The BBC is once again appeasing the Israeli genociders – this time by apologising for past comments made by a contestant on The Traitors.
Social media posts made by Maz Bana, who appeared on the current series of reality show has been dragged up by the gutter press. The rags obviously jumped at the chance to call out a brown Muslim man who dared to stand up against genocidal and apartheid Israel.
Rags rake through Traitors Muslim contestant’s past posts
GB News reported that under a photo of an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank, Maz wrote:
Nazis all over again, the oppressed have become the oppressors!! The zionist have short memories of what Hitler did. Never again they said!! The world’s political leaders should be ashamed of themselves of being subservient to ISRAEL!
The comments were originally published in The Times. The rags have apparently been raking through his accounts with a fine-tooth comb as they also found comments about Starmer’s government that they claim links to anti-Semitism. That’s in spite of Maz literally saying otherwise.
The Times published:
Months earlier he accused Sir Keir Starmer of being strategically placed to “annihilate the Labour Party” and bowing to “his paymasters at every whim”.
He later liked a reply to his comment that identified his paymasters as the “pro-Israeli lobby, the Board of Deputies and anyone else who finds the idea of Palestinians having human rights abhorrent”. In the same thread he said that “to criticise Israel’s behaviour towards the Palestinian people is not antisemitic”.
Maz is, of course, right. Anti zionism is not the same as anti-semitism. Opposing the Zionist state of Israel does not mean that you hate Jewish people.
It should also be pointed out that both The Times and GB News felt the need to call him Mazrook, when he’s best known as Maz. This feels like them reminding readers that his name isn’t “typically” British, despite him being from Preston.
Apologies all round
He told The Times:
I apologise for any offence my comments may have caused. It’s never been my intention to offend, marginalise or discriminate against any individual or group. I refute any allegations that I am antisemitic. My viewpoint has always been from a humanitarian perspective rather than a political one.
In a statement, the BBC said:
We were completely unaware that these comments had been posted on social media, due to the fact they were made on third-party accounts. We do not agree with the views expressed.
Studio Lambeth, who produces the show, said pretty much the same thing
The comments referenced in the article were made on third-party accounts rather than the individual’s own so could not be identified through our checking process. We wish to be clear that political views play no part in participation, selection or decision-making within the game. And of course, the content of The Traitors is not political.
“Not good enough” for Zionist lobby, because of course it’s not
Typically, pro-israel lobby group Campaign Against Antisemitism also had to get involved. They said on Twitter:
A contestant on The Traitors – presented to us by the BBC – appears to believe in deranged conspiracy theories, claiming that world leaders are in hock to shadowy ‘paymasters’ and Israel, and that ‘Zionists’ are the new Nazis.
This is the language of fanatics and extremists.
Either the BBC did absolutely no due diligence on the people it has thrust into our living rooms through its flagship primetime programme, or it found these posts and did not bat an eyelid.
Once again, this is about a contestant on a reality show’s five-year-old Facebook comments. Not views he expressed on the show, but ones uncovered by ‘journalists’ who went looking for them.
They demanded that the BBC air an apology during the show. They also want the BBC staff “responsible” to be:
hauled before the House of Commons Culture Select Committee to account for this latest outrage.
The replies are naturally vile, but perhaps the worst is one which says:
I will enjoy the episode where he spent the night in a cage in the dark forest, before being murdered even more now!
The Traitors exposes society’s racism
It’s perhaps no coincidence that the gutter press chose to trawl through the posts of one of the few people of colour on the show.
As previously reported on the Canary, there’s been an undercurrent of racism running throughout The Traitors. Maz was up for murder the first three times, even though he’d barely had any screen time. When he was eventually murdered, it meant that four of the first six contestants booted out of the show were people of colour. This is despite the fact that just seven out of 22 were people of colour.
Let’s be clear, Maz’s comments were found because the press went looking for them. People of colour experience a level of scrutiny that white people don’t in all walks of life, but even more so on reality TV.
Maz’s comments were 100% correct, but the press would much rather destroy a person of colour’s reputation before they examine how they’re complicit in genocide.
Featured image via the Canary
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