Great letter from the great anti-Zionist Jewish scholar Dr Ephraim Nimni, http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentrefortheStudyofEthnicConflict/Staff/Nimni/

Dear BBC

Your coverage in the World at One BBC radio 4 today 29th July 2018 is  an affront to freedom of speech and an anti-Semitic offense to the many Jews that do not support Zionism, as well as a serious breach of the BBC Charter.

Your reporter showed complete ignorance of the use of the terms “Zion” “Zionism” and “antisemitism” When you present a biased point of view, you are obliged by the BBC Charter to also air the opposite Jewish point of view. I refer to the Jewish view, orthodox and secular, that rejects Zionism as part of Judaism
For the information of your ignorant Journalist. The term Zionism was coined in the late nineteen century and has nothing to do with the long history of the Jewish people. Political Zionism is not an ethnicity nor a religious term but a nationalist political ideology. As such it can be challenged, and on occasions called racist by Jews and others. To call Jews that challenge Zionism as racism as “anti-Semites” is itself an act of antisemitism, which the BBC is guilty of. Furthermore, by ignoring the fundamental fact that there is a plurality of Jewish opinions on Israel, and that a significant number of Jews for religious and secular reasons reject the idea of Jewish state, you are seriously contravening the BBC charter by not providing impartial information.

For example, the ultra-orthodox Jewish group the “Naturei Karta” every year, burns the Israeli flag during the Jewish festivity of Purim. To accuse these God Fearing Jews of antisemitism is not only a travesty but an act of antisemitism itself. See:
http://www.nkusa.org/Abou…/Zionism/judaism_isnot_zionism.cfm
AND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz4-r6Xen4c
This not to condone burning of flags which I oppose, but simply to show that there is a plurality of Jewish views on Israel and Zionism. To call Anti-Semites those Jews who deny the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state, is totalitarian, preposterous and anti-Semitic.

Another example, This is a prominent secular Jewish organization that calls Israel an Apartheid State.
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

More to the point, here you have a Jewish organization in the UK and a large number of Jews that condemn the actions of the pro Zionist Jewish UK newspapers on the Labour party.
https://ijv.org.uk/2018/07/26/not-in-our-name/
They also say:
We urge our governments, municipalities, universities and other institutions to reject the IHRA definition and instead take effective measures to defeat white supremacist nationalist hate and violence and to end complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. Israel does not represent us <Jews> and cannot speak for us when committing crimes against Palestinians and denying their UN-stipulated rights.
https://ijv.org.uk/…/global-jewish-organizations-condemn-a…/

See also the debate below
https://www.theguardian.com/…/antisemitism-ihra-definition-…
The IHRA definition of Antisemitism has been challenged in numerous occasions because it wrongly includes the criticism of Israel as a form of antisemitism. This is a serious matter because the two are not related and it shields Israel for the gross violations of human rights and it is systemic discrimination of its non-Jewish citizens, which constitute 24% of the population of the State of Israel.
The senior Israeli journalist of the liberal newspaper Haaretz, Yossi Klein argues that “Israel Uses Diaspora Jews as Human Shields” he says Israel is a danger to the world’s Jews. It calls itself their protector, but doesn’t care about the consequences for them of its actions. Jews abroad pay the price of hostility to Israel.
Following your disastrous program the BBC Charter REQUIRES YOU TO INTERVIEW SOMEONE THAT HOLDS THE OPPOSING POINT OF VIEW. You are therefore obliged by the Charter of the Corporation to interview someone like your professional colleague Mr Yossi Klein, of the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz. SEE:
https://www.haaretz.com/…/.premium-israel-uses-diaspora-jew…

On the IHRA definition of antisemitism See the opinion of the distinguished Jewish Barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC.
http://freespeechonisrael.org.uk/ihra-opinion/…
and
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/hugh-tomlinson-ihra/

For all the above, you are required by the Charter of BBC to air the opposing point of view from the biased and badly research program presented today 29 July at the Radio 4 World at One.

Dr Ephraim Nimni