Police launched an investigation into Vylan’s Glastonbury set, which included a rant about “f***ing Zionists”.
The performance was broadcast live on the BBC; the corporation later said the set “taken in the round, can fairly be characterised as antisemitic”.
Speaking to Theroux, Vylan claimed that BBC staff initially praised the performance. “We come off stage. It's normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!’”
Theroux during his podcast with Vylan (Image: YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Theroux, who has been making documentaries for the BBC for 25 years, was criticised for failing to challenge Vylan over his views during the interview, which was described by the BBC’s former director of television, Danny Cohen, as “softball”.
When the host queried whether Vylan’s “death, death to the IDF” chant was “deliberately weaponised as a distraction tactic”, Theroux said: “You could argue that it gave them an opportunity to distract millions of people, hundreds of thousands of people, and say, this is the problem.
“It's not civilians being bombed and killed, and children being bombed and killed in Gaza. The problem is, we got a punk rock artist saying, ‘Death to the IDF’. That becomes an opportunity to misdirect.”
At another point, the pair discussed the latest CST statistics on antisemitism in the UK, with Theroux asking: “It was alleged that after the Glasto set, there was an uptick in antisemitic incidents. Did you see that?”
Vylan replied, “yeah, I saw it” before questioning the validity of the statistics. “What are they counting as antisemitic incidents?”
Vylan also shared his thoughts on Zionism – the Jewish right to self-determination – saying: “Ultimately, the fight is against white supremacy, right? Like that is what the fight is against, and I think white supremacy is displayed so vividly in Zionism.”
Theroux has been further criticised for comments he made during the podcast. He said: “There’s an even more macro lens which you can put on it, which is that Jewish identity in the Jewish community as expressed in Israel has become almost like an acceptable quote, unquote way of understanding ethno-nationalism.
"And so it’s like they’re prototyping an aggressive, militarised form of ethno-nationalism, which is then rolled out, whether it’s by people like Viktor Orbán in Hungary or Trump in the US. A certain sense of post-Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism or Zionist exceptionalism has become a role model on the national stage for what these white identitarians would like to do in their own countries. Does that make sense?”
The Jewish Leadership Council condemned the “absurd and deeply offensive” interview and called on the BBC – which continues to host Theroux’s documentaries, including his recent film, The Settlers – to reconsider its association with the journalist.
A spokesperson for the JLC said: “Louis Theroux’s recent podcast featured a discussion of the conspiracy theory that so-called ‘post-Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism’ underpins white nationalism worldwide. We regard this as an absurd and deeply offensive claim.
"The programme gave a prominent platform to Bob Vylan, who led chants at Glastonbury including ‘Death to the IDF’, a slogan widely recognised as antisemitic. As Theroux both edited and published the episode on his own platform, he bears responsibility for its content. The BBC should reflect carefully on their continuing association with him."
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies said: "We are deeply disappointed by Louis Theroux’s failure to challenge Bob Vylan over a pattern of antisemitic remarks that go far beyond those raised in the interview. Giving him a soft-touch interview where he can present this dangerous rhetoric without proper scrutiny is an inexplicable and serious lapse in journalistic standards."
Responding to the decision by BA to suspend sponsorship, Danny Cohen said: “This is an understandable decision by British Airways. Theroux gave his huge platform to a singer associated with antisemitic hate.
“But it is worse than that. Theroux personally made a statement on his podcast which will be widely interpreted as deeply antisemitic. The question now is whether the BBC will also take action.”
Lord Austin, a former Labour MP and director of the JC, said: “British Airways has made absolutely the right decision to drop its sponsorship of Louis Theroux’s podcast after he platformed this hateful singer. It was a very soft interview in which Theroux failed to properly challenge Bobby Vylan’s hateful rhetoric. In fact, he appeared to largely agree with him.
“Theroux himself chipped in with his own misguided views that Israel is an ‘ethno-nationalist’ country, acting as a ‘role model’ for white supremacists around the world. This is a shocking statement that seriously calls into question his impartiality as a BBC journalist who has produced a number of controversial documentaries about Israel. The BBC should now follow BA’s lead and drop Louis Theroux.”
Dave Rich, director of policy at CST, said the podcast episode contributed to "antisemitic ways of thinking”.
“Bobby Vylan repeatedly and proudly calls for death and violence, and one of the British media’s best-known and most capable interviewers lays out the red carpet and helps to explain it all away,” he wrote in an article on his Substack, Everyday Hate.
Rich noted that the podcast, which aired last Tuesday, was released after the Manchester terror attack in which two Jews were killed on Yom Kippur.
The episode was recorded before the attack, “But they still went ahead and published it anyway, as if the death of two Jews due to an Israel-hating jihadist doesn’t change the context of an interview with someone who became famous for calling for death for Israelis,” Rich wrote.
Theroux acknowledged the terror attack in his introduction to the podcast.
Following outcry over the interview, a spokesperson for BA said: “Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed.
“We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters. We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur and we’re investigating how this happened.”
