BBC Accused of "Gross Historical Ignorance" in Syria Reporting

The BBC has been accused of “gross historical ignorance” after it said that Syria’s Jews “want to believe they have a space now” following the collapse of Assad’s Government at the hands of an Islamist insurgency. The truth, says Danny Cohen in the Telegraph, is that after decades of hostility there are just three Jews left in the entire country. Here’s an excerpt.

This week the BBC has been reporting live from Syria as the wretched Assad regime collapsed. It is not clear yet whether Syria is destined for a democratic future or will fall prey to jihadists previously affiliated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

It seems though that the BBC is optimistic. Reporting live from Damascus, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet said the following: ‘‘This is one of the most diverse countries in the Middle East with multiple Christian and Muslim sects. And you can see it here in the Old City, all the different Quarters – Jewish, Muslim, Christian. They’re all here. They want to believe they have a space now as Syria embarks on this new chapter.”

For anyone with the slightest knowledge of the 20th century history of Jewish people in the Arab world, this statement is both ignorant and offensive.

There are believed to be three Jews left in Syria. That’s right, three Jews. The rest fled for their lives. After Syria gained independence from France in 1946, Jewish people and their property were repeatedly targeted. In 1947, the Syrian Government organised and encouraged Arab inhabitants of Aleppo to attack Jews. Pogroms followed. Synagogues, Jewish schools and orphanages were destroyed. From that point on it was clear that Jews were not welcome in Syria. The community fled to Israel and elsewhere and now there are just those three Jews left in the whole country.

The same is true across the Middle East. Vibrant Jewish communities across the region were forced out in the 20th century. Between 1948 and the early 1970s, more than 850,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes in Arab countries, some in events of mass expulsion. They became refugees in a region overwhelmingly hostile to Jews.

One wonders whether the thousands attending anti-Israel marches in London have any idea that Jews were forced en masse to abandon their homes across the Arab world and flee to Israel. It seems like many of these ‘anti-Zionists’ simply do not understand that Israel was established as a tiny strip of land in which Jewish people hoped to feel safe from their racist enemies, whether they be Arab states or European dictators.

Worth reading in full.

Journalists and activists do often seem to have no real idea how small Israel is. This country the size of Wales is the only Jewish state in the world, while Arabs occupy vast regions of land, including many well beyond their historic homeland. Yet Jewish people it appears are not even to be allowed to occupy such a meagre sliver of land in peace and security. They are constantly told they must share it with hostile populations in contorted political arrangements in no way conducive to maintaining secure borders. This is why the suspicion is always that the ‘anti-Zionists’ will only be truly happy when there is no state of Israel at all. If Jews aren’t even to be allowed a state the size of Vermont to call their own, that must be because only no state at all will do.