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.”

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Jewish Journal

January 12, 2015

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 offense 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 her 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 offense.”