BBC debate on whether Jews are an ethnic minority causes outrage

BBC debate on whether Jews are an ethnic minority causes outrage

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The BBC has been accused of bias in its coverage of Israel for decades. The public broadcaster is now being criticized by British Jews for coverage much closer to home.

What is causing your biggest dispute in years?

It is the broadcast of a debate about whether Jews should be considered an ethnic minority – a panel discussion with four non-Jewish panelists and a Jewish commentator as a guest.

Monday’s discussion touched the nerves of the organized community, where many Jews feel marginalized by the supposedly hostile treatment of the media and the rise of anti-Semitism from both the far right and the heart of the Labor Party.

The broadcast was prompted by comments made last month by Labor lawmaker Angela Rayner, who congratulated a Scottish lawmaker of Pakistani descent as “the first ethnic minority leader of a political party anywhere in the UK”

Some Jews protested on social media, noting that Jews led parties, from conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the 19th century to ex-labor leader Ed Miliband from 2010.

Whether or not to designate Jews as members of an ethnic group – a debate among the Jews themselves – has political and cultural implications. Many Jews and others consider Jews to be an ethnic entity cemented by culture, tradition and genetics. The late ex-chief rabbi of Great Britain, Jonathan Sacks, is famous for arguing, in contrast, that Judaism is not an ethnicity, but a “bricolage of multiple ethnicities”.

Others, including many anti-Zionists, refuse to acknowledge the popular dimension of Judaism, saying that Jews should be considered strictly as members of a religion. The definition of “ethnic” has implications for discrimination prevention laws, as well as for the courts of public opinion.

The BBC controversy echoes a debate in the United States about whether the majority of Jews should be considered white and therefore privileged, members of a vulnerable and protected minority, both or none.

On Monday, the UK’s largest news agency sought to address some of these issues during the television show “Politics Live!” Far from resolving the issue, however, the speech further angered leaders and members of the Jewish community at a time when many of them are suffering from growing anti-Semitism.

“Imagine if I were black and four white people were asked to judge whether I belonged to an ethnic minority. It would be so offensive, ”tweeted Benjamin Cohen, the Jewish guest. Cohen is the 38-year-old CEO of an online newspaper for the LGBT community.

The show’s host, Jo Coburn, who is Jewish, asked the four non-Jewish panelists – two lawmakers, a think tank leader and a newspaper columnist – if the Jews were indeed an ethnic minority. Lawmakers were evasive, with one of them, Labor’s Stewart Wood, saying that some of his Jewish friends are unsure of the answer. Cohen and the think tanker said that Jews do in fact form their own ethnic minority.

Coburn suggested that Rayner’s comments may reflect that many Jews in Britain have achieved high political positions and therefore “need not be seen as a group that needs recognition in the same way as others”.

This irritated Cohen’s feathers.

“We face anti-Semitism and racism very clearly,” Cohen told Coburn. “We have just seen this with the many years of racism and anti-Semitism within the Labor Party, so it suggests that Jews do not face racism and therefore we have reached a position so high that we are not an ethnic minority. It is downright ridiculous. Frankly, the notion of that debate is ridiculous. “

It was not the first debate in the UK about whether Jews are an ethnic minority and whether they benefit from the so-called privilege of whites.

A similar debate erupted in 2018 after a politician of Pakistani descent was again hailed as the first member of an ethnic minority to be appointed secretary of the interior – a position previously held by two Jews.

“Part of the complication is that we are seen primarily as a religion, rather than a race or ethnicity,” Abi Symons wrote in an opinion piece in The Jewish Chronicle at the time. “But another part of that is the perception of our privilege.”

Jews, she wrote, “pass for whites if that is their skin tone and, therefore, in the first physical impressions they carry the privileges associated with appearing to be part of the powerful majority”.

Jewish observers were prepared to distrust Rayner, a supporter of former labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, who supported a boycott of Israel and whose critics say it has allowed anti-Semitism to flourish within the labor ranks. Rayner also praised Norman Finkelstein’s controversial book, “The Holocaust Industry”, which accused Jews of exploiting genocide for personal and political gain. Rayner called it “seminal”.

The British Jewish Council of Deputies said in a statement on Monday that it was “disappointed by the lack of sensitivity shown by the BBC”.

The umbrella group added: “Jews, regardless of whether they are religious or not, are subjected to anti-Semitism every day – and have been subjected to mass murders, in living memory, based on their ethnicity. Our community must wait solidarity and support, not questions about whether we deserve any. ”

More than 1,000 people signed a petition entitled “BBC: Apologize now for suggesting that Jews may not ‘count’ as an ethnic minority.”

The BBC’s immediate response was to double the volume.

“According to the government – not Politics Live! – Jews are not an ethnic group in the UK. So, if you believe they should be, please tell the government what their policy is, ”the BBC’s editor of live political programs, Rob Burley, tweeted in response to critics.

Burley cited a government document that lists, for census purposes, several ethnic groups, but not Jews. However, the document does not say that Jews are not an ethnic minority. It also features five categories classified as “others” and a disclaimer saying that the list does not represent “how everyone identifies”, encouraging residents to write in their own ethnicity in official government documents.

The UK Home Office did not respond in time for this article to a question about whether Jews are an ethnic group.

The BBC’s program, wrote Stephen Pollard, editor of The Jewish Chronicle, “sparked genuine fury across the spectrum of Judaism,” and the corporation’s uncompromising reaction to criticism only made the situation worse.

Some wrote about how the program “reflects the false notion that Jews are ‘white’ and therefore cannot be a suitable ethnic minority – and therefore anti-Semitism is not appropriate racism,” said Pollard. “I’m sure you’re right. But there is something else at work here – an arrogant ignorance that does not tolerate contradictions and refuses to bow. ”

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