Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged the BBC to address extremism and antisemitism within BBC Arabic, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) reported Monday.
In a letter to the BBC Board, Badenoch expressed being "truly shocked" by findings that suggest the service has become "a regular platform for race-hate, extremism and the endorsement of terror." Her intervention follows the release of a report by CAMERA documenting years of extremism by the news service, which reaches approximately 38 million people across Arabic-speaking regions.
"A new report by CAMERA makes for shocking reading, even for those familiar with these problems. It reveals flagrant and appalling antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. A public service broadcaster appears to have become a regular platform for race-hate extremism and the endorsement of terror. This has been going on for years," Badenoch wrote in her letter.
The Conservative leader further stated, "BBC Arabic is intended to provide high-quality trusted news for the hundreds of millions of people who speak Arabic. It should uphold the highest standards of public service broadcasting. Instead, it seems the World service may be fomenting extremism and misleading audiences while funded by the taxpayer and licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop."
BBC Arabic, which is the BBC World Service's largest and most heavily funded foreign-language service, has been documented by the media watchdog as providing a platform to terrorists, presenting apologists for terror as independent "experts," allowing extreme views to go unchallenged, and repeatedly echoing the language of Hamas, according to the report.
The CAMERA dossier catalogs multiple concerning incidents in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, including the BBC's refusal to dismiss five BBC Arabic staff who liked or shared social media posts celebrating the Hamas terror attack. One such post allegedly called Oct. 7 a "morning of hope." The report also claims that in the first five months of the Israel-Hamas war, BBC Arabic was forced to make 80 corrections – averaging one every 48 hours – including references to Hamas as "the resistance."
According to the CAMERA report, the platform repeatedly invited Major General Wasaf Eriqat to appear as a "military expert," describing him as a former PLO general who referred to the October massacre as a "heroic military miracle." Another BBC Arabic regular was reportedly retired Egyptian army general Samir Ragheb, who called October 2023 a "month of victory" and once referred to Jews in derogatory terms.
The report further states that BBC Arabic failed to moderate or remove antisemitic comments on its YouTube channel and encouraged discussion about whether the killing of a 79-year-old Israeli woman was "terrorism or resistance."
Hadar Sela of CAMERA UK stated: "For years senior BBC executives have turned a blind eye to the poison being pumped out by BBC Arabic. This is a news channel which has given succour to terrorists and extremists, peddled Hamas propaganda and still employs journalists who celebrated the barbarity of October 7th even as the world reeled in shock and horror at the evil depravity of Hamas killers and rapists."
Sela continued, "Whilst it is clear anti-Israel sentiment is systemic across the BBC, nowhere has antisemitism been allowed to take greater hold or cause more harm than BBC Arabic. Its journalists have helped fuel anti-Jewish hate not just across the UK but across the world and this rot must be ripped out at its roots."
The CAMERA report emerges amid political controversy over a BBC documentary titled "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone," which was narrated by the son of a Hamas government Minister. The BBC subsequently removed the program from its streaming service and launched an inquiry after admitting "serious flaws" had been uncovered in the making of the documentary.
The BBC has not yet issued a comprehensive response to the CAMERA report allegations or to Badenoch's letter as of this reporting.
