Tuesday 20 January 2015

Danny Cohen on the rise of anti-Semitism



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.

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.

5 comments:

  1. Well that excerpt is remarkable in that it makes no "balancing" mention of the threat to the communities from which this hatred is coming.

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  2. "Helping" a climate of hatred, positively creating it !! See http://netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/second-post-on-broadcasting-house.html and many more eg http://netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/an-example-of-lies-and-appalling.html

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  3. It would be good to see the BBC begin seriously investigating the anti-Semitism behind some of the hostility to Israel.

    Ahahahahahahaha! There is no such thing, according to the BBC. It's all Israel's fault. After Stephen Sackur's grilling of Chris Patten over James Harding's hiring, it was clear that the poison runs very, very deep at the BBC.

    The very best we can hope for is for somebody to be brave enough to stick their head above the parapet and ask about the blatant double standard regarding Jews/Israel and Muslims/Islamic Terrorism. Cohen doesn't dare mention it, even while BBC news presenters are pushing it on air, so I won't hold my breath.

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  4. PS: The BBC focusing on the Holocaust right now is just about the worst possible thing they can do. It will only make matters worse, and give ammo to those who say the BBC is controlled by Jews. I can already hear the sighs about Jews milking it for sympathy while they deliberately murder thousands of Palestinian children every day. The people they think they're going to convince are only going to roll their eyes and continue making comments about false flag ops.

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  5. It's also interesting that you fall for the conflation - allegations of antiSemintism in criticisms of Israel. Anybody familiar with the wall, uprootings of olive groves, shooting of children by the IDF, bulldozing of wells and houses is not being antisemitic - heck, Samaritans are semites too - but critical of policies which seem comparable to those of WW II Germany - is not 'against Jews'. Who is supposedly learning what lesson here ?

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