Activists Condemn BBC’s Apology Over ‘Censored’ Gaza Doc

By Staff, Agencies

Pro-Palestinian activists have criticized the BBC for pulling a documentary about "Israel’s" genocidal war on the Gaza Strip from its streaming service, projecting the film on the British broadcaster’s Scotland office.

Holding Palestinian flags, the activists from the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee gathered outside the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow on Sunday and chanted slogans such as “Boycott the BBC” and “Don’t pay the license fee”.

They denounced the BBC’s “shameful” decision to remove the documentary, titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”, from iPlayer and screened it back on the corporation’s building in Glasgow.

The film, which was produced by independent company Hoyo Films, aired on BBC Two on February 16. Five days later, however, it was taken down following complaints from those advocating "Israel’s" genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Pro-"Israel" activists piled pressure on the BBC after it was revealed that the film’s 13-year-old English-speaking narrator, Abdullah, was the son of a deputy minister for agriculture in Gaza, Ayman al-Yazouri.

In an open letter to the BBC, hundreds of TV and film professionals, as well as journalists, called the broadcaster’s decision to remove the program “politically motivated censorship.”

They also condemned the “racist assumptions and weaponization of identity” regarding the narrator’s background

Meanwhile, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians decried the concerns raised about the documentary, urging the BBC to “stand firm against these attempts to prevent first-hand accounts of life in Gaza from reaching audiences.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said the film had been pulled due to pressure from “anti-Palestinian activists who have largely shown no sympathy for persons in Gaza suffering from massive bombardment, starvation, and disease.”

“This documentary humanized Palestinian children in Gaza in a way that gave valuable insights into what life is like in this horrific warzone day in, day out,” he told the Middle East Eye news portal.