{"id":119713,"date":"2025-03-09T17:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T15:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119713"},"modified":"2025-03-09T16:02:29","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T14:02:29","slug":"09-00-103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119713","title":{"rendered":"Mass Protests Continue Outside BBC Headquarters as Corporation Faces Intense Scrutiny for Gaza Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Mass Protests Continue Outside BBC Headquarters as Corporation Faces Intense Scrutiny for Gaza Documentary<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Protesters outside the BBC headquarters in London on March 6, 2025. Photo: Nathan Lilienfeld\/Campaign Against Antisemitism<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Demonstrators gathered outside the London headquarters of the BBC on Thursday for a second week in a row to protest the corporation after it admitted to making \u201cserious flaws\u201d in its documentary about Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protest outside Broadcasting House was organized by Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) and took place following the BBC\u2019s\u00a0acknowledgment<\/a>\u00a0that licensing fee payments for \u201cGaza: How to Survive a Warzone\u201d were given to the family of a senior Hamas official. Protesters held placards that said, \u201cBBC I Refuse to Fund Terrorists,\u201d and also signs that featured a masked face of a Hamas terrorist with a green ban across his forehead that said \u201cBBC\u201d in the center.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for CAA said the BBC \u201chas allowed license fee money to go to the family of a Hamas terrorist in the production of what was essentially a Hamas propaganda film.\u201d The spokesperson also cited recent\u00a0polling<\/a>\u00a0published by CAA, revealing that a majority of Brits support the call for an independent investigation into the BBC\u2019s actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC is trying to pretend that it is business as usual while hoping to get away with an internal report, but the British public is having none of it and does not want the BBC to mark its own homework,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cThat is why we want the license fee to be suspended pending an independent investigation into this scandal and the wider issue of the BBC\u2019s glaring bias. It is unconscionable to force people to pay a license fee that pays for biased reporting and has now even been handed to the family of a terrorist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

British broadcaster and comedian Josh Howie \u2013 who is a presenter on GB News and \u201cHeadliners,\u201d the GB News late night show \u2013 spoke at last week\u2019s protest outside BBC headquarters and announced that he will no longer pay the BBC license fee. He gave a speech at the protest this week as well, and others who spoke on stage included Jewish actress Dame Maureen Lipman; Natalie Sanandaji, who survived the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023; and Mark Birbeck, founder of Our Fight UK, which is a group of mostly non-Jews who combat antisemitic sentiments in Britain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mere days after it debuted in late February, the BBC pulled \u201cGaza: How to Survive a Warzone\u201d from its iPlayer streaming platform after\u00a0it was revealed<\/a>\u00a0that the film\u2019s narrator, Palestinian teenager Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri, the deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. It was also discovered that the\u00a0family is related to Hamas founder Ibrahim Al-Yazouri.<\/span><\/p>\n

The BBC explained that it was not aware of Abdullah\u2019s ties to Hamas prior to filming the documentary. The corporation apologized and insisted that it asked Hoyo Films, the London-based independent production company that produced the documentary for the BBC, \u201ca number of times\u201d about \u201cany potential connections [Abdullah] and his family might have with Hamas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince transmission, they [Hoyt Films] have acknowledged that they knew that the boy\u2019s father was a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas government; they have also acknowledged that they never told the BBC this fact,\u201d the BBC said. \u201cIt was then the BBC\u2019s own failing that we did not uncover that fact and the documentary was aired.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoyo Films told BBC it paid Abdullah\u2019s family \u201ca limited sum of money\u201d for him narrating the film and deposited the money into his sister\u2019s bank account.\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0revealed this week that the family of the senior Hamas official was paid close to \u00a3790 ($856), which is equivalent to about a month\u2019s salary in Gaza. An organization of pro-Israel lawyers in the UK has demanded that\u00a0counter-terrorism police investigate<\/a>\u00a0the BBC and two producers from Hoyo Films for possible terrorism offenses, such as funding terrorism in violation of the UK\u2019s Terrorism Act 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC Chair Dr Samir Shah spoke at a Culture, Media, and Sport Committee hearing in the UK Parliament about the scandal involving the documentary. \u201cWe will get to the bottom of this and take appropriate actions,\u201d Shah said. \u201cThere\u2019s a dagger to the heart of the BBC\u2019s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy. We need to restore trust in the BBC.\u201d He also said that the \u201cmechanics of the filmmaking itself\u201d need to be investigated and that the BBC\u2019s investigation into the matter will confirm whether or not money paid for the documentary was ultimately given to Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n

James Frith, Labour MP for Bury North, told Davie: \u201cIt\u2019s fair to assume that if the family of a senior Hamas leader is paid, that that money goes into the orbit of Hamas.\u201d He simply replied, \u201cI\u2019ve told you what I know.\u201d Even amid the scrutiny, Davie told committee members that the BBC is \u201cthe most trusted brand in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with the\u00a0Middle East Eye<\/em>\u00a0published this week, Abdullah said he and his family have been targeted with online harassment because of the scandal involving the documentary, his mental health is suffering as a result of the controversy, and he fears for his safety. He said he also holds the BBC \u201cresponsible\u201d for anything that happens to him. He claimed that the only money he or his family received was for personal expenses related to his involvement in the film.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the contract that was signed between the production company \u2026 and my mother, there wasn\u2019t any payment for me or my family,\u201d he told the\u00a0Middle East Eye<\/em>. \u201cHowever, I had $1,000 transferred to my sister\u2019s account, which were for personal spendings, nothing else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0discovered last week that Safia al-Yazouri, who is believed to be Abdullah\u2019s sister, celebrated the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attacks across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. On the day of the massacre, she reportedly wrote on Facebook, \u201cAmen O Lord,\u201d and included an emoji of two hands clasped in gratitude and another emoji of a heart in the color green, which is seemingly a nod to the Hamas terrorist organization\u2019s main color.<\/span><\/p>\n

Safia has also voiced support for other attacks against Israel, according to\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>. In May 2023, she reposted a message on social media that applauded a rocket attack on Tel Aviv that closed Israel\u2019s main airport and added a heart emoji. She has also posted a picture depicting a map of the Gaza Strip next to a bullet.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mass Protests Continue Outside BBC Headquarters as Corporation Faces Intense Scrutiny for Gaza Documentary Shiryn Ghermezian Protesters outside the BBC headquarters in London on March 6, 2025. Photo: Nathan Lilienfeld\/Campaign Against Antisemitism Demonstrators gathered outside the London headquarters of the BBC on Thursday for a second week in a row to protest the corporation after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119713"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119728,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119713\/revisions\/119728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}