David Baddiel. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A book by British comedian and author David Baddiel about antisemitism will be the basis for a new television documentary airing later this year in the United Kingdom on Channel 4, the network announced on Tuesday.

The “Jews Don’t Count” author will host the “part polemic, part personal” documentary from Mindhouse Production, examining  “why, in his opinion, antisemitism is often seen as a lesser form of racism,” Channel 4 said. The program, reportedly being partly filmed in New York, will be called “Baddiel: Jews Don’t Count.”

Baddiel’s book, published in September 2021, argues that antisemitism is often left out of the fight against racism, and discusses why and how “Jews don’t count as a real minority.” The new TV documentary will be “a searing and forensic look not just at antisemitism throughout the world today — but at the whole state of identity politics in contemporary discourse,” said Shaminder Nahal, head of specialist factual at Channel 4.

Baddiel, who identifies as a Jewish atheist, will speak in the program about the antisemitic abuse he has experienced on social media and a “lack of support” he has faced during his crusade. The show will also feature conversations with prominent Jewish figures and those who have experienced antisemitism, and will try to examine “why identity politics seems to have failed this one particular identity.”

“I’m very excited to be given the chance to present my polemic about Jews not counting — not counting in the identity politics conversation, not counting as a real minority who experience real racism — on TV,” said Baddiel. “My critique is aimed mainly at progressives, at those people who care about minorities and racism — those people who consider themselves on the right side of history — and I think of a lot of those people as Channel 4 viewers. So let me thank Channel 4 in advance for giving me this opportunity to address, and maybe take apart a bit, their own audience’s self-image.”

Mindhouse Productions Executive Producer Louis Theroux said that “with so much more awareness around the world about the importance of diversity and the reality of all kinds of racial bias, it seems the perfect time to take a thoughtful, challenging, and funny look at why Jewishness has sometimes been left out of the racial reckoning.”