The BBC has removed a controversial Gaza documentary from its iPlayer platform following intense public backlash and governmental intervention.
The astonishing move comes after investigator David Collier disclosed that 14-year old Abdullah, one of four children featured in the one hour programme, ‘Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone’, is actually the son of Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri, a senior official in the Hamas government, with family links to one of its founding members.
Whilst the broadcaster apologised for failing to reveal the information, corporation insiders dismissed broadcaster’s response as insufficient and “a slapdash cover-up”.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy vowed yesterday to raise concerns about the documentary with corporation executives following its screening by BBC2 on Monday night. The programme has also been heavily promoted on the corporation’s I-Player service.
In a statement seen by Jewish News, the broadcaster says: “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” features important stories we think should be told – those of the experiences of children in Gaza.
“There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company that made the film. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
Former BBC controller Danny Cohen said: “This documentary fails the most basic of programme standards. Links to the terrorist group Hamas were not disclosed, it appears that children have been manipulated by terrorists, a member of the production team celebrated the 7 October Hamas massacre and it now also appears that the documentary has been misleadingly edited. This is a shocking failure by the BBC and a major crisis for its reputation. The BBC’s commitment to impartiality on the Israel-Hamas war lies in tatters.
“The BBC’s senior leadership needs to wake up now and admit the corporation has a serious problem.”
Collier also found that Amjad Al Fayoumi, one of two cameramen working on the programme, posted a salute to the October 7 Hamas attacks and shared “resistance” videos full of terrorists, rockets and Israeli funerals.
45 prominent Jewish figures across TV, film and media have written to the director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, calling for repeats of the documentary to be postponed immediately.
