The BBC has removed from iPlayer a documentary about the Gaza crisis that was narrated by the child of a Hamas minister.
The British broadcaster has taken the unusual step of deleting Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone from its streaming service amid growing concerns that other contributors had links to Hamas, which is proscribed as a terror group by the UK government.
In a statement on Friday, the BBC said: “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. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
The BBC previously apologized for failing to disclose that 14-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the film’s English-speaking narrator, was the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, the deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza’s Hamas-run government. A title card was added to the film on iPlayer explaining Al-Yazouri’s links to Hamas on Wednesday but this did not do much to allay the criticism and concerns.
Watch on Deadline
The decision to remove the film follows a group of 45 Jewish television executives, which includes former BBC content chief Danny Cohen and J.K. Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, writing a second letter to the corporation raising further questions about How To Survive a Warzone, including that two other children featured have Hamas links.
Zakaria es-Sersek, an 12-year-old volunteering in a Gaza hospital, has been pictured in Hamas propaganda photos and videos. There are also concerns that a third contributor was the child of an officer in the Gaza police force.
The Jewish TV executives have called for an independent investigation, though it is not clear if the BBC will acquiesce to this demand. The BBC, which has said it will respond to the execs’ letter, usually investigates complaints through an established framework, meaning concerns about How To Survive a Warzone could be escalated to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), which examines whether output breached editorial rules.
The ECU is overseen by Peter Johnston, the director of editorial complaints and a key ally of Tim Davie, the BBC director general. Only once this internal process has been exhausted can a complainant escalate their concerns to UK media regulator Ofcom, which will then decide whether to conduct an independent investigation.
In its statement earlier this week, the BBC unambiguously blamed the producer for the error, saying that HOYO Films failed to inform executives about Al-Yazouri’s father. Two sources told Deadline that it is likely that How To Survive a Warzone’s producer/directors Yousef Hammash and Jamie Roberts were aware of Al-Yazouri’s Hamas connections. Hammash and Roberts have not responded to requests for comment.
“No paperwork”
One person familiar with the How To Survive a Warzone production process was skeptical that HOYO had not mentioned the Hamas links to BBC commissioning editors Gian Quaglieni and Sarah Waldron. A second person added that for the BBC to blame the producer, “there must be no paperwork tying them to the knowledge” of Al-Yazouri’s background. Others think it is possible that the Hamas connections were missed because of the complications around foreign journalists not being able to access Gaza.
The BBC’s decision to pin the failures on HOYO has shocked insiders and some of the UK’s most seasoned independent filmmakers. A long-time BBC current affairs journalist said the corporation “can’t wash their hands of it” and that, even if the Hamas links were not communicated by HOYO, BBC executives should have been asking searching questions about the contributors.
A BAFTA-winning filmmaker, who regularly collaborates with the BBC, said: “I would have thought one of the first questions that a BBC exec would ask is: ‘Who are these children? And do you have the permission of their parents?’” Another BAFTA-winning BBC journalist added: “The BBC saying they didn’t know is not going to instill confidence [in compliance procedures].”
Deadline has asked the BBC if the documentary was on the corporation’s “high risk” list before transmission. A small number of shows are placed on this commissioning track to ensure they go through more rigorous checks prior to premiere. This includes the show being screened to a wider group of executives, potentially including David Jordan, the BBC’s highly-regarded director of editorial policy and standards.
One theory filmmakers have about the How To Survive a Warzone error is that the BBC is so “paranoid” about impartiality that executives get lost in the detail of scripts and edits, rather than looking at the bigger picture. “It’s like a cyclist being so concerned with their riding clips keeping their trousers away from the chain that they cycle into a truck,” said one person.
The film has reignited deep tensions over the BBC’s output on the Gaza crisis, with the corporation accused of institutional bias by both Israeli and Palestinian sympathizers. Many believe that the BBC’s reputation among Jewish and Muslim viewers will never be the same again.
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.”
Roger Mosey, a former BBC editorial director, added: “It’s the correct decision by the BBC to remove the Gaza documentary from iPlayer. The film was the right one to want to make. But there seem to have been serious failures to ask the right questions, and it’s damaging to an organisation which seeks to be impartial.”