In Britain, the National Union of Journalists has directed its members to wear the colors of the Palestinian flag, or keffiyehs, to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians. As a result, some journalists at the BBC have quit the union. More on this latest open display of anti-Israel animus by journalists, who are supposed to be neutral, can be found here: “BBC staff quit union after being told to wear colors of Palestinian flag, keffiyeh,” Jerusalem Post, November
Several BBC staff members quit the journalists’ union after being told to wear the colors of the Palestinian flag, Jewish News reported on Wednesday.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reportedly sent messages asking workers to “wear something red, green, black or a Palestinian keffiyeh.”
This directive is part of a Day of Action for Palestine, an event calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
One BBC staff member told Jewish News that this “hypocritical and antisemitic” suggestion was a breach of the BBC’s commitment to impartial reporting, saying, “BBC journalists, who pride themselves on impartiality and who fought to keep their NUJ free of politics, are being encouraged to break the BBC’s editorial guidelines by supporting a political cause.”
In a message to NUJ members, the union responded, “Clearly, members working across the BBC and in public service broadcasting have important duties in relation to impartiality and work within social media guidelines the NUJ would not wish members to breach.”
Sheer nonsense. The NUJ mentions “important duties in relation to impartiality” that the NUJ “would not wish members to breach,” but the NUJ has just ordered its members to take sides, expressing open support for the Palestinians by wearing keffiyehs or the colors of the Palestinian flag. Is that “impartiality”?
According to Jewish News, more members of NUJ are expected to resign following this situation.
Charlotte Henry, a freelance journalist who resigned, wrote that the union had become “a hostile environment for Jews, and I can no longer be part of that.”
The TUC declined to comment on whether it had previously requested workers to wear colors representing one side in a conflict. However, it admitted that it has never asked its members to wear Ukrainian colors during the ongoing conflict with Russia, Jewish News reported….
For the TUC, it seems, only the Palestinians are to be shown open support by its members. There have been no expressions of solidarity with the Ukrainians, or with the 25 million Sudanese now starving in the “greatest humanitarian crisis in the world,” or with the millions of Uighurs who have been forced into re-education camps by the Chinese government. They don’t matter. Only the Palestinians deserve this display.
How can anyone possibly believe in the neutrality of British journalists when their own union asks its members to display signs of solidarity with the Palestinians? How many Jewish journalists, or non-Jewish journalists who want to maintain that neutrality. now feel that they can no longer be members of that union? The BBC is the worst offender with its lineup of journalists reporting on the Middle East, all of whom are deeply antagonistic to the Jewish state; among them are John Simpson, Jeremy Bowen, Barbara Plett, Lyse Doucet, Orla Guerin, and Yolande Knell.
Shouldn’t this command by the NUJ for its members to demonstrate support for the Palestinians be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry? Doesn’t the BBC deserve special scrutiny, given its worldwide audience? And doesn’t the government, which supports the BBC through the licensing fee of 169 pounds that every household in Britain must pay, need to consider the fairness of its coverage, in light of the Asserson Report, that concluded that the BBC had breached its own editorial guidelines 1,500 times since October 7, 2023, when the Israel-Hamas war began? To repeat: Asserson concluded that the BBC showed a “deeply worrying pattern of bias against Israel,” and that Israel was associated with genocide 14 times more than the Hamas terror group was throughout the period he analyzed. The BBC cannot, given its current makeup, cure itself of such bias. But a parliamentary committee that would bring to the public’s attention the extent of the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian bias both at the BBC that Trevor Asserson’s research has revealed might lead to a change of personnel, so that those currently covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, who have demonstrated such anti-Israel bias, would be given other assignments, and be replaced in the Middle East by others untainted by such bias.
As for the NUJ, its command to its members to wear the colors of the Palestinian flag, or keffiyehs, to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians, should be widely publicized and condemned, as violating the neutrality that ought to be the sine qua non of the journalistic profession.
Taffy says
Most members of the union are sheep, nay lemmings, that will follow the frontman off a cliff. England has its public anti-Semites, such as Roger Waters, Kahn, the Muslim mayor of London, and many others that have influence over the hoi polloi. So, while the masses would NEVER wear green for St. Paddy’s day, they simply follow along and wear the Palestinian colors at a mere suggestion.
Andrew Blackadder says
Scotland also has it share of anti Israel morons as they had a wee muslim fella for First Minister until recently who wanted to bring half a million Arabs from Gaza into Scotland which has a population of no more than five and a half million, he also suggested there were too many white people in positions of power throughout Scotland so not just in England but all over the UK>
England Invaded says
It’s not just anti-Israeli, it’s supporting the continuing take over of the UK by these low-lifes.
Bruce David Watt says
they need arm bands i recommend the red ones with the white circle and a good luck symbol popular amongst their parents.
Minister says
Those who quit the union should have instead wore Israeli colors and the star of David to show their support. It is synonymous to going to war for love of country and freedom then running away when the shooting starts. Same for this enemy who also do the same. Cowards all. All on both sides have is a big mouth with zero substance.
Flag waving is easy but being a soldier is not!
I could go on but ,unless you are completely dumb brain dead, you get the meaning.
Minister King
St Croix says
Truly pukeworthy actions from these unions.
Hats off to those who refused to go along.
Any sane, thinking person would have to be asking right about now, or even before now, “WHY?” Why should all of these leaders, media corporations, celebs, professors and universities, clerics like DA POPE(!), activists of varied stripe, Democrats, students, Right-wing actual Fascists and Nazis, LGBTQ etc, be so against Israel, and against Jews? Israel being founded as a refuge, a place to call their own as it IS their own homeland but even if it weren’t, after the holocaust, they needed a safe place to live.
Those not in any of these groups, might well scratch their heads and wonder what is it all about? Why the Jews? Yes, why? And why the “Palestinians” and not the Sudanese, Uighurs, etc.? WHY is this THE cause of the century? It defies logic.
Those within these groups, if they’d stop and think, they’d have to wonder how they got all this solidarity going, and so very fast! Wow, what a feat. Truth be told, they are part of something big–huge and festering, and it’s been in the works quite a while.
Many of these same groups also have a hate-on for Christians. The “Christians” among them may castigate the Christians who support the Jews. I have to ask, are they real Christians if they hate their Lord’s brothers and sisters? If they hate his very tribe? If they HATE, period!
Let alone marching, chanting Nazi slogans and the like. It’s a mania.
Reminds me of the play by Eugene Ionesco, “Rhinoceros”–eventually will it come down to the few sane people being gaslit as the crazies? It’s certainly trending that way.
The Istanbulian says
Jokes on them – it’s really for Kurdistan
rick says
The colors of that flag are the exact same for the nation of Jordan. Jordan, which was also a part of the Palestine Mandate has a majority population of Palestinians, many relatives of people on the so called “west bank”. Jordan is Arab Palestine. So in a strange way this meaningless political exercise by British journalists to support Hamas and other terrorists does admit that the proper home for these people is Jordan, which is the Arab Palestine.
Peni Elika says
United kingdom of isalam. How stupid and low can you go?. the once mighty British empire has now being reduced to Little britain with muslims as their masters.
Andrew Blackadder says
Im old enough to remember when BBC TV and Radio were respected around the entire World as I have seen and heard it broadcast in various languages in whatever country I was in.
Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, South East Asia, Far East Asia, Central America and of course various European Nations…
Now the BBC is about as reliable as CNN.
James Lincoln says
According to the feature article:
“UK: National Union of Journalists Tells Members to Wear Colors of Palestinian Flag or a Keffiyeh”
It would be as if NPR so-called “journalists” were told to wear Democrat donkey symbols.