One of the world’s best-known Jewish organizations claims that the BBC British public media is among the top 10 most anti-Semitic entities in the world. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), established in 1977, released on Tuesday the top ten list of global anti-Semitism based on this year’s data, with Iran and Hamas in the top position and the BBC in third.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the organisation’s founder, said people may find it surprising that the BBC was also on the list, but the decision was made after months of intense debate.
“People may assume we’re only adding neo-Nazi groups to the list, but the BBC is now also on the list because when anti-Semitism is reported by a globally recognized organization, it’s even more dangerous,” the rabbi explained.
He stressed that people trust the BBC, whose news and reports are read all over the world, but have spread fake news about several events. Marvin Hier mentioned a recent video posted of social media sites showing a group of men spitting a bus full of Jews on Oxford Street in London. The Jews celebrating Hanukkah were insulted even after they got off the vehicle.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center report also reported that 1,308 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the UK in the first half of 2021, a 49 percent increase in one year.
The entire country of Germany was ranked seventh on the list.
“There are at least three anti-Semitic attacks in Berlin every day,” SWC quoted Sigmount Königsberg, the leader of the Jewish community in Berlin, as saying.
According to the report, Germany is unable to curb anti-Semitic attacks by the far right, Islamist groups and the left criticizing Israel. According to a report by the German government in June, there were 2,275 anti-Semitic incidents in 2020, 55 of which involved physical violence by the attackers.
