For Gaza, for Hamas, for Discussion

 

The young man in the photo above is called Abdullah Al-Yazouri. He is the news at the moment because he was the presenter of  the BBC documentary " Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone". I have watched the programme, and have to say that, for a 13-year old boy, he did a good job. The programme focused upon several Gazans and their struggles for survival in the midst of the war. There was a young boy who lived in a hospital, helping with patients. There was a young woman who was bringing up her newborn child in a draughty tent. The programme depicted the plight of Palestinians suffering from Israeli bombing, as well as the pressure on ordinary Gazans to change location when directed by the Israeli army. What I did not know was the fact that Abdullah is the son of a Hamas leader - Dr Ayman al-Yazouri, the deputy minister for agriculture. According to other reports, he is the grandson of a Hamas founder member.

The investigative reporter who discovered this, David Collier, has said;  

'The naivety, stupidity and arrogance of our media has long been apparent. It has allowed Palestinian propagandists to turn our legacy channels into foolish outlets blindly spouting Hamas lies 24/7.'

By "our media", Collier means the BBC, and the backlash against the BBC has been one of increasing fury. Danny Cohen, the ex- BBC director said: 

'The BBC appears to have given an hour of prime-time coverage to the son of a senior member of the Hamas terrorist group. Either they were not aware of the terrorist links because they did not carry out the most basic journalistic checks or the BBC did know and misled audiences about the family's deep involvement with terrorism.'

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has expressed her disquiet, saying that she will raise the matter with BBC management:  "particularly around the way in which they sourced the people who were featured in the programme".

 

The former Tory Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has joined the chorus, saying: 

"I’m the Home Secretary that prescribed (sic) Hamas, so I don’t need to add much more to that at all," Dame Priti told Nick Ferrari of LBC on Thursday."And I think the BBC has been under a great deal of scrutiny over their reluctance, let’s put it this way. Their reluctance to call Hamas a terrorist organisation - which is exactly what they are."

The BBC has responded, some might think feebly, by saying that they had not been informed of the family connection by the independent producers. The Beeb has apologised for the omission, and has been forced to issue a statement, saying: 

"We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film... a powerful child's eye view of the devastating consequences of the war in Gaza which we believe is an invaluable testament ... and we must meet our commitment to transparency."

Despite calls to ban the film, the BBC has refused to axe the programme, adding a cautionary information message.* See Footnote below.

Personally speaking, I agree that the Beeb should have done their homework, but I think they are right not to delete the programme. I would have watched it, even had I known of  Abdullah's parentage, though it would have forewarned me that there was a propaganda purpose to the film. Unlike the BBC, I have no hesitation in describing Hamas as a terror organisation, and I hope that previous posts of mine on this topic make that clear. It was obvious that the programme was intended as an emotionally persuading piece of work, with its depiction of casualties, destruction and indiscriminate bombing seen through the eyes of children. But this is standard practice for propagandists, as Britannica says:  

"Propagandists have a specified goal or set of goals. To achieve these, they deliberately select facts, arguments, and displays of symbols and present them in ways they think will have the most effect. To maximize effect, they may omit or distort pertinent facts ..."

And it didn't take much to see that this film fitted the bill admirably. No mention was made of the Hamas incursion of 7/10/23, nor were the atrocities of Hamas or the Israeli hostages. Cleverly, one Gazan was shown who did make a brief criticism of Hamas. It was a nod to impartiality and I hope the person interviewed didn't suffer for it afterwards. Yet, the overall impression was of a beleaguered, united people standing firm in the face of aggression. 

I saw nothing to cause me to revise my view that Hamas are to blame for the present war by their murderous invasion of Israeli territory. I agree that the the Israeli campaign is excessive and indiscriminate, but, I say again, Hamas knew this would happen and wanted it to happen, as I have expounded elsewhere. My concern here is that the BBC has played into the hands of its critics (much as the Israelis have played into the hands of Hamas) and there will be further attacks on its status, which is happening now, over this issue.

* Footnote, 21/2/25: The programme has been deleted from BBC iPlayer as of today.