Biased UK media influences the public causing anti-Israel stance - opinion

The role of the media is highly influential in shaping public opinion and political positioning. From Israel’s perspective, the United Kingdom is one of the most important and influential countries in the world, yet it is home to media outlets that often take a stance that is anti-Israel, if not downright antisemitic. 

The Guardian daily is an example of vicious distortion in its treatment of Israel, despite being owned by the Scott Trust (Ltd.) whose aim, when created in 1936, was to “secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity, and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values ​​of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference.”

 These worthy goals have become casualties of morally bereft and unreliable journalism. In recent decades, articles by several Guardian journalists ooze poison and display a callous disregard for the truth, preferring to spew torrents of antisemitic hatred.

Adam Levick of CAMERA UK has been examining articles in The Guardian since 2009. For years, the publication has influenced anti-Israeli and antisemitic consciousness in England, even going as far as to print antisemitic cartoons eerily reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. 

It has also negated that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, replacing it with Tel Aviv in its reports. Six months after October 7 and the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, The Guardian published an article claiming that the state of Israel was nearing its end.

Former Guardian columnist and associate editor Seumas Milne, Labour’s director of strategy and communications from 2015-2020 under the infamous Jeremy Corbyn, published articles in support of Hamas’s right to launch rockets at Israel, claiming that Israel does not have the right to defend itself.

According to The Economist, while a student at Balliol College, Oxford, Milne had affected speaking with a Palestinian accent and called himself Shams (“sun” in Arabic). After graduating, he worked for the Communist monthly Straight Left. The Daily Telegraph has described him as “an apologist for terror.”

Deborah Orr, editor of The Guardian Weekly magazine, claimed that Jewish “racism” was the reason for Israel’s 2011 liberation of 1,027 Palestinians terrorists jailed in Israel – including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – for a single soldier (Gilad Schalit) kept hostage for five years in Ramallah, the Palestinian capital of the West Bank.

The Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Catherine Viner, was a partner in the creation of an anti-Israel propaganda play about the activist Rachel Corrie who was accidentally killed in 2003 when standing in front of a bulldozer while attempting to interfere with IDF anti-terrorist activities in Gaza.

A recent Guardian headline read: “While Israel celebrated the release of four abductees, the Palestinians mourned 200 deaths,” referencing the unplanned result of IDF’s daring raid deep into terrorist country to release four of the over 100 hostages still kept in tunnels and at homes of Palestinian civilians and UNRWA employees since October 7, including Noa Argaman, incarcerated at the home of no less an Al Jazeera “journalist,” Abdullah Al Jamal. 

In addition to The Guardian, the once prestigious BBC is also guilty of stirring up antisemitism. Since October 7, it has been criticized by Israel and British Jews for its outrageous coverage of the war. An example is BBC presenter Helena Humphrey’s recent interview with IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus, whom she ridiculously asked whether Palestinians in the area had been given advance warning of the hostage rescue. His obvious answer was that a warning would have resulted in the preemptive murder of the hostages by their captors. The Palestinian casualties were the result of Palestinians firing at the hostages in order to prevent their release. 

Additionally, BBC Radio 4 presenter Emma Barnett referenced Hamas terrorists as “workers” when interviewing freed 75-year-old hostage Ada Sagi. The British NGO Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said this language inflamed anti-Jewish extremists and was akin to submitting to terrorism. 

Serious accusations were also levied against the BBC in a cross-party parliamentary debate in May, with former attorney general Sir Michael Ellis, saying that the news outlet had “fundamentally failed” to deal with biased coverage and that “The relentless bias of BBC News coverage has contributed to the record levels of intimidation and attacks on British Jews.” According to several MPs, inaccurate BBC reporting about the Al-Ahli hospital bombing in Gaza “led to a spike in antisemitism globally”, including the burning of synagogues in Tunisia and Germany, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

British media outlets stir the pot

These and other British media outlets have massively contributed to stirring up anger among Muslim extremists and play a significant part in the fact that the UK is slowly losing its identity. A massive shake-up is expected in the upcoming July 4 UK elections. 

Many UK politicians are fearful of their political status if they come out against the violence of extremists in Muslim society since Islam is the second largest religion in the UK. In a 2021 census, some 3.8 million UK residents identified as Muslim (6.5% of the population). Over 30% of the voters in 20 UK constituencies are Muslim. 

Meanwhile, the Muslim Vote movement seeks to increase awareness among Muslim voters in the West of their ability to change the political situation in their countries of residence for the benefit of the entire Islamic nation. Currently, its main activity is the mobilization of public opinion, toward the “Palestinian cause,” combined with the weakening of support for Israel and its international isolation as a preliminary step to its elimination. 

The so-called “Palestinian cause” also serves the longer-term goal of Islamic elimination of Western values. On its website, Muslim Vote states that as a strong and united force of four million, it will focus on districts where the Muslim vote can influence election results to bring about a shift in British politics to align with its worldview, contrary to the UK’s interests and traditions. 

The movement demands a commitment to the severance of military ties with Israel; a ban on Israeli politicians involved in the Gaza war from entering the UK; recognition of a Palestinian state; Muslim prayer in schools; and the return of all Jewish donations made to the Labour party. 

Possible collapse of Conservative Party 

The YouGov poll predicts a historic collapse of the Conservative Party to 108 seats, the lowest number in its history, with the Labour Party expected to achieve its largest win ever, at 425 seats, with Labour leader Keir Stramer becoming the next prime minister. The party has stated that if it returns to power it will work to recognize a Palestinian state as part of a process for the two-state solution. 

An April 2024 Henry Jackson Society (HJS) poll revealed that one-third of British Muslims (32%) wish for the implementation of Sharia law in the UK and for Islam to become the national religion. Only one in four UK Muslims believe that Hamas carried out a massacre in southern Israel on October 7.

Israel has good reason to fear a Labour victory in the next general election.

The writer is CEO of Radios 100 FM, honorary consul of Nauru, deputy dean of the consular staff, and president of the Ambassadors Club of Israel.