Protesters tell the BBC: “Stop whitewashing terrorism”
This evening, protesters gathered at the Broadcasting House to demand that the BBC stops whitewashing terrorism.
The protest was organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism, following the broadcast of a documentary that was tantamount to a Hamas propaganda film.
The crowd was addressed by Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, who said: “The BBC has become a mouthpiece for terror. It cannot call terrorism by its name. The BBC has become a spokesperson for terrorists.”
We then heard from investigative researcher David Collier, who exposed the BBC in his investigation into the documentary, who said: “Last Monday night, the BBC aired a Hamas propaganda documentary. Four days later they took it down. But let us be clear about one key point. They did not take it down because it was raw Hamas propaganda. They did not take it down because it was full of distortion and lies. They did not even take it down because it featured continuity issues and children reading from their Hamas written scripts. All of those issues may be true – but the key point is this: The only reason the BBC took down its documentary is because they were caught and this time – they had no excuses to hide behind.”
Michael Marlowe, the father of Jake Marlowe, who was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists during the 7th October attack, told the crowd: “For decades, the BBC stood as the bastion of honest and trustworthy reporting. It was the world’s first port of call for global and national news, respected for its integrity and neutrality. But that BBC is long gone.”
Broadcaster and comedian Josh Howie declared on stage that he would no longer be paying his license fee, saying: “Jews and and non-Jews are here together to tell the BBC we’ve had enough. Together we declare: ‘No to a licence of hate.’”
Those in attendance also observed a minute’s silence for those that were murdered on 7th October 2023 and hostages who were since murdered in Hamas captivity and those still being held.
What are we calling for?
- Licence-fee funds: We have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act asking whether the BBC made payments in relation to its ‘Gaza How to Survive a War Zone’ so-called documentary, to whom and in what amounts. This is an opportunity for the BBC to come clean on whether licence fee funds have gone to Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, or those associated with it. It is time for transparency, and resignations.
- Regulation: The BBC must stop being allowed to mark its own homework. Currently the BBC reviews complaints about its coverage and appeals of those complaints, and only further appeals go to Ofcom. This is unique, as complaints regarding all other broadcasters go directly to Ofcom. It is time to bring regulation of the BBC into line with other broadcasters.
- Independent inquiry: Recent events have not occurred in a vacuum. For sixteen months, we have watched our national broadcaster provide ever more sympathetic coverage to a proscribed terrorist organisation, and that follows decades of biased coverage. Our polling shows the overwhelming majority — 92% — of British Jews believe media bias against Israel fuels antisemitism, and look on the BBC’s coverage disfavorably (it performs the worst among broadcasters). We need a full and independent inquiry into the BBC’s coverage of the Jewish state.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The absolute scandal of this so-called documentary is the tip of the iceberg. We’ve shown how the BBC also literally copy and paste phrases from Hamas spokespeople and quote them as fact. The BBC have become spokespeople for terrorists. They might know that if they were prepared to acknowledge terrorism and call it by its name, but sixteen months since 7th October and they still can’t call Hamas what they are.
“We all came out this evening because it is time for transparency and accountability. We need to know if licence fee funds went to Hamas, we need to know how a Hamas propaganda programme was broadcast, we need resignations and we finally need an independent inquiry into BBC bias against the Jewish state. The problem is clear to everyone now – except, apparently, the BBC. That’s when you know there’s an institutional problem.”
Background
In the past week alone, the BBC has demonstrated time and again how it has become a mouthpiece for terrorists.
Broadcasting Hamas propaganda film
Last week, BBC Two broadcast a documentary called “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”. It was directed by Yousef Hammash and Jamie Roberts and purported to follow the lives of four young people during the current Hamas-Israel war in the Strip.
The independent researcher David Collier investigated the protagonists and has alleged that one of the principal children featured in the film who also serves as the documentary’s narrator – Abdullah Al-Yazouri – is related to a senior Hamas official.
Al-Yazouri featured in a Channel 4 documentary last year, where he reportedly appeared under the name Abdullah Abu Shamala alongside a man claiming to be his father. That man, whom Mr Collier identified as Khalil Abushammla, is a former Director of anti-Israel NGO Al-Dameer, which allegedly has links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group.
Al-Yazouri’s real father is allegedly Mr Khalil’s brother-in-law, Ayman Al-Yazouri, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Hamas Government in Gaza.
This would hardly be the first time that Gazans have played roles for gullible Western media, which has failed to do due diligence or has played along for reasons of convenience or ideology.
Mr Collier’s research makes further allegations about these individuals.
The BBC has essentially published long-form propaganda for an antisemitic genocidal terror organisation with licence-fee funds.
These broadcasts have real-life consequences for British Jews, 92% of whom rate our national broadcaster’s coverage of matters of Jewish interest as unfavourable, according to our polling.
Providing a megaphone for Hamas claims
Days after allegations that our national broadcaster published Hamas propaganda, it finally offered a flimsy apology in which it stated that it will air the so-called documentary again but will “add some more detail to the film”.
Then it provided a stage for stomach-churning claims from the very same antisemitic genocidal group.
How about pointing out that the hostages — including a baby and a four-year-old whom the terrorists kidnapped — would still be alive had they not been taken from their home by Hamas in the first place?
Why does the BBC insist on treating Hamas as though it were some neutral party?
It is a proscribed terrorist organisation that has explicitly stated its goal is the annihilation of Jews and Israelis wherever they may be around the world.
How can the BBC claim that this article is provided “For context” without providing that context?
How can they tell their worldwide audience and the British public who pay their salaries that Hamas says “it would have preferred to have returned them alive” when Hamas’s goal is the murder of every Jew?
(This was before Israeli examinations appeared to suggest that these hostages were murdered in cold blood and not killed by an Israeli airstrike as Hamas had claimed.)
All that the BBC has done is provide a megaphone for Hamas’s bogus and insulting claims.
Coverage of the Hamas ‘handover’ ceremony
But it got worse still.
Here is how the BBC summarised the transfer of the four coffins of dead hostages, and the picture that it published of the backdrop of the cruel and twisted Hamas ‘handover’ ceremony.
What the BBC carefully excluded from the picture of smiling (now dead) hostages was the antisemitic portrayal of the Israeli Prime Minister as a blood-sucking vampire looming over the pictures of the hostages who were abducted by Hamas and killed in captivity.
The BBC summary failed in its coverage to say anything more than that the ceremony was similar to previous choreographed events.
For some reason, our public broadcaster opted not to mention that Gazan civilians reportedly participated in the ceremony and danced to celebratory music as the coffins of dead Jewish children lay before them.
The BBC also declined to report that the coffins were labelled “date of arrest: 7th October 2023”, that they were apparently locked with no key provided to the Israelis, and that they had to be checked for explosives, given Hamas’s history and its aspiration to murder as many Jews as it can.
This was before it was discovered by Israeli authorities that the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas or indeed of any hostage. After that discovery, things still did not improve.
The “mix-up”
In a post and in its news article, the BBC referred to Hamas’s failure to hand over the body of Shiri Bibas as a mere ‘mix-up’.
They did not put that phrase in inverted commas, instead portraying the assertion of a mix-up as a fact.
In reality, however, the phrase is a quote from a Hamas spokesperson – who claimed that the bodies of people killed in an Israeli airstrike were simply “mixed-up”, which was purportedly why Shiri Bibas’s body was confused with another.
But that was nonsense, as Israel later determined that Shiri and her infant child and baby were murdered in cold blood.
Still, it did not stop the BBC from parroting the Hamas propaganda verbatim and representing it as fact, rendering the broadcaster in effect literally a spokesperson for Hamas.
Further revelations
The so-called documentary has since also come under fire regarding a second child and other protagonists.
Furthermore, this week, fresh allegations have surfaced that one of the cameramen in the making of the film, Hatem Rawagh, celebrated Hamas’ brutal attack on social media.
On the day of the attack, one of the posts on his account reportedly read, “Whoever missed Oct 6 in Egypt … Oct 7 is happening in Palestine,” in an apparent reference to the Yom Kippur war in 1973.
Another post, which was published the following day on the account, showed a video of an Israeli soldier being shot by a terrorist with the caption: “You are going to come back to this video a million times.”
It is time for the BBC to stop whitewashing terrorism and serving as spokespeople for terrorists. There must be an independent investigation into the BBC’s bias in relation to its Middle East coverage.
Thank you to everyone who came out this evening to make your voices heard.
Image credit: Nathan Lilienfeld/Campaign Against Antisemitism
