Israel supporters protest outside BBC over outlet’s refusal to label Hamas as terrorists

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the BBC’s headquarters in London on Monday night after they were upset over the news network’s refusal to refer to Hamas as terrorists.

The protest had been organized by the National Jewish Assembly, a nonprofit organization that supports Israel and opposes antisemitism. Many protesters were seen carrying Israeli flags, with at least one protester holding a sign that read, “BBC if the king can call Hamas terrorists so can you.”

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The BBC explained in an article that it does not refer to Hamas as a terrorist group because “terrorism is a loaded word” and that it is not up to the network to decide “who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.”

“Let us make it clear,” the NJA wrote on social media. “We aren’t here to harm anyone. We aren’t here to cause trouble. We are here to defend ourselves. We are here to get the BBC to do fair coverage of the war and call Hamas terrorists in their reports.”

The National Jewish Assembly said online that 1,500 protesters were present during its demonstration on Monday night. The nonprofit group has also shared an online petition asking the BBC to change its internal policy and refer to Hamas as a terrorist group. As of Tuesday morning, the petition has 39,272 signatures.

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The demonstration comes after the BBC issued an apology for its coverage of the pro-Palestinian protests in which the network said that the protesters were supporters of Hamas. The apology was both aired live on television and was posted to social media in a written form.

“Earlier we reported on some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the weekend,” read the statement from Maryam Moshiri, a chief BBC presenter. “We spoke about ‘several demonstrations across Britain during which people voiced their backing for Hamas.’ We accept this was poorly phrased and was a misleading description of the demonstrations.”

The statement was not enough for one BBC Radio journalist, who has since left the organization.

“I have morals and I stick by them,” Noah Abrahams said in an interview with Talk TV. “I don’t feel like I can stand by the BBC any longer with their stance on their terminology.”