Pro Israel protesters outside the BBC<\/p>\n
Back in 2003, the BBC aired a documentary on Israel<\/a>\u2019s nuclear programme, titled Israel\u2019s Secret Weapon<\/em><\/a>. Israeli leaders hit the roof<\/a> and banned its officials from appearing on the BBC.<\/p>\n The documentary was spot on. Israel was embarrassed at having its nuclear arsenal exposed when Iraq<\/a> was being invaded for a non-existent<\/a> stash of weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n I asked a senior BBC official at the time how relations with Israel were panning out. \u201cFor a country that wants to influence news coverage, boycotting us is a strange way of doing things,\u201d was the reply, seemingly unruffled by Israeli antics.<\/p>\n The BBC did not cave in, and Israel lifted its boycott.<\/p>\n Twenty-five years later, the BBC has lost any semblance of a spine on Israel. Last week, it pulled a documentary<\/a> titled Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone<\/em> from its online streaming platform. The corporation said it would carry out a \u201cdue diligence<\/a>\u201d exercise before it could be allowed to air again.<\/p>\n The documentary was a nine-month depiction of life in Gaza under siege through the eyes and experiences of Palestinian<\/a> children.<\/p>\n The primary objection was that Abdullah, the main child narrator, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, the deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza\u2019s Hamas-run government. The BBC had amended the programme to acknowledge this, but then further accusations led to it being dropped.<\/p>\n The pile-on was massive and appeared<\/a> well orchestrated. The anti-Palestinian mob has targeted the messengers, not the message – a well-honed tactic.<\/p>\n Nearly all those who castigated this documentary have shown scant regard for Palestinian lives and rights. Many have been cheerleaders for Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza<\/a>, including the Israeli ambassador, a representative for a state that shut down Al Jazeera\u2019s local broadcasting and has been responsible for the killing of at least 170 journalists<\/a> and media workers since the Gaza war began on 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n A more ridiculous propagandist than ambassador Tzipi Hotovely<\/a> would be hard to find. She claimed that there was no humanitarian crisis<\/a> in Gaza when Gaza has been under siege for many years, not just the last 500 days.<\/p>\n One wonders how many had watched the documentary before it was pulled. It was far from being a propaganda vehicle for any party. It was not in the least bit pro-Hamas or anti-Israel, unless you are one of those who think that humanising Palestinian children constitutes a crime. It was barely political at all.<\/p>\n Criticism of Hamas from Palestinians in Gaza was frequent. Within the first minutes, one Palestinian woman exclaimed: \u201cGod damn you [Yahya] Sinwar<\/a>,\u201d referring to the late Hamas leader. A Palestinian man cried: \u201cThey killed our children, killed our women, while Sinwar is hiding under the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Palestinian woman remembered how people celebrated on 7 October, but admitted: \u201cIf we had known this would happen to us, no one would have celebrated.\u201d One of the child narrators, 11-year-old Zakaria, blamed Hamas: \u201cThey caused all this misery.\u201d<\/p>\n The documentary was of award-winning calibre, reflected in the excellent reviews in the Guardian, which gave it five stars<\/a>, and the Times, which described<\/a> it as \u201cexceptional\u201d. Even the Telegraph gave it four stars<\/a>. It should be a crown jewel in the BBC\u2019s documentary ecosystem.<\/p>\n The narrator, 13-year-old Abdullah Alyazouri, is an individual in his own right who articulated his own story. His daily lived experiences and testimony are valid. It should not matter who his father is.<\/p>\n Even then, his father is a technocrat in Gaza – a deputy minister of agriculture, not reflective of the upper-tier leadership of Hamas, both political and military. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Britain.<\/p>\n One wonders whether the BBC has reached out to the children at all. They thought their story would be aired; instead, they must now be wondering what they have done wrong, and why they are victims of a vicious pile-on.<\/p>\n Serious questions must be asked as to why the British<\/a> government got involved. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy weighed in, stating<\/a> that she would be discussing the documentary with BBC bosses.<\/p>\n This jeopardises the BBC\u2019s independence and smacks of government interference in media. Nandy should have left this for BBC management to review. It exposes just how wedded this Labour government is to Israel. Given the government\u2019s complicity in Israeli war crimes, it has a conflict of interest.<\/p>\nCheerleaders for genocide<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Government interference<\/strong><\/h2>\n