BBC accused of ‘whitewashing Gazan antisemitism’ over translations in dropped documentary

The BBC has been accused of “covering up Palestinian antisemitism” in yet more controversy over its dropped documentary on Gaza.

Campaign group the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) claimed that the BBC mistranslated the Arabic words “Yahud” or “Yahudi”, meaning Jew or Jewish, as “Israeli”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, there were at least five instances of this within the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which has now been pulled from all BBC platforms after it emerged that the teenage narrator of the documentary about the war in Gaza is the son of a senior Hamas official.

In an interview with one person who praised Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar for waging “jihad against the Jews”, her remarks were translated as Sinwar “fighting and resisting against Israeli forces”.

The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) has now demanded that the BBC change how it operates when it comes to their coverage of Israel.

Russell Langer, director of public affairs at the JLC told the JC that “The public are failed by attempts to sanitise the language of those featured in their documentary.”

He added: “This documentary continues to demonstrate the ongoing concern with the BBC's coverage of events in Israel which must now result in a change of approach."

However, BBC sources told the JC that previous complaints about the translation of “Yahud” or “Yahudi” as “Israeli” were judged to have been “an appropriate exercise of editorial judgment”.

In a separate documentary, also on Gaza, back in 2015 the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet defended a similar translation, saying: “We talked to people in Gaza, we talked to translators. When [the children] say ‘Jews’, they mean ‘Israelis’… We felt it was a better translation of it.”

However, the corporation has been under significant political pressure to answer questions regarding the new documentary, titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.

Following a meeting with the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie on Tuesday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said in a statement that she expressed “deep concern about the issues around their recent documentary on Gaza” and “pressed for answers on the checks and due diligence that the BBC carried out”.

She continued: “It is paramount that the investigation the BBC is conducting sheds light on what happened and who knew what when. I expect to be kept informed of the outcome of their investigation.”

That followed calls from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch for the BBC to formally investigate accusations that it is “systemically biased” against Israel. She also expressed concern over “allegations of potential collusion with Hamas, and the possibility of payment to Hamas officials” when it came to the documentary.

Yesterday evening, the Campaign Against Antisemitism organised a rally outside the BBC’s New Broadcasting House headquarters in central London in protest against the corporation’s output.

Michael Marlowe, the father of Jake Marlowe, a British-Israeli citizen who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 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.”

David Collier, the activist and investigator who first exposed Hamas’s links to the documentary accused the broadcaster of airing “a Hamas propaganda documentary”.

He added: “The only reason the BBC took down its documentary is because they were caught and this time – they had no excuses to hide behind.”

A BBC spokesperson told the JC that “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone features important stories we think should be told – those of the experiences of children in Gaza.”

They continued: “There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”