James O'Brien apologises over 'antisemitic text' on radio show

Broadcaster James O'Brien has apologised after reading out a message on his radio show that was slammed as antisemitic by Jewish groups.

O'Brien said on Wednesday during his LBC show that he was sorry for reading a text the previous day that claimed that a Jewish school in Hertfordshire taught that "one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed."

"At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a 'Shabbat School'," he said, adding that "he went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school."

 "As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the programme, I did so in good faith, but the message has understandably upset a lot of people, and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value, and I’m genuinely sorry for that."

The reading of the text on air was slammed by Jewish organisations and prompted complaints to the UK regulator Ofcom, which told the MailOnline that it was assessing the incident.

On Tuesday, the Board of Deputies of British Jews called for O'Brien to be taken off air, saying: "Broadcasting such a transparent falsehood and demonising the British Jewish community, at a time when antisemitism in this country is at terrifying levels, must have clear consequences."

The MailOnline quoted the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which said the incident "was a modern blood libel on national radio, amplified by a host who likely wouldn't think twice about cutting off the statement were it promoting such grotesque falsehoods about another minority."

However, all of these organisation have used similar smears against legitimate criticisms of Israel's war on Gaza, and O'Brien has been a strong but fair voice of opposition to Israeli policy against the Palestinian territory. 

O'Brien had been talking about dehumanisation as an enabler for war crimes in the context of Israel's war on Gaza during the show, with the text being read as an example for the discussion alongside a poll from Israeli daily Haaretz that detailed support in Israel for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's war on Gaza has prompted severe backlash in the UK, in particular over the mass starvation of Palestinians currently underway, which has been criticised by international aid agencies as well as public figures in the UK.