Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

BBC Reporter Sorry for Saying Palestinians ‘Suffer at Jewish Hands’

BBC reporter Tim Willcox apologized after saying at the Paris unity march on television that Palestinians “suffer hugely at Jewish hands.”

Willcox, who works for BBC News and BBC World News, on Twitter Monday morning tweeted, “Really sorry for any offence cause by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday – it was entirely unintentional.”

He was covering the unity march against terrorism in Paris on Sunday when he responded to a woman’s comments about the state of Jews in France, “Many critics of Israel’s policy would suggest that the Palestinians suffer hugely at Jewish hands as well.”

The Telegraph identified as a daughter of Holocaust survivors.

“You understand everything is seen from different perspectives,” Willcox told her.

Before his comments, the woman Willcox addressed at the unity march had said, “We have to not be afraid to say that the Jews are the target now.”

A BBC spokesperson told The Telegraph: “Tim Willcox has apologised for what he accepts was a poorly phrased question during an in-depth live interview with two friends, one Jewish and of Israeli birth, the other of Algerian Muslim heritage, where they discussed a wide range of issues affecting both the Muslim and Jewish communities in France.

“He had no intention of causing offence.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.