BBC breaks silence after University Challenge 'anti-Semitic' row and sets record straight

The BBC has responded after claims that a team used an anti-Semitic mascot during the latest episode of University Challenge - describing the allegations as "inaccurate".

The incident happened as Christ Church, Oxford faced off against Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Each university which enters the popular general knowledge show is allowed to have a mascot.

On this occasion, Christ Church opted to use a green octopus which replaced their original mascot from their bout with Southampton earlier this year.

Following the show, there was outrage on X that the combination of one of the team member’s choice of outfit and their mascot change had been deliberate.

The contestant to the left of the green octopus was wearing a jumper which featured green, red, and white patches, the same colours used in the Palestinian flag.

However, a statement shared on the corporation's Twitter account said: "We are aware of a number of inaccurate claims being made online in relation to last night’s episode of University Challenge and we utterly condemn the abuse that has been posted and shared.

"For the avoidance of doubt, this episode was filmed in March. The mascot is one of many chosen by the team during the course of the series and is one of their favourite animals.

"The jacket worn by one of the contestants was navy blue, orange, pink and green, bought from a High Street retailer. It has no connection to any flag."

Earlier on X, social media personality Oli London was infuriated and compared the action to another incident involving environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

He said: “The BBC, which refuses to label Hamas as terrorists, feature a woman named Gorgianeh dressed in the Palestinian colours with a green Octopus toy in front of her on University Challenge.

“The green octopus has been used as an anti-Semitic symbol since the times of the Nazis. Recently, Greta Thunberg drew backlash for featuring a strategically positioned octopus toy in her ‘Free Gaza’ social media post.

“After backlash, she deleted the image and reuploaded it without the octopus while issuing a statement claiming she didn’t know it was an anti-Semitic symbol.”

Mr London wasn’t the only person to notice with hundreds of X users accusing the BBC of deliberately allowing the mascot to be used.

Conservative Prospective Parliamentary candidate Ben Obese-Jecty said: “This is disgraceful from the BBC. How on earth was Melika Gorgianeh from @ChCh_Oxford allowed to have a blue octopus, a well-known anti-Semitic trope, on display as a mascot on #UniversityChallenge? How did @amolrajan fail to notice it? Antisemitism is fast becoming normalised.”

Another person wrote: "Anti-Semitic trope proudly on display here. Anti-Semitic propaganda during 19th/20th century often used octopus imagery to represent Jewish influence & control. I struggle to believe in the current climate this is a coincidence. BBC has serious questions to answer.”

Fellow users posted photographs of the mascot alongside anti_Semitic Nazi propaganda from the 1940s featuring a green octopus.

While there was a lot of outrage about the use of the mascot, others were less certain over whether it was a deliberate anti-Semitic gesture.

One person said: "So now a cuddly toy octopus is automatically interpreted as anti-Semitic? Does this mean the production of cuddly toy octopuses should be banned?

"Wtf is wrong with people? Until the Greta pic a month ago no one thought that octopuses were an anti-semitic trope."

Express.co.uk has contacted Christ Church and Oxford University for comment.