A thoroughly stupid extremist named Elisha Yered posted on X that the custom of spitting next to a church or near priests is an “ancient and long-standing custom.”
His statements and the spitting incidents themselves were roundly condemned by Israeli officials and prominent rabbis.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner wrote Tuesday: “There is no Jewish law that you have to spit at idol worship. There is no such rule in the Gemara, nor in Maimonides, nor in the Shulchan Aruch. ... It simply causes disputes and quarrels and we lose from it. We have to educate the children to behave respectfully.”
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel David Lau said, "These immoral phenomena have certainly nothing to do with Jewish law."
After an earlier such incident in the summer, many prominent rabbis condemned the practice, including Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shlomo Amar issued a strong statement condemning the practice and said that those who spit at non-Jews are a chilul Hashem, desecrators of God's name, one of the most serious prohibitions in Jewish law:
But according to BBC Arabic, there are no rabbis who condemn spitting at or near Christians. On the contrary - religious Jews all agree that spitting on Christians is exactly how Jews are expected to celebrate Sukkot!
BBC Arabic released a video on their website and on X that both describes the spitting incidents and how Jews celebrate the Sukkot holiday, as if the two topics are related. Here's the headline translated into English:
One of the sections of the video says this (Arabic screenshot above; this is the screenshot translated into English:)
"Observant Jews consider spitting on Christians a holiday ritual."
Then they showed Yered's tweet.
Even the most disgusting apologists for the spitting don't say it is associated with celebrating Jewish holidays, let alone all religious Jews.
This is stright-up antisemitism and anti-Jewish incitement published by the BBC Arabic. And it isn't the first time....this week.
The BBC should not only remove the videos. They should not only publicly apologize - in English and Arabic - for posting these lies.
The BBC must immediately fire whomever wrote that hateful lie. That person has no journalistic integrity; on the contrary, the video producer is simply a hatemonger. If the BBC allows that person to remain in their job, any claims of impartiality that the BBC pretends to maintain are shown to be simple lies.
