Jewish BBC Reporter Quits Over Refusal To Call Hamas Terrorists

Journalist Noah Abrahams has resigned from the BBC, citing his former employer’s choice not to label Hamas as “terrorists” during their coverage of recent events in Israel.

Abrahams appeared on TalkTV, speaking to Peter Cardwell about the decision.

“Like many in the Jewish community, I don’t see myself as exceptional,” he said. “The fear is real among British Jews, including myself, and this has led me to a significant turning point in both my career and life.”

He continued: “I hold strong to my values. I’ve observed the terms ‘justified’ and ‘unjustified’ being used frequently lately. In my view, the BBC’s decision to avoid the appropriate wording is unjustifiable… as a Jewish person – there’s already enough fuel on the fire.”

The broadcaster has come under backlash from some in the past week over its referring to Hamas as militants, rather than terrorists. The BBC, however, has a longstanding policy of not using “terrorist” as a descriptor.

The BBC announced that it will remain steadfast in adhering to its editorial standards, emphasising descriptive terms rather than presupposed labels to ensure unbiased reporting or, at the very least, balanced storytelling. BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson defended that policy as it relates to the violence in Israel in an op-ed published Thursday.

Their guidelines state: “We should convey to our audience the full consequences of the act by describing what happened. We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as ‘bomber’, ‘attacker’, ‘gunman’, ‘kidnapper’, ‘insurgent’ and ‘militant’.”

Further elaborating, the guidelines add: “We should not adopt other people’s language as our own; our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom.”