The BBC asks why Jews are afraid – it should look in the mirror

I’m not going to pretend to have approached the BBC’s recent Panorama documentary, Anti-Semitism: Why British Jews Are Afraid, with any degree of impartiality. The title alone triggered me. ‘YOU! YOU, YOU UTTER BASTARDS! YOU’RE WHY WE’RE AFRAID!’ Alas, the BBC has declined to make a 30-minute documentary about itself.

Okay, maybe I’ve gone too far. The host is Jewish. The programme is decently produced, made somewhat in good faith, and valid points are raised by experts who I respect. And it’s not like there was ever any chance of the BBC actually embracing accountability. Even so, the bad outweighs the good.

First of all, the title – ‘why British Jews are afraid’ – reeks of appeasement, timidity and victimhood. The poor Jews. Please be nice to us while we whine about people murdering us. And kidnapping and torturing us. And blowing up ambulances. And firebombing our places of worship. And continually plotting to murder more of us. Yeah, we’re afraid. But we’re also pissed off. And frustrated. And angry. And exhausted.

Our community has been betrayed. By cowardly politicians with the emptiest of rhetoric. By a complicit justice system. By most of our legacy media. And yes, even by this documentary itself. Because, while Anti-Semitism presents a decent enough summary of recent events, it makes a weak attempt to explain why these events happened, and are still happening. Meanwhile, nearly every day, another attack occurs, another plot is foiled by counter-terrorism police, without whom the death toll would be far greater. You can imagine the programme makers praying for a respite in firebombing, just so they could finally get this thing out without having to add more updates to it.

So what then are the reasons given for the increase in Jew hate? A decent chunk of time is spent on the weekly pro-Palestinian marches. Of course, being the BBC, the doc can’t help but mention that the marches include Jews, with two separate shots of banners to make the point.

At least Dave Rich and Rabbi Julia Neuberger both get to make the point that, for most marchers, criticism of Israel is merely a cover to be anti-Semitic. A missed opportunity, though, to point out how ‘anti-Zionism’ is itself a unique form a Jew hate.

So it falls then to Jonathan Hall KC – the UK government’s independent reviewer of counter-terrorism legislation – to get closest to calling out what’s really going on. Firstly, he points out that current laws are adequate, and should be utilised. The implication being that the police and the Crown Prosecution Service have not been doing their jobs properly.

But it’s Hall’s second point – that ‘hatred in the public sphere towards Jews has made them more acceptable as a target for terrorism’ – that brings us closest to the truth.

Surely Hall is not solely referring to the hate marches is he? Come on BBC, help us out. Who else is out there spreading hate about Jews in the public sphere? Oh yes, of course. The online far right. Silly me. Thanks, BBC.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I hate those evil fuckers. I was engaged on the periphery of the anti-Semitic abuse directed at Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein (which the documentary touches on), and a thicker, more malicious bunch of scumbags you’d never want to meet.

However, it was not the ‘far right’ who led to the violent kidnapping of Jewish man Itay Kashti in 2024. The culprits might’ve thought him rich, but as the judge concluded during sentencing, the three attackers were motivated by racial and religious hostility. Tell us more, BBC. Oh, you just want to skip over that? Let me let you into a secret: they were followers of Islam.

The closest mention of Islam is the presenter saying ‘Islamophobia’. The mention of which is, of course, compulsory whenever anyone raises the racist targeting of Jews.

This is an unforgivable failure. What links the four suspects arrested for setting fire to four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green last month? What about the father and son who carried out a mass shooting, murdering 15 Jews at a Bondi Beach Chanukah celebration in December? Or the three men jailed in February for planning a mass shooting of Jews in Manchester? Or the seven men arrested this week for allegedly planning more attacks on British Jews? What belief system connects them all? All of them were Islamists.

The BBC has been culpable in this explosion of anti-Semitism. When two Jews were murdered last October, what did the Islamist attacker scream? ‘This is for killing babies’ – that’s what he said. Only months before, the BBC broadcast to the world the lie that the Jewish State would soon be responsible for killing 14,000 babies in Gaza. Not one baby starved, yet still the article remains on the BBC website.

Documentaries narrated by the children of Hamas officials, the broadcasting of ‘death to the IDF’ (Israel Defence Forces) chants during coverage of Glastonbury, false reports of Israel blowing up hospitals – if BBC producers wanted to make a real documentary about why Jews are afraid, they already own most of the copyright. In the meantime, they can shove this weak-ass attempt at playing defence for Islam, while covering their own failures, up their hole.

Josh Howie is a stand-up comedian and host of Free Speech Nation on GB News. Follow him on X: @joshxhowie.