First broadcast on 16th September 2009.
Have now received a response from the BBC on my complaint about episode 2, from un unrepentant programme production assistant. Predictably as night follows day, it failed to answer the complaints made merely repeating the background given in my complaint, than adding a load of was full of mealy mouthed pointlessness not worth disclosing.
Therefore I’ve asked for the complaint to be escalated to the next stage I will however and publish any substantive reply I do get.
Now onto episode 4.
Another lamentable effort from the BBC.
In this episode we see among other things the evermore irritating Kate Humble crossing the border from Jordan into Israel anticipating a brutal beating by border sentries with horns sticking out of their heads, wielding huge tridents , guarding the hell hole she is expecting to enter. Instead, she finds the Israeli border officials are just as pleasant as their Jordanian counterparts.
Now in Israel, the producers use their opportunity to portray it as a country inhabited entirely by bearded religious zealots, filling their week with bizarre rituals, where men and women live segregated lives and who have nothing but contempt for outsiders.
The program does this by focusing on the ultra-orthodox minority, completely ignoring the vast majority of Israelis who live largely secular lives. Joseph Goebells could not have done better.
We see the presenter checking into an Eilat hotel. She appears to have booked a room in a hotel specialising in providing hospitality ultra-orthodox Jews, rather than the usual tourist or business hotel. Sshe has arrived just before the start of Shabbat (Sabbath), about which she appears completely ignorant. We are put through rather embarrassing scenes where a fanatical Rabbi shows her the convoluted way how the lift and coffee machines operate to enable using them on Shabbat, without it constituting “work”. The rabbi, who refused to shake her hands, shows her a synagogue in the hotel where woman are kept separated and screened off from male worshippers.
Eventually, Kate Humble maker her way to “Jerusalem for Jews, the Place where God created the world.” This statement is clearly nonsensical. It is a logical impossibility. I don’t have much Jewish knowledge. I struggled through my Bar-mitzvah 31 years ago and since then have preferred to avoid any place of religious worship, be it synagogue, mosque, ashram or church. However, I do know that the main significance of Jerusalem in Judaism that it was the capital of the first Jewish state under King David in the 10th Century BC. It is also the place where some Jews believe the messiah will appear.
Next we are told that the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 B.C. In fact, they did so in 70 A.D. If they’d done so when then Kate Humble thinks they, did, the usurers wouldn’t have been there to annoy Jesus.
She then goes onto meet another fanatical fundamentalist Rabbi, who wants to built a Third Temple in Jerusalem following where he believes the exact lines of the second temple. Such a construction would entail the destruction of the Dome on the Rock and would therefore be seen as an affront to Muslims.
In the last part of the program she goes to the West Bank and meets a Palestinian Journalist who is give a free opportunity to explain what is wrong with the Israel-West Bank barrier, called in the program, the separation barrier. For Israelis, it is a security barrier. This unfinished wall provokes strong emotions among sympathisers of both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, whilst the Palestinian journalist was given several minutes of airtime, to vent his grievances against the barrier and other matters, no attempt at balance was given. The program failed to give any corresponding airtime to an Israeli (journalist).
The program therefore entirely lacks balance. It portrays Jews in negative religious stereotype and Israelis as the villains in the Arab Israeli conflict.
Friday 18 September 2009
Friday 4 September 2009
Complaint to the BBC about antisemitism in a programme. – The Frankincense Trail episode 2
First broadcast on 3rd September 2009 on BBC at 20:00.
In the program, the presenter, Kate humble stated as historical fact that in 524 ce a Jewish tribe massacred more than 20,000 peaceful Christians in a pit of fire, the entire populace of a city in the Arabian desert. (1)
In the early part of the 6th Century convert called Zar’a Yusuf, known also as Dhu Nuwas (a reference to his curly hair) became a Jewish tribal leader. He prosecuted wars to drive the Aksumite Ethiopians from Arabia. (2). According to some medieval historians he announced he would persecute Christians living in his Kingdom as revenge forthe persecution of Jews in Christian states
His rule lasted until between 525 to 530 ce. There is a contemporary letter by a Christian, Simon bishop of Beth Ashram recounting Dhu Nuwas’ persecution in Najran. Different accounts claim up to 20,000 Christians were killed (2). However some historians believe that the death toll was as low as 340 (3)
The BBC and Kate Humble presented false unproven, misleading, offensive and anti-semitic claims as follows:
1. It is not true that more than 20,000 Christians were killed. The number could have been as few as 340.
2. The narrative implies that a Jewish tribe was responsible for the killing of innocents. If there was a massacre, the responsibility lay with one man, their leader, who was a convert to Judaism and was not ethnically Jewish. The narrative fails even to mention the chief protagonist.
3. The narrative fails to put the massacre into perspective, that perspective being the persecution of Jews by Christians in other parts of the region.
4. The narrative fails to point out that Talmudic Jewish teaching condemns proselytizing by Jews. This is essential for putting the event into context as it shows that the massacre if it took place in name of the Jewish religion was perversion of Judaism.
5. The historical evidence for the event is thin.
6. As a consequence the program is libelous and encourages anti-Semitic beliefs and verbal or physical attacks against Jews.
The BBC should ensure that before the program is re-broadcast anywhere worldwide by itself or other broadcaster. Appropriate edits are made to correct the distortions.
The BBC should apologise publicly to the Jewish community in the UK and throughout the world, for the misleading and damaging narrative.
(1) 19 minutes and 40 seconds into the program the presenter Kate Humble narrates the following:
Beyond the Dunes was a welcome respite from the barren wilderness, a city built on the profits of the frankincense trade, known today as old Najran there are its ruins. This would have been the gates to the old city and 1,500 years ago any of the cameleers who reached this point must have done so with a huge sense of relief because they’d just completed the toughest most unforgiving section of the route and to get here must have felt like arriving at nirvana.
In front to all these buildings here would have been the homes of rich merchants. The streets would have been cool and shady, full of tradesmen and markets all cashing in on those giant camel caravans from the south. The city was built before the advent of Christianity and Islam and ancient pagan symbols adorn many of the buildings. Its strategic position on the frankincense trails made it a target for religious missionaries and for raiders.
For hundreds of years this was a peaceful Christian city but a Jewish Himjarite tribe from Yemen changed its fortunes forever.
There is a legendary city mentioned in the Qur’an called Al-Ukhdud and some Saudi experts believe this may have been it and if it was the Scene in 524 AD of the most horrific massacre.
The city was besieged and the Christian citizens given the most horrendous choice:
Convert to Judaism or die. They chose death and over 20,000 of the perished in a pit of fire.
(2) http://wapedia.mobi/en/Yemenite_Jew, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhu_Nuwas
(3) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=319&letter=D
In the program, the presenter, Kate humble stated as historical fact that in 524 ce a Jewish tribe massacred more than 20,000 peaceful Christians in a pit of fire, the entire populace of a city in the Arabian desert. (1)
In the early part of the 6th Century convert called Zar’a Yusuf, known also as Dhu Nuwas (a reference to his curly hair) became a Jewish tribal leader. He prosecuted wars to drive the Aksumite Ethiopians from Arabia. (2). According to some medieval historians he announced he would persecute Christians living in his Kingdom as revenge forthe persecution of Jews in Christian states
His rule lasted until between 525 to 530 ce. There is a contemporary letter by a Christian, Simon bishop of Beth Ashram recounting Dhu Nuwas’ persecution in Najran. Different accounts claim up to 20,000 Christians were killed (2). However some historians believe that the death toll was as low as 340 (3)
The BBC and Kate Humble presented false unproven, misleading, offensive and anti-semitic claims as follows:
1. It is not true that more than 20,000 Christians were killed. The number could have been as few as 340.
2. The narrative implies that a Jewish tribe was responsible for the killing of innocents. If there was a massacre, the responsibility lay with one man, their leader, who was a convert to Judaism and was not ethnically Jewish. The narrative fails even to mention the chief protagonist.
3. The narrative fails to put the massacre into perspective, that perspective being the persecution of Jews by Christians in other parts of the region.
4. The narrative fails to point out that Talmudic Jewish teaching condemns proselytizing by Jews. This is essential for putting the event into context as it shows that the massacre if it took place in name of the Jewish religion was perversion of Judaism.
5. The historical evidence for the event is thin.
6. As a consequence the program is libelous and encourages anti-Semitic beliefs and verbal or physical attacks against Jews.
The BBC should ensure that before the program is re-broadcast anywhere worldwide by itself or other broadcaster. Appropriate edits are made to correct the distortions.
The BBC should apologise publicly to the Jewish community in the UK and throughout the world, for the misleading and damaging narrative.
(1) 19 minutes and 40 seconds into the program the presenter Kate Humble narrates the following:
Beyond the Dunes was a welcome respite from the barren wilderness, a city built on the profits of the frankincense trade, known today as old Najran there are its ruins. This would have been the gates to the old city and 1,500 years ago any of the cameleers who reached this point must have done so with a huge sense of relief because they’d just completed the toughest most unforgiving section of the route and to get here must have felt like arriving at nirvana.
In front to all these buildings here would have been the homes of rich merchants. The streets would have been cool and shady, full of tradesmen and markets all cashing in on those giant camel caravans from the south. The city was built before the advent of Christianity and Islam and ancient pagan symbols adorn many of the buildings. Its strategic position on the frankincense trails made it a target for religious missionaries and for raiders.
For hundreds of years this was a peaceful Christian city but a Jewish Himjarite tribe from Yemen changed its fortunes forever.
There is a legendary city mentioned in the Qur’an called Al-Ukhdud and some Saudi experts believe this may have been it and if it was the Scene in 524 AD of the most horrific massacre.
The city was besieged and the Christian citizens given the most horrendous choice:
Convert to Judaism or die. They chose death and over 20,000 of the perished in a pit of fire.
(2) http://wapedia.mobi/en/Yemenite_Jew, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhu_Nuwas
(3) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=319&letter=D
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