BBC Question Time audience member stuns Fiona Bruce by saying Israel’s attacks on Gaza are ‘like the Final Solution’

• An audience member made comments described as ‘deeply offensive’ on air

A BBC Question Time audience member shocked host Fiona Bruce by likening Israel’s attacks on Gaza to The Final Solution. 

The BBC has faced huge criticism over its refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists, even though the Home Office classifies the group as a ‘terrorist organisation’.

Last night the corporation was embroiled in controversy yet again after comments made by a Question Time audience member described as ‘deeply offensive’ were aired on the show. 

The elderly audience member said: ‘There is constant talk about “we are going to clear Hamas out of the country” – isn’t this a bit like The Final Solution?

Ms Bruce, who appeared shocked and taken aback, told him: ‘Well, that’s quite a thing to say.’

The Final Solution refers to the Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II.

The elderly audience member said: ‘There is constant talk about “we are going to clear Hamas out of the country” – isn’t this a bit like The Final Solution?’

Fiona Bruce, who appeared shocked and taken aback, told him: ‘Well, that’s quite a thing to say’

The man’s comments have shocked many, who say it was ‘outrageous’

Many were quick to comment on social media as video of the moment was shared.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust, wrote: ‘Did the audience member actually compare efforts to defeat Hamas terrorists to The Final Solution?? I’m in shock. 

‘I had to rewatch this to be sure I hadn’t misheard. I hadn’t. This is an outrageous, ignorant and deeply offensive comment to make.’

Bella Wallersteiner added: ‘Absolutely abhorrent. Equating the murder of my relatives to the destruction of a barbaric terrorist organisation. 

‘Shame on the BBC for airing this.’

Another said it was ‘bad enough they [the BBC] won’t call them terrorists, now this!’ 

Some called out the BBC for airing the comment on Question Time

Many were outraged by the comments the Question Time audience member made

Editor-at-large of the Jewish Chronicle Stephen Pollard fumed in an opinion piece about the incident, calling it ‘one of the most unspeakable, repellent and morally disgusting sentiments ever heard on British broadcasting’.

‘I have no idea who this man is or what he does…But what I do know is that there lurks a latent antisemitism which some of us foolishly but perhaps understandably told ourselves would die out after the Holocaust,’ he said. 

He claimed there was ‘not a gasp of outrage when he spoke, and not a single word of condemnation later, or even an explanation as to why it was such a grotesque and amoral calumny…It was allowed to hang there, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, just quite a thing to say.’

This comes after it emerged the BBC quietly dropped the use of word ‘militants’ to refer to Hamas following weeks of pressure.

Read more: BBC quietly drops use of word ‘militants’ to describe Hamas after weeks of mounting pressure

The corporation will now call the group a ‘proscribed terrorist organisation’ by the UK Government or others.

The broadcaster, which had cited its editorial guidelines as the reason for refusing to use the word terrorist, had previously been calling the fighters ‘militants’. It also described the slaughter of Israeli civilians as a ‘militant’ attack.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis had accused the BBC of trying to ‘willfully mislead’, while a string of politicians attacked the BBC over its choice of words.

But a statement by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, after it met BBC director-general Tim Davie and other bosses yesterday, revealed the BBC had stopped using the word ‘militants’. It said: ‘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 or others, or simply as Hamas.’

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.  

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