Author and professor Matt Goodwin scolded the BBC live, on the air over the network’s decision not to label Hamas as “terrorists” Monday.
Goodwin was on the BBC’s “Politics Live” when he became infuriated during a conversation about people who sympathize with Palestinians and the way British Jews have been treated since Hamas launched its deadly terror attacks on Israel.
“I can’t remember a time in my life when I felt more ashamed by our national debate, and our country, as I have over the last week. I’ve tried to imagine how I would feel if I was a British Jew. We have a national broadcaster, the BBC, unable to call a Nazi-inspired, ISIS-inspired terrorist group ‘terrorists,’” Goodwin said.
“We have the same broadcaster investigating BBC Arabic journalists for expressing sympathy for Hamas, we have the institutions of our national community, like Wembley Stadium, showing the rainbow flag to protest against Qatar, but not showing the colors of Israel in solidarity,” he continued. “And we have the universities, where I work, a few years ago fall over themselves to express solidarity with George Floyd, and what happened centuries ago in America, but are unable to issue the same condemnation of what has happened in Israel.”
Goodwin went on to say that anti-Israeli protesters and anyone who glorifies terrorism should be “treated the same way as supporters of ISIS.”
Last week, BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson published a piece explaining the BBC’s decision not to label Hamas as terrorists.
“Terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys,” he wrote.
“We regularly point out that the British and other governments have condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization, but that’s their business. We also run interviews with guests and quote contributors who describe Hamas as terrorists,” Simpson continued. “The key point is that we don’t say it in our voice. Our business is to present our audiences with the facts, and let them make up their own minds.”
Goodwin’s website suggests his mission is “to help people make sense of, navigate, and respond to a political and cultural revolution which is sweeping through Western societies.”
Freelance journalist Noah Abrahams recently said he wouldn’t work with the BBC going forward because of the decision not to call Hamas “terrorists.”
“I have morals and I stick by them. I think the words ‘justified’ and ‘unjustified’ have been thrown around a lot since the weekend and I think the BBC’s refusal to use the correct terminology is unjustified,” Abrahams told Peter Cardwell on TalkTV.
“Words, quite literally, are fundamental to the English language. They impact how we think, how we react, how we act. They have influence, the phrase ‘freedom fighter’ distracts from the reality of terrorism,” he continued. “To those easily influenced, it implies what is not. These people aren’t freedom fighters… they are terrorists.”
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