The British Broadcasting Corporation is routinely disparaged by viewers in Israel and British Jews for its political bias and hostile attitude toward Israel. These accusations are not always warranted. Last week, current affairs program "BBC Panorama" fixed its spotlight on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism within the ranks of the British Labour Party. Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who regularly denies the phenomenon's existence, one of Britain's most important political parties has been cultivating an atmosphere of anti-Semitism. According to the Daily Mirror, the BBC was pressured to pull the program, but to no avail.
Israeli television stations, such as the Kan public broadcaster (which is also an employer of mine), should purchase the rights to show the Panorama program for the Israeli audience, to raise awareness about what is transpiring in a key left-wing party in a leading Western democracy.
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The BBC program presented troubling figures in typical British fashion, that is to say by putting it mildly. The Panorama producers not only interviewed senior Labour officials but also activists, some of them Jewish, who were tasked with investigating anti-Semitism within the party. Some of them eventually threw their hands up in despair and chose to resign.
Viewers were exposed to facts that have already come to light, for example, the fact the Corbyn, while visiting Tunisia, placed a wreath on the graves of the terrorists who perpetrated the Munich Olympic massacre in 1972. Party officials have uttered a litany of libels against the Jewish people. Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, is recognized for fanning the flames of the party's ant-Semitism, for which he was suspended from the party for two years. This suspension, however, was met with accusations of a "Jewish conspiracy" within the party.
How can we explain the phenomenon of Labour's anti-Semitism? One explanation is that Corbyn ascended to the top of the party from the fringes of the radical left. The spirit he has sought to imbue runs counter to the center-leaning spirit inculcated by former leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The Panorama expose makes it impossible to argue that Corbyn is simply a victim of malicious and libelous propaganda, as claimed by his supporters, even those in Israel.
Panorama's revelations didn't come as a surprise to many in the UK. Those who follow the newspapers in the UK know the press there hasn't relaxed its coverage of anti-Semitism within Labour. The issue should be far more prominent in the Israeli media. Over here though, it seems the press would rather obsess over the anti-Semitic pasts of the ruling parties in some central European countries, and tendentiously cover their present activities. The leaders of these countries, at the very least, are making a concerted effort – some more than others – to emphasize the ideological amendment they are making, or are shunning their party's anti-Semitic past entirely.
It's very possible that in the future, in light of the fissures within Great Britain's governing Conservative Party, that Corbyn will be elected prime minister. Perhaps, if he is elected, he will look to openly oppose the anti-Semitism in his own party. It's highly unlikely he will be able to duck the facts exposed by the BBC.
