BBC accused of ‘wilful blindness’ to anti-Semitism in latest Lineker row

The BBC appears “wilfully blind” to anti-Semitism by failing to take action over Gary Lineker’s latest social media controversy, a former executive has said.

Lineker retweeted a pro-Palestinian campaign’s call for Israel to be barred from football tournaments over “its grave violations of international law”.

After a backlash, Lineker removed the post, with sources claiming he had believed that he was sharing a news article about Israel being banned, rather than a demand for a ban.

Danny Cohen, the corporation’s former director of television, said: “It seems very clear that Gary Lineker has breached the BBC’s impartiality guidelines, this time in relation to the specific area on which he presents for the BBC.

“The message he reposted supports the racist boycott movement against Israel and the reference to genocide is deeply offensive to the Jewish community.

“Deleting the post after it has been shared with millions of people does not solve the problem. The BBC’s senior management should act immediately.

“If they chose not to do so, they are proving again to be wilfully blind to issues of bias and anti-Semitism within the corporation.”

Asked for a response, the BBC said: “We’re not going to comment on individuals or individual social media posts, but we will always respond to issues if they are raised with us.”

A BBC source said that the post did not breach guidelines but added that it was right to delete the retweet.

Mr Cohen added: “BBC management claim to believe Gary Lineker’s excuse that he posted the tweet by mistake.

“Few in the Jewish community are likely to believe this. They will feel gaslit by BBC management’s implausible explanation and trust between Jewish people and the BBC will erode even further.”

It came to light on Monday that The Quds News Network, a Palestinian youth news agency affiliated to Hamas, had published a story on its website praising Lineker’s reposting of the proposed ban.

Mr Cohen commented: “We have reached the point at which groups affiliated with the terrorist, Jew-hating Hamas are praising the BBC’s highest-paid presenter for his social media output. I’m not sure how much more grim it could get, but senior BBC managers seem not to think there is an issue.”

It was not the Match of the Day host’s first post about Israel on X, formerly Twitter. He previously shared a video in which an academic accused Israel of committing “textbook genocide”.

The post about the Israeli football team was put out by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and included a statement from the Palestinian Football Association.

The statement called on Fifa and the International Olympic Committee to sanction Israel, urging officials to suspend Israel’s membership and ban it from international tournaments and games “until it ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetuating in Gaza”.

The BBC was also accused of failures over anti-Semitism in 2021, with its reporting of an attack on Jewish students travelling on a bus along Oxford Street.

Ofcom ruled that the broadcaster made a serious editorial misjudgment by claiming that anti-Muslim slurs were heard on the bus. The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Chief Rabbi were among those to complain about the impartiality of the BBC’s reporting.

Ofcom criticised the BBC for failing to promptly acknowledge that the claim was disputed despite knowing that the report was causing “significant distress and anxiety” to the victims of the attack and the wider Jewish community.