‘Big Brother’ apologises and edits out housemate’s pro-Palestine t-shirt

nme.com:

Big Brother.On the original broadcast of Tuesday’s instalment of the long-running reality show, contestant Ali Bromley was seen wearing a t-shirt that depicted a map of Israel as a watermelon.The image has been interpreted by many as a symbolic message of support for the erasure of the Israeli state, with watermelons commonly used to represent the Palestinian flag.After the Campaign Against Antisemitism said they lodged a complaint with media regulator Ofcom in response to the image being broadcast, ITV temporarily removed the episode from their streaming platform, later restoring it with the t-shirt now removed.How is this becoming the norm?

A Big Brother (@bbuk) ‘housemate’ was seen wearing a T-shirt depicting the map of Israel as a watermelon—a symbol widely associated with anti-Israel sentiment.

This graphic has caused significant distress among the British Jewish community, who… pic.twitter.com/NNaOOuojz0— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) October 23, 2024A spokesperson for Banijay, the producers of Big Brother, said (via Deadline): “The housemate has been spoken to and they have expressed that they are unaware of the implications and did not wish to cause any harm or offence.

Any offensive messaging associated with the image does not reflect the values or beliefs of Big Brother.“All housemate items are checked by our production team before they go into the Big Brother house to ensure they comply with the Rules and compliance requirements.