The BBC has been accused of spending £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash on a documentary branded as propaganda for Hamas.
Highly placed insiders confirmed that the substantial sum was handed to the production company behind the controversial BBC Two programme, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
The documentary’s main narrator, 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour, has been revealed as the son of senior Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.
The programme’s cost has sparked a furious political row, with Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch demanding to know whether any of the licence fee money was funnelled to Hamas.
BBC bosses withdrew the documentary from iPlayer last week for “further due diligence” checks after allegations of bias emerged.
Documents seen by The Sun suggested the BBC was directly involved in the production process.
One section of the contract states: “We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor.”
The BBC’s Current Affairs department produced the programme, which outsourced production to award-winning Hoyo Films.
However, it remains unclear why commissioning editor Gian Quaglieni approved Abdulla Eliyazour’s participation.
Under-fire BBC executives declined to add to previous comments on the controversy, but former BBC television director Danny Cohen has called for transparency.
Mr Cohen said: “The BBC needs to account for every penny spent on this documentary. £400,000 is a significant sum of licence-fee payers’ money.
“They should be transparently told where their money went and whether any of it reached the hands of Hamas. The BBC must also launch a wider investigation into systemic bias against Israel after repeated editorial failures since the October 7 massacres.”
In a letter to BBC Director General Tim Davie, Ms Badenoch insisted on a full independent inquiry into allegations of anti-Israel bias.
She wrote: “It is well known that inside Gaza, the influence of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas is pervasive.
“How could any programme be commissioned from there without thorough checks to ensure participants were not linked to that regime?
“Would the BBC have been this naive if commissioning content from North Korea or Iran?”
Ms Badenoch warned that the Conservative Party may reconsider its support for the BBC’s licence fee model if accountability is not provided. She said: “An investigation must consider allegations of potential collusion with Hamas and the possibility of payments to its officials. These are not isolated incidents.”
The BBC’s coverage of the Gaza conflict has faced widespread accusations of left-wing bias since the attacks of October 7.
The issue flared up again after BBC Middle East reporter Jon Donnison was criticised for an inflammatory online post equating Hamas’s hostage propaganda with Israel’s efforts to free captives.
Mr Donnison deleted the post and apologised after a social media backlash
Express.co.uk has approached the BBC for comment.
