Board of Deputies meets BBC Director General Tim Davie

The Board of Deputies of British Jews today met Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, and some of his senior team. The BBC was left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling in the Jewish community.

The BBC confirmed it was committed to continued dialogue. It also confirmed it is no longer BBC practice to call Hamas militants. Instead, the BBC describes the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK government and others, or simply as Hamas.

Tim Davie said: “I would like to thank Marie van der Zyl and Michael Wegier for the meeting today. The BBC is committed to continuing dialogue through this period.”

Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said: “We emphasised our outrage at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’ barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians. We will both continue dialogue as well as pursuing legal avenues.”