Opinion
BBC resignations were inevitable after years of denial and decay
The corporation’s reckoning with anti-Israel bias has been a slow-burning crisis for more than 20 years
November 12, 2025 15:54
2 min read
The corporation’s reckoning with anti-Israel bias has been a slow-burning crisis for more than 20 years
November 12, 2025 15:54The resignations now rocking the BBC didn’t happen in a vacuum. They are the inevitable fallout from years of controversy, denial, and decay inside a newsroom that has treated accusations of anti-Israel bias as public relations issues rather than moral or journalistic ones.
For two decades, the pattern has repeated itself with clockwork precision: a scandal, an internal review, a mealy-mouthed apology, and a promise that “lessons will be learned.” They never are.
It all began with the Balen Report — the great unmentionable inside Broadcasting House. Commissioned in 2004 to assess whether BBC coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict was impartial, the report has never been published.
The BBC went to extraordinary lengths to keep it secret, fighting all the way to the Supreme Court. Why? If it had exonerated the Corporation, it would have been plastered across every bulletin. Instead, it was buried. The secrecy became a symbol of a refusal to acknowledge that its Israel coverage too often trades in moral equivalence, blind spots, and quiet prejudice.
That secrecy was later echoed by the Asserson Report, a forensic analysis that examined hundreds of BBC broadcasts about Israel during the Gaza conflict. Its conclusion was stark: a persistent pattern of unfairness, double standards, and framing that painted Israel as the perpetual aggressor. The Corporation’s reaction? Silence, followed by the familiar defensive murmur about “complexity” and “context.”
That culture was on full display in October 2023, when the BBC rushed to report Hamas claims that an Israeli airstrike had destroyed the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds. It was false. Within hours, intelligence and video evidence pointed to a misfired Palestinian rocket. Yet the BBC hesitated to correct the record, even as the narrative spread worldwide. This wasn’t just bad journalism; it was the old habit — giving the benefit of the doubt to those who demonise Israel, while holding Israel to impossible standards.
The same pattern resurfaced with the Panorama documentary "Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone". Marketed as hard-hitting journalism, it was later revealed that its youthful narrator had family links to Hamas – a fact the BBC never disclosed. Ofcom ruled the omission a “serious breach,” a damning judgment on what was meant to be the Corporation’s flagship investigative brand.
The BBC’s response? The standard script: “We apologise for any misunderstanding” and “review our editorial processes.” Translation: weather the storm and move on.
Even the BBC’s entertainment arm has not been immune. During Glastonbury 2024, a performer chanted “Death to the IDF” – broadcast live to millions by the BBC. The Corporation’s statement afterwards “regretted any offence caused,” as though it were an accidental microphone slip rather than a broadcast of open incitement.
The fallout in Britain is chilling. Post-October 7, antisemitic incidents surged 1,353%, per Community Security Trust data, with BBC coverage correlating to spikes in hate crimes. Demonising Israel doesn't just delegitimise a democracy defending itself; it dehumanises Jews, conflating Zionism with villainy.
Then there’s BBC Arabic, a 100-million-strong audience hub that's become a hotbed of unchecked extremism. Yet staff who raise concerns, insiders say, are often ignored or sidelined. It’s a pattern of indulgence that would never be tolerated in domestic programming but somehow persists in the corners where scrutiny is lighter.
Add it all up and the picture is unmistakable. The BBC’s problem isn’t a few rogue reporters or poorly worded headlines. It’s institutional culture – one that reflexively distrusts Israel, assumes its guilt, and treats accusations of bias as PR headaches instead of professional failings.
No one wants the BBC destroyed; Britain needs a strong, independent broadcaster. But independence means independence from prejudice too. The Corporation has spent years promising reforms and delivering spin. It has hidden behind “context,” “complexity,” and “sensitivity” to avoid facing a simple truth: trust is built on fairness, and fairness has been missing.
The latest departures should be a moment of reckoning — not another entry in the long ledger of crises to be forgotten. The BBC can’t rebuild credibility until it admits that the problem isn’t its critics. The problem is itself.
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