BBC Faces Fresh Backlash Over Alleged Gaza Documentary Cover-Up

[Social Media]

 

The BBC is under mounting pressure after leaked documents suggest it attempted to conceal its level of involvement in a controversial Gaza documentary. The corporation is facing accusations of a "cover-up" following the revelation that the child narrator of *Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone*, aired on BBC2, is the son of a Hamas official.  

 

The Mail on Sunday obtained a copy of the BBC's contract with the film’s producers, Hoyo Films, contradicting the broadcaster’s earlier claims that it was unaware of the family connection. The documentary’s narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has served as Hamas’s deputy agriculture minister.  

 

Amid a wider debate about the BBC’s alleged anti-Israel bias, the corporation initially attempted to defend the documentary, attributing the lack of disclosure to the independent production company. A BBC spokesperson stated, “We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film.”  

However, the leaked contract suggests otherwise, indicating that the BBC maintained significant oversight throughout production. A section of the contract explicitly states, “We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor, and engaged with ‘safeguarding’ issues by consulting parents.” The paperwork further specifies that “Permission will be sought from the parents/guardians every time we film with them… The producers will act and work as we would in the UK. Wherever possible, we will not film with unaccompanied children. We will seek permission from parents, guardians or the NGO responsible for the child.”  

 

These revelations cast doubt on the BBC’s assertion that it was unaware of Abdullah’s family background. In response, the corporation announced that it was undertaking “further due diligence with the production company” while it reviewed the matter.  

 

Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, was critical of the BBC’s handling of the controversy. “Having been shown these documents by *The Mail on Sunday*, it is very clear that the BBC was fully responsible and in control of this documentary,” he said. “Their attempts to shift responsibility to outside producers should not be accepted and indeed mislead licence-fee payers further – this looks like nothing more than an attempted cover-up.”  

 

Cohen further argued that the presence of the child narrator, given his father’s position in Hamas, raised serious concerns. “The fact that this documentary features the son of a Hamas leader and a child previously manipulated for Hamas propaganda means that the BBC has serious questions to answer on both the propaganda bias of this documentary and whether the Hamas families of the children were able to influence the output.”  

 

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy confirmed that she would discuss the programme with the BBC’s director-general as part of broader talks on the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.  

 

The controversy follows previous accusations of bias in the BBC’s reporting. Last year, a *Mail on Sunday* investigation revealed that several BBC Arabic reporters had made anti-Jewish posts online. Additionally, the report uncovered that doctors cited in a BBC story accusing Israeli troops of torturing medics in Gaza had previously used anti-Semitic slurs.  

 

MPs have since demanded an inquiry after it emerged that the BBC had been warned 18 months earlier about some of its journalists making anti-Israel comments online but continued to assign them to report on the conflict.

 

With increasing scrutiny on its editorial decisions, the BBC now faces renewed questions about its handling of content related to the Israel-Gaza conflict and the transparency of its reporting.

 

Based on a report by Daily Mail  2025-02-24

 

Related Posts:

BBC Doc Features Son Of Hamas Leader but Fails to Disclose to Viewers

BBC Faces More Serious Accusations of Bias in Gaza Hostage Release Coverage