It is hard for even the staunchest supporter of the BBC to defend the handling of its two recent commissions about Gaza (‘Heads will roll’: BBC reckons with bias accusations over Israel and Palestine coverage, 29 June).
But these contortions point to a problem that goes far beyond the BBC. It reflects the constraints on any meaningful debate about Israel’s response to the atrocities of 7 October and its subsequent behaviour in Gaza and on the West Bank, the results of which are shaping up to be one of the worst humanitarian disasters of this century. Nowhere does this resistance to discussion seem more apparent than at the Board of Deputies of British Jews. When 36 of its members expressed their concern about Gaza in a letter to the Financial Times, five were suspended and the rest were censured.
