The president of the UK Board of Deputies Marie van der Zyl will be meeting with the head of the BBC in early 2022 to speak about the complaints the public broadcaster received while reporting on an anti-Semitic attack against young Jews celebrating Hanukkah on a bus in London, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
In the BBC’s reporting of the incident, they alleged that multiple anti-Muslim slurs could be heard on a video of the incident coming from inside the bus. The Jewish youths were sheltering inside the bus after a teenage mob attacked it, banging on windows in an attempt to smash them, and yelling anti-Semitic abuse.
But after looking into the claim, Metropolitan Police found no evidence to support the BBC's accusation that a passenger on the bus full of Jewish youths used an anti-Muslim slur.
After receiving many complaints, the BBC edited their online coverage to say that the BBC believed that one anti-Muslim slur could be heard coming from the bus. This claim was then repeated on a BBC London broadcast.
A BBC spokesperson told the Jewish Chronicle that they believed that the phrase “dirty Muslims” was said by someone inside the bus.
However, the Chronicle spoke to an audio professional who said that the audio was not clear enough to make out any words.
The UK Jewish News reported that van der Zyl will demand an apology from the BBC director general to the Jewish community.