The BBC has been blasted for publishing a “jaw-dropping propaganda” report on Hamas’s release of Israeli hostages. BBC Arabic was reportedly forced to edit a video profiling the “shadow unit” of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigade, a wing of the group designated as terrorist by the UK.
In the video first broadcast on January 30, BBC Arabic described the brigade as “responsible for securing the hostages”, seized when terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping 251. In the clip, militants were said to be “guarding the Israeli hostages”, with the report adding the brigade’s “mission is to secure the hostages and hide them from view in Gaza”, according to a translation from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) shared by the Telegraph.
Footage also said Al-Qassam Brigade had shared video of soldiers thanking the unit’s personnel for “good treatment” while they were being held.
Danny Cohen, a former director of BBC Television, told the broadsheet: “This is a jaw-dropping piece of propaganda – a puff piece on war criminals who have executed, starved, beaten and sexually assaulted the hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7.”
He said Al-Qassam aren’t “guards” but “monstrous terrorists” who have committed “unspeakable crimes”, accusing BBC Arabic of pumping out anti-Semitic “poison” and “terrorist propaganda” to its audience.
The news outlet said that, in light of Camera’s complaint, the BBC removed the section claiming hostages had received good treatment and added evidence of Hamas’s abuse of those.
A BBC spokesman said: “This short video report explains to audiences the history of a little-known Hamas unit which featured in reports during the recent release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Although the initial report was accurate and correctly describes the group as guarding not protecting the hostages, it has since been amended to provide additional context and clarification to audiences.”
The row comes after it emerged that a BBC documentary on Gaza featured the son of a senior Hamas figure.
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was removed from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
The broadcaster has apologised for the making of the programme, about children living in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. It conducted an initial review and has launched a further internal probe.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy urged the BBC to act on the failings in the broadcast so “a serious error of this magnitude is not repeated”. She pushed for a review to include translation and finance issues..
The BBC said it was “seeking additional assurance” from the production company Hoyo Films after it admitted they paid the boy’s mother, via his sister’s bank account, “a limited sum of money” for the narration.
Other accusations have been made that parts of the documentary were mis-translated, and more children who appeared in it were linked to proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas.
