Melanie Phllips
JNS, July 3, 2025
“… by identifying antisemitism with “Islamists”—jihadi groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood—even this report shies away from stating the true and horrifying extent of Jew-hatred among grass-roots Muslims who may be opposed to Islamist jihadi extremism.”
For much of this week, Britain has been consumed by the appalling spectacle at the Glastonbury festival when the rap duo Bob Vylan led chants by thousands of festival-goers of “Death, death to the IDF,” as well as making vicious remarks about Jews and Zionists.
Even though incitement to murder crossed a red line among politicians and commentators, many still qualified their revulsion by asserting that Israel’s behavior in the war was beyond the pale.
A minister in the Labour government, Wes Streeting, declared: “While there’s no justification for inciting violence against Israelis, the way in which Israel’s conducting this war has made it extremely difficult for Israel’s allies around the world to stand by and justify. … I’d also say to the Israeli embassy, get your own house in order, in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank.”
Yet it’s precisely that demonization of Israel, based on an unending onslaught of serial lies and distortions about its behavior, that has served to incite thousands to endorse the murder of Israelis.
A further example of that was provided this week when Channel 4 TV screened a film about the Gaza Strip. The BBC had abandoned its plan to broadcast this “documentary” in the fallout after it was revealed that the narrator of a previous film was the son of Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture. The Channel 4 TV was pure Hamas propaganda, alleging that the Israel Defense Forces deliberately bombed Gaza hospitals without acknowledging that they had all been turned into Hamas terrorist hubs and thus were legitimate military targets, as well as examples of Hamas war crimes.
Yet not only did Channel 4 air this travesty, but more than 400 entertainment stars and media figures, including 111 BBC journalists, signed a letter to the BBC’s management claiming that its decision to drop the Gaza film “demonstrates, once again, that the BBC is not reporting ‘without fear or favor’ when it comes to Israel.”….SOURCE