The BBC on Friday removed a documentary about the Gaza war from its online streaming service after it emerged that the child who is a central figure in the film is the son of a Hamas deputy minister, a fact that was at no time disclosed in the movie.
“Gaza: How To Survive a War Zone” is narrated by Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 14-year-old boy. The Telegraph reported earlier this week that the teen’s father is Ayman Al-Yazouri, deputy minister of agriculture in the Strip’s Hamas government.
“‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ features important stories we think should be told — those of the experiences of children in Gaza,” the BBC said in a statement.
“There have been continuing questions raised about the program and in light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company,” it said. “The program will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
After the narrator’s Hamas connections were revealed, the British network initially said the film would remain available to view with “some details” added. The broadcaster later succumbed to widespread criticism and removed the film.
Former BBC One controller Danny Cohen led the criticism of the program, questioning whether the BBC paid Hamas members during the filming, the Guardian reported.
“[The] documentary fails the most basic of program standards,” Cohen said on Friday, according to the Guardian. “Links to the terrorist group Hamas were not disclosed”
“It appears that children have been manipulated by terrorists,” he added.
The younger Al-Yazouri’s Hamas connections were initially revealed on X by journalist David Collier.
The Guardian quoted Collier describing Al-Yazouri “as 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 Collier revealed the film’s Hamas connections, a letter signed by 45 prominent Jewish journalists and members of the media calling for the program to be taken down was published.
“Given the serious nature of these concerns, the BBC should immediately postpone any broadcast repeats of the program, remove it from iPlayer and take down any social media clips of the program until an independent investigation is carried out and its findings published with full transparency for license-fee payers,” the letter said.
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.”
The Guardian reported that British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she would inquire into how the documentary was sourced, adding: “These things are difficult and I do want to acknowledge that the BBC take more care than most broadcasters … They’ve been attacked for being too pro-Gaza, they’ve been attacked for being anti-Gaza.”
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.