Mick Hartley

From the Telegraph:

A study of BBC headlines since the Oct 7 attacks has found three times more were critical of Israel than of Hamas.

According to research by a media monitoring group, references to Hamas committing possible war crimes appeared once in the broadcaster’s coverage, while those featuring claims of Israeli genocide, famine and starvation appeared 45 times.

The study of BBC News UK headlines used since the terror group’s attacks on Israel in 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza, found that 11 per cent were critical of Hamas, while more than a third (35 per cent) appeared to be critical of Israel.

We knew this was happening, of course, but it’s good to have the evidence.

Hadar Sela, of Camera UK, said: “For two years, BBC News headlines have displayed an almost naive acceptance of any claim made by Hamas, while treating statements made by Israel with the utmost scepticism. Such blatant bias has helped fuel a surge in anti-Semitism within the UK and turned Britain into a hostile environment for the Jewish community.”

The study examined all 2,542 headlines about the Gaza conflict published on BBC News UK between Oct 7, 2023 and Oct 7, 2025. It found that just one focused on a spate of brutal public executions by Hamas, while 33 headlines in two months carried claims that Israeli forces killed civilians as they sought food from Gaza aid sites.

Camera claims that Israel has been repeatedly accused by the BBC of using aid as a weapon of war, with the word “starving” or “starvation” appearing 21 times in headlines, the word “famine” 10 times and “war crimes” six. The words “genocide” or “genocidal” appeared in headlines 14 times.

The study found that Hamas fighters were referred to in headlines as “militants” and “gunmen” rather than terrorists. Camera found only one headline referring to “war crimes” by Hamas and just six about the rape and sexual violence carried out by its fighters on Oct 7 and against captured hostages.

The bias goes right back to October 7th.

On Oct 8, 2023, BBC News headlines included “How Hamas staged attack no one thought possible” and “Gaza hospital deluged as Israel retaliation kills and wounds hundreds”.

Ms Sela said: “News headlines, of course, are not the whole of the story but they do give a sense of the main focus of an article.

“It is clear from our analysis that just one month after those horrific Hamas atrocities, the focus for BBC News had quickly shifted to holding Israel to account. Since then, we have seen the constant promotion of anti-Israel narratives over impartial reporting in these headlines.

“In contrast, the evidence that Hamas filmed and put out for the world to see – evidence of hundreds of young festival-goers brutally murdered, whole families living in kibbutzim being slaughtered, of hostages dragged from friends or relatives to the hell of the Hamas terror tunnels to be starved and beaten – they feature far less in headlines.

“For every one headline that is critical of Hamas, there are three that hold Israel to account.”

While every news bulletin form Hamas went straight onto BBC headlines.

Danny Cohen, the former Director of BBC Television, said: “These statistics are shocking but also unsurprising when you consider the influence of BBC Arabic, the BBC’s most toxic open secret.

“No other newsroom in Britain would tolerate this. Yet the BBC consistently denies BBC Arabic has a systemic problem and the channel continues to be relied upon as a news-gathering service for the wider BBC.

“The absence of transparency about the BBC’s failures is deepening the anguish of British Jews and feeding the increasingly hostile atmosphere they face in this country. It is impossible to ignore the link between what dominates our news feeds and the climate on our streets.”

The BBC sets the tone for news reporting in the UK. This has been a huge failure on their part.

The JC covers this, for a non-paywalled view,