The controversial BBC documentary on life in Gaza has again come under scrutiny, as a report Monday accused the film of “whitewashing” references to terrorism, Jihad, Hamas and prejudice against Jews in the English translation of the original Arabic dialogue.
The film, “Gaza: How To Survive a War Zone”, was pulled from BBC‘s online streaming service last week after a Telegraph report found that the documentary’s narrator was the son of a major Hamas governmental figure.
On Monday, a new report in the Telegraph found that the English translation of the film repeatedly mistranslated certain words in an attempt to “whitewash” the statements of the ordinary Gazans who were interviewed in the documentary.
According to the Telegraph, all mentions of the word “Jews” were translated to “Israelis” or “Israeli forces,” and all mentions of “Jihad” were translated to “battle” or “resistance.”
The mistranslations were first highlighted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a US-based pro-Israel media watchdog, which offered more accurate translations of the film’s original Arabic to contrast the BBC’s version.
In the film, a fleeing Gazan woman tells the cameraman that “the Jews invaded our area,” but the BBC translated the quote to “the Israeli army invaded our area.”
A few minutes later, a Gazan boy tells the interviewer that “the Jews came, they destroyed us, Hamas and the Jews”. However, this quote was translated in the BBC’s subtitles as “the Israelis destroyed everything, and so did Hamas.”
Later in the film, a woman shows the camera footage of slain Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar’s last moments before being killed by the IDF in October of last year, saying in Arabic that “his face was covered and his weapon was ready, prepared for Jihad,” but the BBC’s subtitles translated Jihad, which means holy war, to “battle.”
The same woman said that arch terrorist Sinwar “was engaging in resistance and jihad against the Jews,” but the subtitles read “he was fighting and resisting Israeli forces.”
After the mistranslations were reported, the Telegraph quoted Orly Goldschmidt, a diplomat at the Israeli Embassy in London, as saying that the mistakes were “intentional mistranslations” by the BBC, adding that “it reflects a very serious and systematic issue, which has taken root at the BBC, with regards to its anti-Israel bias.”
The original scrutiny for the film, which led to its removal from the BBC’s streaming platform, was because the documentary’s main narrator and central figure, 14-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, deputy minister of agriculture in the Strip’s Hamas government.
This connection was first revealed by journalist David Collier, who called the film’s narrator “the child of Hamas royalty.”
The elder Al-Yazouri’s LinkedIn profile says he has been deputy agriculture minister in Gaza since July 2021 and before that worked as an assistant to the deputy minister in Gaza’s education ministry. Hamas controls all government institutions in Gaza.
After initially saying the film would remain available to view with “some details” added, the broadcaster later succumbed to widespread criticism and removed the film.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a pro-Palestinian NGO, condemned the criticism of the documentary, saying that despite Ayman Al-Yazouri being “a civil servant in Gaza’s Agriculture Ministry,” that “does not negate Abdullah’s lived experience as a child in Gaza nor does it invalidate his testimony.”
After the film was removed from the platform, UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch wrote a letter to the BBC asking if the broadcaster used license fees paid by the British public to make payments to Hamas, the Daily Mail reported.
Badenoch’s letter called for a probe into any “potential collusion with Hamas” and “the possibility of payment to terrorists.”
According to the Daily Mail, the BBC said it could not immediately answer her question and was carrying out “further due diligence” on how the program was made.
Badenoch also said anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s reporting of the conflict was not an “isolated incident” and called for rooting out the “systemic and institutional bias against Israel.”
The UK public broadcaster has been criticized for its refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists, even though the group’s military wing is proscribed by the United Kingdom as such, and even after the widespread documentation of its systematic targeting of civilians on October 7, 2023.
The October 7 massacre saw Hamas-led terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 251.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.