Comic Relief in Crisis as Chairman Quits Over Gaza Ceasefire Call
Comic Relief is in turmoil as its Chairman resigns over the charity’s decision to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. The Telegraph has the story.
Eric Salama quit his position after he said Comic Relief’s management took “an approach to an issue which I thought was profoundly wrong and which I could not live with”.
The issue is understood to have been the charity’s decision to join dozens of other organisations in calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.
Comic Relief admitted the fallout came over “a stance being taken on a public issue without any prior consultation with the board or Eric as chair”.
The move has raised questions about the governance of one of Britain’s highest-profile charities. It was set up in 1985 by Richard Curtis, the director and screenwriter, and Sir Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia.
There are fears that corporate donors might shy away from being linked to any organisation perceived to be taking sides in the conflict.
The row may also threaten Comic Relief’s partnership with the BBC, which has itself been criticised for alleged bias in its reporting of the Gaza-Israel conflict. Calls for a ceasefire have also split the Labour Party. …
Mr. Salama, who was appointed as chairman in June 2020, wrote on Twitter: “I admired Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry from afar before I joined and have even more respect and admiration and love for two wonderful human beings now that I’ve got to know them.
“All of which made last week particularly sad for me, stepping down early from my role and letting some people down in the process.”
He added: “But there are times in life when principles really matter more than any job. And last week was one of those times when management took an approach to an issue which I thought was profoundly wrong and which I could not live with.”
Among the demands of the ‘ceasefire now’ petition signed by Comic Relief were calls for the freeing of all civilian hostages, especially children and the elderly.
It also calls for humanitarian convoys to be allowed to reach UN facilities, schools, hospitals and health facilities in northern Gaza and for Israel to rescind its orders to civilians to leave northern Gaza.
The petition states: “We have witnessed unfathomable death and destruction in the Gaza Strip and Israel.”
It goes on to condemn the Israeli army for reportedly bombing civilians “as they attempted to flee or once they arrived in southern Gaza,” adding: “Neighbourhoods have been destroyed and turned into complete rubble. Palestinians in search of safety have nowhere to go.”
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Pretending to help in cases of need, but filling their pockets on over-managed organisations filled to the brim with marxists. Where were their tears for Syria and Yemen, and the ‘unfathomable death and destruction’ which has been on a much greater scale that that seen in Gaza.?
Its a open secret that a tiny fraction of money actually reaches the point of need, also its not funny anymore, so it looks a bushed flush to me. What happened to Lenny Henry? I sat and watched his TV debut live on New Faces in 1974. He was a breath of fresh air, very funny, and no-one cared about his skin until he made it an issue. He was just a funny young man and got a good career out of it. Now he’s preachy and everything is about his skin and he isn’t remotely funny.
So much easier to blither on about stuff going on halfway around the world than sort out our own house, isn’t it?
Just saying.
Where was “Comic Relief” in the lockdowns, hm? And during the almost forced jabbing of everyone with untested and dangerous crap, huh? And during the vilification and denunciation of anyone who spoke out against it all, y’ know? Cos all this happened on our own goddamn doorstep.
Burning money would do more good than donating it to comic relief, at least that act would generate some heat.
Cheaper than electricity too.
Yes that statement is just so full of hatred.
The biggest crisis about comic relief is that it hasn’t been funny in decades.
Not true, there was one good bit in 2021.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coSSvLB2YrE
I’m guessing he’s a Mizrahi Jew.
And your point is? Apart from showing how smart????? you are?
I don’t blame Israelis that aren’t backing a ceasefire if this is the sort of psychopathic nextdoor neighbours that make up the civilian population of Palestine. Would it not be like making HMP Wakefield an open prison then expecting families to live just the other side of the fence? And boy do they love to stick the knife in ( <1min ); ”These are the type of people that Israel has been forced to release from its prisons in exchange for the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Mainstream media is trying to portray them as regular Palestinians , but nearly all of them are terrorists.” https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1728518034397319640 Ooh look at all of these under 18yrs and female Palestinian prisoners being released. I didn’t know such people existed…. ”The list of terrorists to be released Saturday night includes 33 male underage terrorists, and six female terrorists. Among these is Asra’a Jabas, a terrorist from Jerusalem, who suffered burns to her face while attempting to carry out a terror attack. Jabas was sentenced in 2016 to 11 years in prison after she caused a gas balloon to explode in a machine near the al Za’im checkpoint near the city of Maaleh Adumim in 2015.… Read more »
Crikey, fantasy becomes reality. And here’s me thinking female terrorists were an urban myth, a bit like black racists and under 18s that try and kill people, and they didn’t really exist. Actually, I think this one has ”freedom fighter” written all over her, no? There’s some crazy-assed biatches living in Palestine, that’s for sure. Coming to a Western country ( with refugee status ) near you, soon;
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1728434313102848430/video/2
Never given a penny to Comic Relief and never likely to. It’s a politicised, pretendy-charity, run by the usual assortment of left-wing activists claiming to be funny.
Funny really, what has any of this to do with Comic Reflief? Why don’t they leave politics where it belongs and get on with the job?
Time Comic Relief was binned, like all money making so-called charities.
All good causes become businesses and then rackets.