The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has issued an apology and clarification after unintentionally showcasing the son of a Hamas member in a documentary about Gaza. The film, titled "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone," premiered on Monday, and follows the lives of four young individuals living in war-torn Gaza. One of the subjects, a 13-year-old boy named Abdullah, also serves as the film's narrator.
However, investigative journalist David Collier revealed that Abdullah was actually the son of Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture. This led to a backlash against the film, and BBC consequently pulled it from its iPlayer platform for further investigation.
In response, the BBC issued a statement and committed to adding new text to the documentary that clearly explains Abdullah’s background. They also apologized for the omission in the original film. The new text will state that Abdullah’s father serves as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-led government in Gaza and that the production team maintained full editorial control during filming with Abdullah.
The documentary has been temporarily removed from the iPlayer as investigations continue. BBC stresses the importance of the stories featured in the documentary - the experiences of children in Gaza - and will conduct further due diligence with the production company.
The UK's Secretary of State for Culture, Lisa Nandy, has expressed her intention to discuss the film with BBC executives, emphasizing the importance of sourcing accuracy in such programs.
Several British TV personalities have written to the BBC questioning the editorial standards behind the project. They demanded that the BBC postpone any further broadcasts of the program, remove it from iPlayer, and suspend any social media clips of the program until an independent investigation is carried out.
This is not the first time the BBC has faced criticism for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The corporation has previously had to apologize and retract coverage related to the ongoing war.