BBC gives British fascist party a public drubbing over Holocaust denial but continues to whitewash Holocaust deniers in Mid East
In a landmark moment in modern British political history, the anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic British National Party (BNP) was last night given a platform on the BBC’s flagship political debating programme Question Time. The immensely controversial decision to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin onto the programme was based on recent electoral successes in which the BNP secured the election of two of its candidates to the European Parliament.
On balance, I believe that the BBC made the right decision: racists, anti-Semites and fascists are far better exposed for what they are so that decent people know precisely why they must be defeated.
As it turned out, Griffin was in any case subjected to a drubbing by members of the audience, fellow panelists and a moderator who rarely dropped the ball in exposing him to ridicule and shame. Questioned about his Holocaust denial Griffin was reduced to barely coherent mumblings. “I can’t tell you the extent I changed my mind,” he said in an apparent attempt to hide his real views behind fake concerns that he could face prosecution under European law because countries such as Germany make Holocaust denial a crime. Griffin emerged looking like a fool. A job well done by the BBC.
But if only the BBC’s opposition to fascism and Holocaust denial were applied more widely. For when it comes to the Middle East and the wider Islamic world, it is all to often prepared to engage in a whitewash.
Consider the BBC’s disgraceful portrayal of Hamas. As I point out in my recently published book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel (link below), the BBC website carries a lengthy profile of Hamas (see second link below) which makes not a single mention of the foul anti-Semitism which is all over the organisation’s charter. As for its routine Holocaust denial, that too has been airbrushed out of history. Ditto for practically all instances of Holocaust denial and brute anti-Semitism across the Middle East.
Now, it is absolutely right for the BBC to expose the anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial of fascists in the British National Party. However, Nick Griffin’s views are the preserve of the tiniest minority of British citizens — his party had 3 percent support according to a recent poll. There is little if any chance of he or his kind ever getting hold of the levers of power, though vigilance remains essential.
By contrast, brute anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are key features of the mainstream political culture across the Middle East as opinion polls and the endless comments on such lines from political and religious leaders make abundantly clear (see the relevant section in my book).
A BBC that is soft on anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East is placing itself just an inch or two closer to the Nick Griffins of this world than it would like us to believe, (even if in this instance, I repeat, they did a good job).
The harsh reality is that the BBC cannot have it both ways. It cannot have its “good bigots” in the Middle East and its “bad bigots” in Britain. One either opposes bigotry or one does not. On some questions, and this is one of them, there is no morally acceptable or intellectually respectable middle ground.
But on anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, the middle ground is precisely where the BBC stands.
For more on this subject and related items, see my book which is available at the following link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Beyond-Pale-Europes-Problem/dp/0297856642/ref=pd_sim_b_3
To read the BBC’s portrayal of Hamas, click here:
Tags: Israel
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work :)
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:14 am
As a Jew, I am far more frightened by the Guardian and BBC than I ever could be by the BNP.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am
Joshua, after seeing the counter-demonstrators in front of the BBC studio I would be frightened by the SWP and UAF thugs too. Luckily I’m not living in the UK. They are just competing with the BNP who will lead the new Fascist England.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
While the BBC and political parties in Britain may see Holocaust denial as being beyond the pale, they all fail to see the significance of the Holocaust and they remain willfully blind to the lessons the Holocaust teaches Western democratic peoples.
That failure and willful blindness is beyond the pale.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
“Luckily I’m not living in the UK.”
Whilst certainly the UK has its problems and they are not small or few, when one contemplates the naked and raw anti-Semitism of your native land, it could be considered a Garden of Eden. There are excellent reasons why most Jews still view the countries of Central and Eastern Europe with fear and loathing. A large part of our anger with the UK is because we believe that the British are, at heart, an exceptionally decent people, and thus we feel very let down by these large lapses in that decency. Similarly, we can never summon up that much outrage about such nations as Hungary, Poland and Lithuania because we know that nothing we could say would make the slightest bit of difference. They are what they are and the only thing we can do is avoid them as much as possible.
Just from the last few days:
Anti-Semitism, racism marring Hungarian politics, Jewish leader tells CoE
http://tinyurl.com/yfywz8d
In Hungary, far right is making gains
http://tinyurl.com/yf5ozg9
Anti-semitism (explicit and implicit) in Hungary
http://tinyurl.com/yhaofnu
Hungarian MP: Jews want to take over the world
http://tinyurl.com/yfhk64p
Hundreds demonstrate on behalf of mayor accused of racism
http://tinyurl.com/ykebvvc
Nazi war crime suspect fights extradition
http://tinyurl.com/ygya6g6
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Joshua, the British people over the many centuries have given much to the advancement of Western culture in the fields of politics, economics, social norms and law to what Western culture is today.
It appears those likely are the criteria you use to define a society as being decent.
Britain however has had more then just a few lapses of decency over the centuries in a number of respects. One of those lapses that continues to surface is Britain’s negative perception and ill treatment of Jews. That has become especially apparent and more consistent since the early 20th century.
To be sure the British foreign office leading up to Lord Balfour’s famous Balfour Declaration was the culmination of a perception that had emerged in Britain and British government thinking as an interlude from prior anti-Jewish sentiments that supported restoration of the Jews to their own land for philosophical, religious and imperialistic motives.
That did not last all that long for the British foreign office thereafter began to find British interests were greater served by developing good relations with the Arabs.
The British Mandatatory territories were originally conceived with a view that the entire British Mandatory would be for the Jews. Britain however lopped out and gave about 78% to the Hashemites. Britain also tried to prevent Jews coming into the mandatory territories, tried to prevent Jews from arming themselves, while doing little to nothing to prevent Arabs from arming themselves to ensure that their Jew hatred boiling into violence against Jews took as many Jewish lives as possible. You will recall that it was the British who empowered and installed Haj Amin Al Husseini as the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem, knowing full well that he was one of if not the sole leaders inciting Arab violence against the Jews and calling for their genocide.
When it came time for the UN to vote to accept Israel as a member state in 1948, Britain abstained from voting, no doubt not wishing to offend and anger the very Arabs Britian was seeking to further relationships with.
I can go on to site more facts that would reveal a fairly continuous undercurrent of anti-Israelism in British policy (that sometimes could fairly be described as outbreaks of antisemitic sentiments), even as Britain continued over the decades to claim to support Israel’s right to exist and right to self defence.
That support however was undermined by the British government’s downplaying the rampant culture of Jew hatred in the Middle East and in the holy land region amongst Arabs who became known as Palestinians and by charging Israel with disproportionate use of force when Israel was exercising its legitimate rights of self defence.
The British government is not alone of course in proclaiming Israel’s right to exist and right to self defence, while then making statements and stating government positions that would appear to contradict and thus undermine those proclamations of support for Israel. So many other Western nations have done the same at various times.
Consider as well that in spite of the British government’s staunch words against anti-semitism within Britain, antisemitism is on the rise in Britain and the Jewish community feels itself under seige.
Clearly the British governments actions against the factions and factors within British society that breed, nurture and promote antisemitism have not been nearly as strong and forthright as its words.
Several years ago, Rabbi Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Britain issued a public jeremiad filled with consternation that his so called good friend Rowan Williams, the British Archbishop had issued a statement, the precise nature of which I no longer recall, but which Rabbi Sacks and a great many in the Jewish community believed was antisemitic and it would only foster such kinds of beliefs within British society generally.
Yes, Britain is at heart a decent nation.
When it comes however, to Britain’s treatment of its Jews over the centuries and now as well as its positions with Israel, that decency appears to be the tattered exception and not the rule.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Joshua
I wasn’t clear enough saying that luckily I’m not living in the UK. I should have written : Luckily I’m living in Israel.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
It’s all very well Chris Huhne acting all holier-than-thou with Nick Griffin, but where are the Liberal Democrats on the issue of Hamas, who do not bother to hide their anti-semitism, and unlike the BNP, are actually implementing it.
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
All the self righteous panel members achieve by giving this incompetent idiot a drubbing is to from the real fascist threat in this country that comes from bomb makers who wish to take over the world. There may even be one or two in Jack Straw’s constituency. Who will demonstrate outside the BBC about a real threat to our democracy.?
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
nice article robin but one thing struck me, isn’t hamas’ views of jews largely a result of the oppression faced by the palestinians over decades whereas the BNP are anti semitic cos they’re just a bunch of fascist thugs lead by a social misfit
Robin Shepherd says: Hamas’s anti-Semitism forms part of wider patterns of anti-Semitism throughout the region. It cannot, therefore, be directly related to the experience of alleged “oppression”. In any case, anti-Semitism is always triggered by something, whether imagined or real. The Nazis accused Jews of running all the banks for their own benefit and “oppressing” ordinary Germans.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Danny uses an anti-Semitic argument (”oppression of the Palestinians” repeated like a mantra, sans evidence, you forgot to add the big lie of Israel is an apartheid state Danny) in order to justify the anti-Semitism of Hamas. How come the Left, Muslim fanatics and neo-Nazis say the identical thing here without corroboration, “oppression of the Palestinians” etc? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence… not. When you push the Guardian reading types on it they cite anti-Israel diatribes and imply admittedly stringent, unfortunate but certainly necessary security measures to protect Jews from getting killed by terrorists, oppressive to the Palestinians. Which proves my point.
Hamas hate the Jews since its integral to their wider culture, the Arab Muslim population have always hated the Jews, for centuries in fact, over a thousand years. There have been pogroms by the Muslim populations against the Jews over the centuries and routine persecution of the Jews and other non-Muslims, including under the Turks. It’s in the history of the region which hardly anybody can be bothered with. Blaming the Jews for the fact that people (in this case Hamas) want to annihilate them is in fact anti-Semitic. If I were to blame the Jews for the fact that Europeans routinely sought to annihilate them century after century, that would obviously be anti-Semitic. So why the double standard here with Hamas? This is exactly the double standard that Shepard is writing about, one set of rules for the far Right and another for the Muslim world. This double standard is itself anti-Semitic as Danny inadvertently proves. The Hamas charter calls for the liquidation of Jewry, this call to kill all the Jews comes from Hadith, a Muslim religious text that is over a thousand years old. Is Hadith the fault of the Jeeeeews, oh I mean Israel? According to Danny Speller’s logic, yes it is.
And the Jew-hatred of Muslims in Egypt, Algeria, the Persian Gulf, Syrai, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Muslim populations in Europe, the UK and North America, Australia and South Africa, is that also Israel’s fault? It goes back centuries too, more. Is that Israel’s fault as well? The hatred of women and girls, the misogyny rampant in the Islamic world, is that the fault of the female sex or it also the fault of the Jews? And the Sunni-Shi’ite internecine conflict, more than a thousand years old, is that also Israel’s fault?
I want to stress that this double standard on anti-Semitism that Shepard speaks of re the BBC and the Guardian is itself symptomatic of anti-Semitism. The BBC, the Guardian, Livingstone etc have a double standard on this issue since they are all anti-Semitic themselves. After all the BBC and the Guardian give away their anti-Semitism all the time in easy to prove ways, like their deceitful coverage of the Middle-East conflict.
October 25th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I believe it’s more amusing to see the BBC spin the BNP being a “right-wing” party, when clearly they are socialists, of the bigoted racist variety.
If not for the main parties wanting to flood hte UK with Muslim immigration, the BNP would not have a following. The people are pissed off over it, especially after finding out that Labour under Blair used mass immigration as a fait accompli against the “Right”, when what thy were really doing was pissing off their Fascist Left.
Great job guys.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
The following article (’Jewish school racial discrimination case goes to supreme court’) is an example of how the Guardian stirs up anti-Semitism. This is how the article starts out:
‘Britain’s most successful Jewish school will tomorrow tell the supreme court it is not guilty of racial discrimination.
A court of appeal said earlier this year that the admissions criteria for the Jewish Free School (JFS), in north-west London, was unlawful because it prioritised applications from children with Jewish mothers.’
Riazat Butt, the author of the piece, then quotes Rabbi Danny Rich:
‘Rabbi Danny Rich, head of Liberal Judaism, said his organisation was the only one to have welcomed the July ruling even though it had reservations about the state defining who was Jewish.
“Throughout these proceedings Liberal Judaism has continued to advocate its position of Jewishness by identity, and has strongly opposed the politically motivated criteria of admission to the Jewish Free School.” ‘
She finishes off with a quote from Tony Bayfield:
‘Tony Bayfield, head of the Jewish Reform movement, said the chief rabbi’s stance on who was Jewish denied the authority of rabbis outside the Modern Orthodox and the status of their converts.
Bayfield said: “Though I cannot possibly condone the discrimination which inflicts unimaginable pain on people who know they are Jewish but are told they are not – discrimination which, ultimately, denies my rabbinic authority – I still find the JFS case an unwelcome distraction.” ‘
http://tinyurl.com/ygn9vaa
So, the only quotes we get are from those who oppose the stand taken by JFS. Nowhere does the article tell us that Rich and Bayfield represent very much minority viewpoints within the Jewish community (Bayfield’s views, in particular, will be thought of as both offensive and bizarre by most British Jews). No opportunity has been given to a member of the mainstream Jewish community to provide an opinion. It seems to me that if the writer of the article had started out with the mission of deligitimising mainstream Judaism in Britain, she couldn’t have done a better job. Very many people are going to come away from this article thinking “Oh, those bigoted Jews”.
http://tinyurl.com/ygn9vaa
About the author of the Guardian article, Riazat Butt:
‘Riazat Butt is religious affairs correspondent for the Guardian. She is also the presenter of guardian.co.uk’s Muslim podcast, Islamophonic and a Fellow of the RSA’
http://tinyurl.com/yflru33
October 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
“When it comes however, to Britain’s treatment of its Jews over the centuries and now as well as its positions with Israel, that decency appears to be the tattered exception and not the rule.”
I don’t disagree with this or anything else you have written.