Panorama — Sins Of Omission

By Paddy French, originally published in Press Gang, May 04, 2026

Introduction by CAMPAIN

Paddy French is no stranger to contoversy over Panorama broadcasts. In this article, he discusses an episode where

Judith Moritz examines how abuse, intimidation and violence aimed at Jewish communities has become more widespread, leaving many British Jews feeling fearful and under threat.

French is quick to demolish Moritz's claim that one in five British Jews is considering leaving the UK for Israel over the next five years. In fact the numbers leaving are miniscule. He goes on to point to considerable tax-funded support for Jewish safety, far higher per capita that for that devoted to Muslims. He takes serious issue with a claim about the existence of so-called new antisemitism, a concept that has been recycled since the 1970s. He then points to Moritz misleadingly associating large numbers of peaceful people arrested simply for holding placards in support of Palestine Action with much smaller numbers arrested for allegedly antisemitic activities in pro-Palestian marches. He also draws attention to a background of extensive BBC anti-Muslim bias painstakingly documented by the Centre for Media Monitoring.

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Click the image to see the Panorama video

1. PANORAMA has returned to the subject of antisemitism in Britain

It follows its controversial 2019 programme on antisemitism in the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party.

The thrust of the latest programme is that increasing antisemitism is forcing one in five of Britain’s 300,000 strong Jewish community to consider leaving for Israel.

When two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green nine days later it seemed to confirm that analysis.

But the programme was plagued by a raft of omissions:

• it did not say that Britain is one of the safest places in the world for Jews

• it did not tell viewers that Britain invests heavily in protecting its Jewish community

• it did not say that the numbers actually leaving for Israel is minuscule and

• it misleadingly associated 3,500 peaceful holders of placards in support of Palestine Action with much smaller numbers arrested for allegedly antisemitic offences at demonstrations

One Muslim organisation says the Panorama programme reflects a hierarchy of racism embedded in BBC editorial culture consistently prioritising Jewish suffering over Muslim suffering.

2. Exodus?

ONE OF the key moments of the 28 minute film is a statement from reporter Judith Moritz.

She says:

A survey for the Institute for Jewish Policy Research suggests around one in five British Jews are thinking about leaving for Israel.

The viewer would take this as a reflection of just how serious the current level of antisemitism in Britain is. But Panorama could only achieve this effect by turning a blind eye to the conclusions of the report. They were that:

• there’s always been a substantial percentage of Jews who say they’re thinking about leaving for Israel but very few of them actually do so.

• that in 2025 just over two out of every thousand British Jews left for Israel.

The report’s author, Dr Jonathan Boyd, stated:

Given the fundamental Jewish connection with Israel … this is about as low and stable a picture as one can reasonably imagine …

He also said :

… for every one Jew leaving the UK, there has been one Israeli moving to the UK.

(Previous Press Gang articles — Scaremongers, Tsunami and Tsunami 2: Yerida — suggest this figure may actually be closer to two.

Our analysis also calculated that as many as 45,000 Israeli citizens may now be living in the UK.)

• finally, and most importantly, that these surveys are not important drivers of emigration.

Emigration figures, it says:

… have often tracked macroeconomic indicators such as unemployment quite closely, and rather less closely with fluctuations in recorded antisemitic incidents.

• in conclusion the overwhelming majority of Jews are staying, and feel able to practice their Judaism in the UK.

3. Heaton Park

   
   

ON 2 OCTOBER last year a synagogue in north Manchester was attacked.

Jihad Al-Shamie drove his car into a security guard outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation complex.

Al-Shamie — who claimed allegiance to Islamic State — then stabbed a volunteer guard to death and injured another. He was shot dead by armed police.

During the same round of gunfire, a worshipper inside the synagogue was killed and another seriously injured.

Panorama was silent about one important aspect of this episode. The security guard who was wounded was part of a government-funded programme designed to protect Britain’s Jewish community. Last year the UK taxpayer spent £17 million protecting Jewish schools, synagogues and other institutions.

The same programme also trains worshippers to carry out voluntary safeguarding duties.

It’s one reason why Britain is one of the safest places in the world for Jews. Without this taxpayer-funded support, it’s likely there would have been more dead and injured in the Heaton Park attack.

The professional security guard who was on duty on the day of the attack was Bernard Agyemang. According to one report, he was a Christian … originally from Ghana.

The extent of his injuries — which kept him in hospital for a month — has never been revealed.

Press Gang asked Heaton Park’s press officer, Victoria Portnoi, if she could provide more details. After saying she was discussing the matter with the rabbi, Bernard Walker, she came back to say we are not commenting on this.

We asked the Community Security Trust (CST), who administer the scheme on behalf of the government, about the protection provided at Heaton Park.

After ignoring our emails, the CST finally gave us a statement:

We have received your emails which we do not intend to reply to.

Shortly after the Heaton Park attack Keir Starmer announced a further £10 million in funding for Jewish security.

4. Palestine

   
   

ONE OF Panorama’s key witnesses was Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust.

He says there’s a new antisemitism which uses the pro-Palestinian marches as a cloak for the world’s oldest hatred. The American historian Norman Finkelstein has dismissed this concept.

These campaigns occur at regular intervals, correlating with Israel’s periodic massacres and consequent political isolation.

If you search your nearest library catalogue for ‘new antisemitism’, you’ll come up with titles from the 1970s proclaiming a ‘new antisemitism’, titles from the 1980s proclaiming a ‘new antisemitism’, titles from the 1990s proclaiming a ‘new antisemitism’, and then a huge uptick, including from British writers, during the so-called Second Intifada from 2001.

In the Panorama programme Julia Neuberger said:

There are people who say that accusations of antisemitism are a way of stifling criticism of Israel.

There are people saying that and, sometimes, only sometimes, they may even be right.

But mostly what happens is that people use the cover of criticising the actions of the Israeli government to be antisemitic.

Immediately after this claim is made viewers were shown footage of a Palestine march passing along the Strand, police separating counter-demonstrators with Israeli flags from the main demonstration and officers dragging away one unidentified person. Over these pictures, Panorama’s presenter Judith Moritz says:

Since 2023 more than 3,500 people have been arrested on pro-Palestinian protests and marches, 3,000 of them in London.

The implication — that the pro-Palestinian movement involves widespread criminal activity, much of it aimed at Jews — is false. Moritz and the other members of the Panorama team were well aware that the vast majority of these arrests involved mostly elderly people peacefully sitting on the ground awaiting arrest for holding signs supporting the banned Palestine Action group.

They were not violent. They were not antisemitic. Many of them were Jews.

The pro-Palestinian organisation, Jewish Voice for Liberation, condemned the Panorama programme as dangerously misleading and unbalanced.

5. Muslims don’t count …

   
   

PANORAMA provided viewers with some background to events like Heaton Park. Presenter Judith Moritz said:

On October 7, 2023 Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

The war in Gaza that followed has seen more than 72,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli military action, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation in Britain. By saying the death toll was, in effect, coming from a banned organisation, Panorama was implying that the figure might be suspect.

In fact, Israel itself has accepted that the Hamas figure is correct. And a study by the Lancet presented evidence that, by the beginning of 2025, the death toll had risen to more than 75,000.

The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) — an organisation which tracks media coverage of Muslims — says this type of prejudice is commonplace in the BBC. An analysis of 40,000 British media reports involving Muslims in 2025 found that more than half of them were biased against Muslims. The study, by the Centre for Media Monitoring, found structural patterns of bias embedded across British media, with profound implications for social cohesion, public perception, and the lived experiences of Muslim communities in the UK.

In March 2024 it complained to the BBC about a report on the UK’s security funding for Jewish and Muslim communities. The report stated:

Muslim spaces have had £170m made available for the purpose - and last month £70m was dedicated to protect Jewish-specific spaces.

It added that these amounts are proportionate to the size of each community.

The CfMM said there were two mistakes in this article:

• the figure of £170 million for Muslim security was actually £117 million and

• the amount provided for Muslims was not proportionate.

  
  

The CfMM calculated that, since the Muslim population was 15 times larger than its Jewish counterpart, it would have required nearly a billion pounds in funding.

It took the BBC four months to issue a correction. It stated:

When referring to funds allocated by the government to increase security in Muslim and Jewish spaces, this article inaccurately said that Muslim spaces have had £170m made available for the purpose.

In fact the figure is £117m and so we have amended this line in the story.

A previous version of the article also described these funds as proportionate to the size of each community.

Although the package to tackle anti-Muslim hate is larger because of the higher Muslim population and a larger number of sites to cover, it is not accurate to describe these allocations as proportionate and so this line has been removed from the story.

This correction was posted on the day of the 2024 general election.

The CfMM accused the BBC of burying the correction. On the night of the Panorama broadcast, the CfMM tweeted:

No equivalent film exists for Islamophobia.

This is not accidental.

It reflects a hierarchy of racism embedded in BBC editorial culture, consistently prioritising Jewish suffering over Muslim suffering.

6. Complaints

   
   

PRESS GANG asked the BBC how many complaints had been made about the programme.

It declined to give the number, saying that if they reach more than 100, they will be recorded in its fortnightly complaints bulletin. This is due out this week.

The Corporation does not accept criticism of the way it used the 3,500 arrests figure:

Panorama included data from the Metropolitan Police regarding “total arrest figures” nationally and for London and the source of this data was clearly labelled in the film for the audience to see.

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