BBC reveals half-hearted stance on bigotry as top UK comedian remains unrepentant at “angry Jew” slur

Robin Shepherd
robinshepherdonline.com
02 May '10

I have written many times about the BBC’s softball approach to the rampant anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world. But what happens when it gushes forth from a source closer to home? The saga surrounding top British comedian Frankie Boyle, who on a BBC radio show said Palestine was like “a big cake… being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew”, is sadly illustrative of everything that is going on in Britain both at the BBC itself and throughout the country’s cultural elites.

Now, there are two substantive elements to this story: Frankie Boyle’s views on Israel and the Jews; and the nature of the BBC’s response to them which came last week. First Boyle’s views on Israel and the Jews. I will let him speak for himself.

This is another remark he made during the same show which was first broadcast in 2008: “‘I’ve been studying Israeli Army martial arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.” And here is a selection of remarks he made in an open letter to the BBC published yesterday in which he protests against the BBC Trust’s apology (more about which in a moment) for his use of the word Jew.

“I think the problem here,” he said, “is that the show’s producers will have thought that Israel, an aggressive, terrorist state with a nuclear arsenal was an appropriate target for satire. The Trust’s ruling is essentially a note from their line managers. It says that if you imagine that a state busily going about the destruction of an entire people is fair game, you are mistaken. Israel is out of bounds.”

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