, with individual reporters being identified as having tweeted in support of Hamas and something like two-thirds of complaints upheld".

"Are you satisfied with the impartiality of BBC Arabic? Will you do more to make sure that it is maintained?” he asked.

Munro replied: “I do not recognise the picture that has been painted by some of our critics about BBC Arabic.

“In terms of complaints against Arabic, members of the committee might be familiar with the complaints process, which is overseen at the top level by an independent group called the ECU.

"It has dealt with seven, or I think it might be eight now, complaints, all of which have come from one source, against BBC Arabic. None of those complaints has been upheld.”

He continued: “While it is important for us always to be open to critique – and we genuinely are; we have had several meetings with internal and external stakeholders on both sides of the divide on this story, and we will continue to engage with them when helpful – any shorthand summary that says that there have been lots of complaints upheld is not actually fair on Arabic.”

Munro went on to say that “our journalists, both on location and in London, are doing a very difficult job extremely skilfully”, and appeared to criticise Israel for not allowing the BBC access into Gaza.

“We would use this opportunity to ask again for the authorities in the region to allow us into Gaza so that we can report first-hand on what is happening, which is not currently possible.”

A BBC spokesperson told the JC: “While we don’t comment on leaked documents, when the BBC receives feedback it takes it seriously and considers it carefully.

“With regard to BBC News Arabic, where mistakes have been made or errors have occurred we have acknowledged them at the time and taken action. We have also previously acknowledged that certain contributors should not have been used and have improved our processes to avoid a repeat of this.”