Above photo: AP.
Staffers have repeatedly accused executives and editors at the British public broadcaster of having a strong pro-Israel bias.
And exhibiting racism against Arabs.
Over 500 film, TV, and media workers have condemned BBC executives for “racism” and “censorship” after the British broadcaster pulled a documentary highlighting the horrific impact the US–Israeli genocide in Gaza has had on Palestinian children.
“As industry professionals who craft stories for the British public, including for the BBC, we condemn the weaponization of a child’s identity and the racist insinuation that Palestinian narratives must be scrutinized through a lens of suspicion,” the letter reads.
The letter also condemned a “racist” and “dehumanizing” campaign targeting the film ‘Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone,’ which the BBC removed from its iPlayer streaming service after pressure from pro-Israel activists.
Keep sharing the Gaza documentary that the BBC removed from their website
https://t.co/8waYa9XEqb— Stephanie 🇵🇸🇾🇪🇱🇧 🌺 (@sldmfree) February 26, 2025
“If every documentary made in conflict zones were subjected to this level of politicized scrutiny regarding contributors, filmmaking in these areas would become virtually impossible,” the letter adds, highlighting that “silencing a child’s firsthand account of survival in Gaza, where over 13,000 children have been killed since October 2023, is not about compliance but about erasing Palestinian suffering.”
Signatories of the protest letter include Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Ruth Negga, Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla, and Miriam Margolyes.
The BBC previously said the documentary would not be available on its streaming platform while additional “due diligence” checks occur. The Telegraph claimed on 25 February that the BBC repeatedly mistranslated references to “the Jews” and “omitted praise of jihad” in the documentary.
Another complaint of pro-Israel activists was the inclusion in the documentary of 14-year-old Abdullah al-Yazouri, whose father, Dr Ayman al-Yazouri, served as Gaza’s deputy agriculture minister – a civil service role concerned with food production.
“Conflating such governance roles in Gaza with terrorism is both factually incorrect and dehumanizing. This broad-brush rhetoric assumes that Palestinians holding administrative roles are inherently complicit in violence – a racist trope that denies individuals their humanity and right to share their lived experiences,” the letter stresses.
Bafta-winning director Jasleen Kaur Sethi, who signed the letter, said: “At the heart of this film are children surviving a war zone, and as documentary-makers, we have a sacrosanct duty to protect them. The campaign to discredit this film has dehumanized them and shamefully risked putting their lives and safety in danger.”
An estimated 17,861 children are among the approximately 61,000 bodies recovered by Palestinian rescue services in Gaza since the start of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Thousands more are believed to be still trapped under millions of tons of rubble left behind by the US-backed ethnic cleansing campaign.
In December, Drop Site News revealed that BBC editor Raffi Berg has for months ensured that all events from Gaza are reported with a pro-Israel bias. “This guy’s entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel,” one former BBC journalist said.
Berg, who wrote a book praising clandestine Mossad operations, wields great power to influence perceptions of Israel’s war on Gaza as the BBC has the most-visited news site on the internet.