A Jewish freelancer for the BBC says he will no longer work for the media outlet due to its refusal to call Hamas “terrorists” and that he was disappointed the network rebuffed a chance to give his take on the Israeli-Hamas war.
Noah Abrahams 22, from London, told The Jewish Press it wasn’t an easy decision to decide not to work with the BBC any more, as commentating on sports (as well as film) was an opportunity people dream of.
Abrahams attended Yavneh College for high school in England and earned a bachelor’s degree in sports journalism from Derby College. He said he knocked on the door on his third day of college in 2019 and did everything from answering phones to doing some social media before getting a chance to do commentary for BBC.
He said he faced no discrimination, and the staff was kind and cordial.
“I got along with everyone,” he said. “I even did some pieces for Chanukah and Passover and interviewed local rabbis.”
Like many, he was stunned by news of the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7 in Israel.
“I was horrified, mortified and terrified,” Abrahams said. “I was concerned for my friends there and like every other Jewish person, I was concerned for what would happen next.”
Abrahams, who has twice visited Israel, said he asked if he could give his perspective on the situation and his take on the correct terminology to use for Hamas.
Abrahams said, “They basically said, ‘We have your number,’” as a way of refusing to let him give his take on the war.
He said that with images of brutality the likes of which he’d never seen, he was flabbergasted at how the BBC would not call Hamas terrorists when England has already categorized Hamas as a terrorist organization. The news company instead uses the word “militants.” He posted on X, formerly Twitter, on October 11 that he would no longer work for the BBC.
On the evening of October 16, the BBC listed what is believed to be an ISIS-inspired shooting in Brussels as a “terror attack.”
“The BBC has no moral compass,” Abrahams said. “You can’t call one group a terror group and not the other. There’s no impartiality here. It’s a complete failure. It’s illegal to support Hamas. If they’re not supporting them, why not use the correct terminology? It’s pretty obvious Hamas are terrorists by any measure.”
A BBC spokesperson told the New York Post that Abrahams didn’t have any future work lined up.
But Abrahams said, “I had a scheduled football commentary. Perhaps they’re too caught up in their own ignorance to do the proper checks.”
The reporter said he couldn’t stomach working at a place that didn’t value accuracy and integrity.
“In one way, it was a difficult decision because who turns down football commentary? But on the other hand, I have to be morally comfortable with myself and I’m not comfortable at a place that refuses to call Hamas terrorists.
He said he is looking to do sports commentary for another network.
“I’m not gonna sit and cry,” he said. “I have my morals. I’d much rather take my skill set to a place that is supportive of me and also cares about accuracy.”
He described the BBC as “obtuse” and said they have no justification and have revealed their hypocrisy for all the world to see.
Numerous media outlets reported that thousands gathered outside BBC’s London offices one night to protest its refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists.
In an op-ed, BBC Editor John Simpson wrote: “Terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. We regularly point out that the British and other governments have condemned Hamas as a terrorist organisation, but that’s their business. We also run interviews with guests and quote contributors who describe Hamas as terrorists. The key point is that we don’t say it in our voice. Our business is to present our audiences with the facts, and let them make up their own minds…”
The BBC came under fire due to its reporting on a November 29 incident when it reported that a group of Jewish students on a bus used an anti-Muslim slur directed at someone outside. The Board of Deputies of British Jews complained. Ghil’ad Zuckerman, an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist, who is the Professor of Linguistics and Chair of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, Australia, told The Jewish Press that his analysis of the recording showed that a Jewish passenger, said “Call someone, it’s urgent” in Hebrew and did not utter any anti-Muslim slur.
“They should apologize and make a correction,” Zuckerman said at the time of the dispute. “There was no slur. The Hebrew word used was ‘dachuf’ which means ‘urgent.’
Ofcom, a government broadcast regulatory authority in England, would release a statement that in part read: “The BBC failed to promptly acknowledge that the audio was disputed and did not update its online news article to reflect this for almost eight weeks. During this time, the BBC was aware that the article’s content was causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack and the wider Jewish community.”
Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff, a noted lecturer originally from England who teaches at Yeshiva University, told The Jewish Press the BBC is hurting its reputation with its policy to call Hamas “militants” and that it’s one step away from calling them “freedom fighters.”
“Why they think they need to be ‘impartial’ against a terrorist regime like Hamas who call for the destruction of every Jew in their own charter – this is pure bias on the side of the BBC towards Hamas itself!” he said.
On October 23, it was announced that the BBC would call Hamas “a terrorist organization proscribed by the U.K. government,” which serves as a sort of compromise that hands away any judgment from their own journalists.
