BBC reporter under fire for saying Netanyahu ‘played Holocaust card’
Jeremy Bowen rebuts as ‘untrue and offensive’ criticism that his comments had anti-Semitic undertones
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A BBC reporter vehemently denied accusations Thursday that a tweet he composed a day earlier regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s US Congress speech had anti-Semitic undertones.
Jeremy Bowen, who covered the Israeli leader’s controversial address on Iran in Washington, tweeted that the leader had mentioned Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, then added that Netanyahu had once again played “the Holocaust card.”
The tweet was immediately slammed by Jewish groups and social media users across the board.
“Mr Bowen’s idea is that when an Israeli leader mentions the Holocaust he is being tricksy, manipulative, acting in bad faith, ‘playing a card’ to get narrow advantage in contemporary politics, not really expressing a genuine thought about the Holocaust itself or a genuine fear about a second, nuclear, Holocaust,” Alan Johnson wrote on the Jewish Chronicle website.
#NetanyahuSpeech He acknowledges Elie Wiesel in audience. Once again Netanyahu plays the holocaust card. don't repeat mistakes of the past
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) March 3, 2015
“To sneer and attack… [Netanyahu], to dismiss his words as ‘playing the Holocaust card’; well, it was a bloody disgrace,” Johnson concluded.
Bowen, on his part, claimed the accusations against him were unfounded.
“Have been reading some recent tweets sent my way. Suggestions I’m an anti-Semite, or a denier of the Holocaust, are untrue and offensive,” Bowen later tweeted.
The BBC also responded to Bowen’s comments, asserting that the reporter had used journalism shorthand whilst live-tweeting Netanyahu’s speech.
“The context of his comment is that a major part of PM Netanyahu’s critique of the proposed Iran deal was based on the specter of another Holocaust,” a BBC statement read, according to the Guardian.
“Jeremy [Bowen]’s tweet was designed to reflect that context. He absolutely refutes any suggestion of anti-Semitism.”
Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, announced his support for Netanyahu’s Congressional address on Iran’s nuclear program ahead of the event.
The Israeli prime minister addressed the US Congress on Tuesday, having last month accepted an invitation from Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the speaker of the US House of Representatives, although Boehner had not cleared the invitation with President Barack Obama or Democrats in Congress.
The Times of Israel Community.