Danny Cohen, the BBC's head of television, speaking at the launch of a season of programme's commemorating the 70th anniversary off the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkeanau, has made some noteworthy comments about the renewed rise of anti-Semitism.
Quoted in the Telegraph, he said:
Today, we witness the murder of Jewish citizens in France and Belgium, the desperate search for refuge of the Yazidis in the face of the ISIS onslaught and the continuing threats to the Christian community in Iraq and elsewhere.
All around us we continue to feel the dark shadow of genocidal, religious and racial hatred, whether through testimonies from the past or tragedies in the present.
Despite the Holocaust, anti-Semitic attacks continue in Europe – and indeed have increased in the last year.
In recent days we have mourned the victims of the Paris kosher supermarket atrocity. In Germany, France, Britain and elsewhere, Jewish men and women have been attacked and synagogues and cemeteries desecrated.
Here on the streets of London, swastikas have been displayed at anti-Israel rallies.
Centuries-old forms of abuse have found new homes on the internet.
Never has it seemed more important to remind the world of what can happen when racial and ethnic hatred warps the minds and souls of people of any nation or creed.
It's interesting to see him note the use of swastikas at anti-Israel rallies. It would be good to see the BBC begin seriously investigating the anti-Semitism behind some of the hostility to Israel.
Disappointingly, however, he doesn't consider the the role of the media in helping to create this climate - especially the BBC's own hostile reporting of Israel.
