A longtime Jewish BBC broadcaster handed in his resignation after over 30 years due to antisemitism.
The broadcaster, Rabbi YY Rubinstein, shared his resignation on Facebook and even wrote a column in the Jewish news outlet The Forward about his resignation.
"There is a well-documented culture of low-grade antisemitism that is present throughout the entire organization," Rubinstein noted in The Forward, something he said was usually hidden under the label of being merely anti-Zionist.
But the incident that was the final straw was the BBC's coverage of an antisemitic incident that occurred on Oxford Street during Hanukkah.
During this incident, a bus filled with Jewish passengers was surrounded by a group of men throwing Nazi salutes, giving the middle finger, spitting on the passengers and then slamming their fists on the bus door and windows. Video of the incident was widely circulated on social media.
Video has emerged of a group of men spitting at a bus full of Jewish teenagers in Oxford Street where the group were celebrating the first night of Chanukah. pic.twitter.com/orOrA9kJEu
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) December 1, 2021
However, the BBC coverage faced widespread controversy after they reported that some of the Jewish passengers could be heard saying anti-Muslim slurs.
Investigations into this have found no evidence of any anti-Muslim slurs said in the video, including those said in Yiddish. Numerous calls were made for the BBC to retract this claim and protests were even held outside BBC headquarters. However, the BBC has refused to retract its report and has maintained that these slurs were indeed present.
This was the final straw. Rubinstein handed in his resignation.
Speaking to The Jewish Chronicle, Rubinstein said he didn't think the BBC can ever be cured of the antisemitism that pervades the organization.
"The reason is simple: the BBC cannot fix its antisemitism problem if they refuse to acknowledge that they have one. The BBC is simply unwilling to do so," he noted in The Forward.
"If it did, it would start by publicly apologizing for its initial report and begin training its staff to be aware of antisemitic tropes and reject Jew-hatred... But expecting that to happen is as likely as successfully using sandcastles to stop tsunamis."