The BBC is facing a fresh crisis as more than 200 Jewish staff accused the corporation's Board of 'ignoring' their calls for an anti-Semitism probe at the broadcaster. According to Mail Online, more than 200 Jewish staff, including contractors, suppliers, and contributors, wrote to BBC chairman Samir Shah in July 2024 asking for an urgent formal investigation by the BBC Board into 'systemic problems of anti-Semitism and bias at the BBC, alongside senior management's demonstrable failure to properly address the issue'. Attached to the letter was a report titled 'Being Jewish and working at the BBC' which included testimony from staff who argued the corporation was no longer 'a safe space to be Jewish'. The same staff members wrote again to the BBC Board on Friday, accusing it of ignoring their pleas and offering 'words not action' after a gap of more than a year. Current and former Jewish staff including producer Leo Pearlman, former ITV head of entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz, former BBC executive Danny Cohen, and present employees are signatories to the letter. They said: 'Despite being presented with documentary evidence of an anti-Jewish bias within the BBC, among BBC news and current affairs specifically, this basic request went unheeded. 'We are still a minority with a simple entreaty to the BBC Board: the BBC's repeatedly substantiated anti-Jewish racism has now been 'Called Out' who will be held accountable?' A representative for the signatories told the Mail: 'We drew all this to the BBC's attention over a year ago and since then we continue as Jews to be ignored, gaslit and at worst smeared as a 'lobby'. 'We have been told that the BBC was committed to impartiality and fairness and yet this is demonstrably not the case. 'The BBC needs to live up to its values. This would never happen to any other minority. 'It is racism. The BBC has failed to deal with this fundamental problem from the very top. 'We are calling for real action and accountability, not more hollow words.' It follows allegations in an internal report, written by a former editorial adviser Michael Prescott, that the BBC had a systemic anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the Gaza conflict. Tory leader Mrs Badenoch told the Daily Mail: 'It is indefensible that the BBC ignored complaints of anti-Semitism and bias from more than 200 of its own staff and contributors for nearly 18 months. 'This is a shameful failure of leadership. These were not isolated errors. They were repeated editorial failures under the supervision of [CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs] Deborah Turness. 'Turness has presided over multiple serious editorial failures, from the Panorama 'fake news' documentary on President Trump, to the Gaza broadcast that repeated Hamas propaganda. 'The BBC's duty is to report truthfully and impartially, not to provide cover for extremists or smear Israel with falsehoods. A public service broadcaster cannot allow anti-Semitism or bias to infect its journalism. 'The BBC Board must now intervene to restore trust and ensure that accountability begins where the failures occurred in BBC news itself.'
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