Human Rights Group Puts BBC On Anti-Semitism Top Ten List, Just Behind Iran and Hamas

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights group named after the late Nazi hunter, listed the BBC on its annual “Global Anti-Semitism Top Ten,” released on Tuesday, followed by Iran and the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas.

During a press conference on Tuesday, SWC founder and dean Rabbi Marvin Hier said that “it is simply outrageous” that the BBC, “which carried the brunt, the attack on London by the Nazis, they know very well what hatred, anti-Semitism and the Nazis stand for.

“But that didn’t discourage the BBC for its terrible portrayal of Jews in an incident that, of course, we relate. Most people have forgotten that in 1993 The Independent British newspaper did an elaborate coverage of the BBC during the Nazi Holocaust and it was not complimentary at all. The BBC failed. The BBC did not want to discuss Jews.”

As an example, Hier cited that the article – published around the 60th anniversary of Adolf Hitler taking power – read that “On 9 February 1943, the director of talks, G.R. Barnes, complained about an interview which strayed into forbidden territory by discussing anti- Semitism: ‘Personally I don’t want to touch the subject, except by implication in talks on other subjects,’ he wrote.”

“The BBC policy was talk about anything but Jews,” said Hier. “And now, in our lifetime, this particular year, we find the BBC going in the same direction as the old BBC. And that’s why we listed them on our top 10.”

In an interview with The Daily Mail, which first reported on Sunday the BBC’s inclusion on the list before it was released to the public, Hier called out the BBC’s reporting on an incident late last month in London, where a group of men harassed a bus with Jewish passengers celebrating Hanukkah.

“The BBC falsely reported that a victim on the bus used an anti-Muslim slur,” he told The Daily Mail. “But what was heard on tape was a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew appealing for help.”

According to the publication:

The Mail on Sunday understands the BBC has investigated the reporting and maintains the alleged slur was included to ensure the fullest account of the incident.

The BBC issued a statement earlier this month saying the story was a ‘factual report’ that ‘overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus.’

Other examples were presented in support of their listing the BBC, including a tweet that was uncovered this year of BBC reporter Tala Halawa, who posted “#Israel Is more #Nazi than #Hitler! Oh, “#HitlerWasRight” #IDF go to hell. #PrayForGaza.”

Halawa was fired by the BBC in June and, the following month, in response, apologized but blamed what she called “pro-Israel censorship campaign” that led to her termination.

Along with the BBC, the others on the list included social media giants, Germany, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the University of Southern California, Jewish Voice for Peace, “Covid’s latest deviant strains,” and Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s.