CAA to protest at BBC on Thursday over payment to senior Hamas family

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be demonstrating outside BBC Broadcasting House at 19:00 on Thursday 6th March.

Over the past weeks, the BBC has been engulfed in scandal, following its publication of the so-called documentary, ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’.

Last week, the BBC shared an e-mail with staff and released statements regarding the progress of its internal review into the documentary. In the e-mail, it admitted to ‘serious flaws’ and confirmed that licence fee payers’ money was handed to the family of a senior Hamas official.

The payment was for the appearance of a boy in the film. Clearly the filmmakers knew who the boy’s family were because they paid them, but rather than the boy’s actual family appearing in the film, audiences were shown a fake family to hide the truth of his real family’s deep involvement with Hamas. The BBC says that it maintained full editorial control and responsibility for the film.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for an independent investigation and for a suspension of the licence fee pending the outcome of that investigation.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “A national treasure has become a national embarrassment. The BBC has now admitted that licence fee funds were paid to the family of a senior Hamas official. It has not yet been able to rule out that further payments to Hamas were made as it continues to investigate where hundreds of thousands of pounds went. It is unconscionable that the British public should have to pay a licence fee to an organisation that gives that money to proscribed terrorists. That is why we invite everyone to join us at 19:00 on Thursday outside the Broadcasting House. Enough is enough. We refuse to fund terrorists.”