As world leaders and royalty from 49 countries gather in Israel to remember the Holocaust and take a stand against rising antisemitism, leave it to the BBC to find a way to drag Israel’s name through the mud.
At the end of an otherwise nice profile of Holocaust survivor Rena Quint, reporter Orla Guerin goes on to editorialize about Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians. It has nothing to do with the story at hand, except in the minds of Guerin and her BBC editors. (Watch here. Guerin’s key quote is at 4:12.)
The state of Israel is now a regional power. For decades, it has occupied Palestinian territories. But some here will always see their nation through the prism of persecution and survival. Orla Guerin, BBC News, Yad Vashem.
Translation: Israel is no better than the Nazis. If only the Jewish state would get over its siege mentality.
#VIDEO #BBCNEWS #YadVashem “Holocaust Survivor Fears World will Forget” https://t.co/HnrOhv3WLO. Our story from Jerusalem. Thanks to the team @Goktay @mdMarshall
— Orla Guerin (@OrlaGuerin) January 23, 2020
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism includes “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” How twisted that Guerin makes such a claim from the very halls of Yad Vashem.
However, there is a teachable moment in all this. The IHRA’s definition of antisemitism has been adopted by a number of Western governments, including Italy this week. Guerin’s editorializing makes clear why news services also need to adopt IHRA’s definition.
Related reading: Time for the Media to Adopt Antisemitism Definition
“Palestinians Suffer Hugely at Jewish Hands”
It brings to mind another moment when a BBC journalist clumsily tried to tie in Israel’s alleged misdeeds to a story of antisemitism and hatred that had nothing to do with the Jewish state. That was in 2015, when Parisians rallied in solidarity with the Jewish community following a massacre at the Hypercacher kosher supermarket. Interviewing a Jewish woman at the rally, reporter Tim Willcox told her,
Many critics of Israel’s policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.
Willcox later apologized on Twitter for what he termed a “poorly phrased question.” Deeming the tweet sufficiently contrite, BBC brass never acknowledged the offensive nature of Willcox’s statement or took any disciplinary measure against him.
(In what became a drawn-out example of the absurdity and futility of its complaints procedures, the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit rejected the many complaints it received, producing a whitewash of the incident not once but twice. Then, having dragged out the process for several months, a further appeal by HonestReporting was rejected by the Senior Editorial Adviser to the BBC Trust.)
Journalists have a responsibility to report facts without injecting their personal opinions or interpretations. Gurein, like Willcox before her, blurred the line.
Please sign HonestReporting’s petition calling on news services to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
