The Jerusalem Post reports the BBC refuses to remove an antisemitic posting from one of its web boards.

The offensive message, left by someone using the alias “Iron Naz,” reads: “Zionism is a racist ideology where jews [sic] are given supremacy over all other races and faiths. This is found in the Talmud. There is a law called Baba Mezia which allows jews to lie as long as its to non-jews. Many pro jewish supporters will cringe at this being exposed because they know it exists, yet they keep quiet about it, hey frip, jla and co [the aliases of other people taking part in the discussion]. The Law of Baba Mezia!! Tsk tsk tsk! It’s in the Talmud.”

A Post reporter called the BBC and received this response.

A BBC Radio spokesman told The Jerusalem Post: “The Radio Five Live message board is a forum of debate and people can express their views, some of which others will strongly disagree with. The complaint was brought to the attention of our moderators who looked into the issue and concluded that the post was not one that merited removal from the site as it was not felt to have breached the message board house rules. A guide to the house rules is found on the Five Live message board. Posts that are removed include ones that are considered likely to disrupt, provoke attack or offend others or are considered racist, homophobic, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable.”

Excuse me while I vomit.

Somebody from the Jewish community in England is quoted saying there are legal steps which can be taken against the BBC over this but I won’t hold my breath. Even if they sue, it’ll be years before they win and if they lose, the situation will become worse.

Mentioned in the article is an antisemitic book about the Talmud.

Anti-Semitic attacks using the Talmud were the basis of the classic anti-Semitic publication entitled The Talmud Unmasked, written at the end of the 19th century by Father Justin Praniatis. The anti-Semitic Russian Catholic priest gave evidence at the infamous Menahem Mendel Beilis blood libel trial in Kiev in 1913.

Praniatis argued that the Talmud advocated ritual murder, but he was shown by Jewish and Christian scholars to be a charlatan with no knowledge of the Talmud. While Beilis was found innocent, the influence of Praniatis’s work has spread beyond Imperial Russia. Today, The Talmud Unmasked is distributed by neo-Nazi booksellers via the Internet.

Sometimes, I wonder if this is how things started in 1933. This is the BBC, not some neo-Nazi rag or internet site. Maybe Muffti should do a Site of the Weak expose on the BBC.

About the author

themiddle

27 Comments

  • Iron Naz’s statement does not seem to be so inflammatory, just another opinion from the other side. I respect the BBC’s decision to not remove it. F*ck censorship.

  • i too say fuck censorship. deciding what stays and what goes is a very slippery slope.

  • Censorship isn’t the issue. As outlined above, the BBC has a policy for removing what it judges to be hateful and offensive postings on its bbs. And yet in their infinite wisdom did not see this as fitting within that criteria.

  • Adam has it right. They censor comments “that are considered likely to disrupt, provoke attack or offend others or are considered racist, homophobic, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable.”

  • If the BBC took a completely hands-off approach to posts, fine, but their own rules exclude certain kinds of comments. I say put ’em to the test: Let’s have Middle post modest, reasonable criticisms of Islam (the home-grown, Brit version, say), and we’ll see what happens.

  • Nobody’s afraid of insulting Jews. We don’t cut people’s heads off when we get mad at them.

    Muslims do, though. That’s why that comment will stay up and anti-Mislim ones will be deleted.

    Since the BBC already has a censorship policy, I think they could be sued for slander or defamation by allowing a comment which is demonstrably false to remain on their site.

  • I really dont like it when someone says something is “anti-semetic”, that really means he/she is ignorant and doesn’t have an arguement.

    I applaud the BBC as usual.

  • Apartheid, I’m practicly shaking in my boots waiting for you to explain you logic…

  • its pretty self explanitory.. i cant type hebrew so..

    but i’m just saying.. when a jew says someone else is an “anti-semite” that means they are stupid and ignorant and dont have an argument. It means they want to ignore the facts and attack the person who is giving the facts. He may be giving the facts honestly, and attacking the person is usually what the jews say to end a discussion.

    we always pick on people calling them “anti-semetic”.

  • Adam, I cannot find anything particularly hateful in “Iron Naz’s” comment. Controversial, yes, but it’s hard to label as hate. His comment is just appropriate enough to keep online, and better combated with counterpoint from other readers than complete removal.

  • Ok, we can agree to disagree on the hate portion…but…the Beeb’s own guidelines say that they will take away comments that are designed to “provoke” “attack” or “offend.” Certainly the post satisfies all three of those categories?

  • Yes, that’s pretty horrible, inflamatory stuff, designed to provoke physical attacks on people. The Beeb should be ashamed of itself and has sunk to new depths of moral bankruptcy. I have listed to the Beeb almost daily for 21 years. I have their page as my home page. I am removing that home page and will never listen to them again. They are as objective as Fox News. And to think the British taxpayer is forced by the collectivists to pay for this crap.

  • Too little, too late.They’ve lost me forever. Let’s start boycotting the BBC now they’ve descended to the level of a neo-Nazi rag. Remember what Churchill said, “Have no contact with the Nazi!” Scratch a commie, find a Jew-hater. Time to start taping over those old Glenda Jackson movies, the ones that I taped over the old Vanessa Redgrave movies. Oh well, there’s always Radio Austraiylia.

  • Paul, “designed to provoke physical attacks on people”? I’m sorry, I’m just not understanding where this is coming from. Perhaps you can point out what you find so inflammatory and offensive?

  • Ever hear of inciting to riot? I suggest you try placing yourself in the midst of a pogrom to get a realistic feel for it. England is selling out to the racists, but they will have a brain and capital drain. Time to short the pound? But then they did just jail 4 racists for terms of as long as six years for trying to get people to murder innocent women and children on the streets of England. And they did outlaw fox hunting while the sadistic governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, just re-legalized the hunting of cougars with packs of dogs. Yeah, I love England.

  • I understand how it may be a sensitive issue, Paul, but, oddly enough, your comments about England seem as inciting and hateful, if not more so, than “Iron Naz’s” statement about Zionism.

  • How can my compliments on England be inciting and hateful? I am pointing out characteristics of British greatness, — its love of animals, it’s willingness to jail people for long terms for inciting to riot, which is the same as attempted first degree murder. When I say England has sold out to the racists, I refer to the British government, because the BBC is an official government organ, and if such racism, designed to defame, slander and ultimately cause violence is permitted on a government funded website, it is a very grave matter indeed. This is not a minor issue to be forgotton. It is very serious.

  • “Wow, Apartheid, when do you graduate high school?”

    Big assumption there, TM. Hopefully anyone who would make such a clearly uninformed comment has yet to enter high school.

    Jewish Robot, this is not “hate”?

    “Zionism is a racist ideology where jews [sic] are given supremacy over all other races and faiths. This is found in the Talmud.”

    It’s obvious that if someone posted a similar comment about Islam:

    Islamism is a terrorist ideology where Muslims are given superiority over all other people and faiths. This is found in the Koran.

    it would be removed after numerous howls about Islamophobia. For some reason though, it’s all good to denigrate the Jewish people.

  • Rest assured, this is not how things started in 1933 (not that it made the past brighter, au contraire!). If you read good history books and sources, you’d know that open antisemitism has a long tradition not only in Germany, but all over Europe. 1933 was when antisemitism moved more than one level onwards, with willing collaborators all over Europe.
    How much do you actually know about antisemitism in 19th century Germany, and how this is tied to 1933?

  • Nothing seems to be easier than seeing someone whom you can help but not helping.
    I suggest we start giving it a try. Give love to the ones that need it.
    God will appreciate it.

  • I’m the only one in this world. Can please someone join me in this life? Or maybe death…

  • Instead of telling us dumb gentiles about the state of your digestion, how about some serious, documented refutation of Naz’s allegations about the Babylonian Talmud and the sanction for lying to the goyim?

    You know: facts, evidence, rabbinical interpretations… alll thatscholarly stuff.

    Sheesh, you have enough guys squinting at the old books all day, arguing about what they really, really mean and avoiding military service in the process.

    When all we hear are endless, tedious squeals about 1933 and antisemitism out of the Hasbara playbook, we begin to wonder if ole Naz might not have touched a raw nerve.

    Sometimes the facts are against Jews as well as the prejudices. Show us why they’re not in this case.

  • No, Nilsson, we won’t. There’s no need to because only idiots and haters actually believe that shit. Which are you?

    Oh, and I’ve never read the “hasbara playbook.” I read somebody’s idiotic, hateful comments based on prejudice and ignorance and posted about it. You shine your ignorance about Zionism by justifying “Naz’s” comments.