Kemi Badenoch calls for investigation into ‘systemic BBC bias against Israel’

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called on the BBC to formally investigate accusations that it is “systemically biased” against Israel.

The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the corporation’s Director General Tim Davie to express concerns over “allegations of potential collusion with Hamas, and the possibility of payment to Hamas officials” in relation to a recent documentary.

The broadcaster removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from all platforms, after it emerged that the teenage narrator of the documentary about the war in Gaza is the son of a senior Hamas official.

The corporation said it was conducting “further due diligence”, following the admission that Abdullah Al-Yazouri was the son of the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Hamas government.

Badenoch wrote: “It is well known that inside Gaza the influence of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas is pervasive.

“How could any programme from there be commissioned, without comprehensive work by the BBC to ensure that presenters or participants were – as far as possible – not linked to that appalling regime?”

Her letter, first reported by the Daily Mail, continued: “Would the BBC be this naive if it was commissioning content from North Korea or the Islamic Republic of Iran?”

In calling for a probe into “systemic BBC bias against Israel”, the Tory leader also chastised the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, claiming that “Israeli interlocutors are robustly interrogated, and Palestinian officials can speak with little challenge”.

She suggested that these claims were detrimental to the BBC’s “public standing” and that the Conservatives could not support the BBC’s licence fee system “without serious action”.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the BBC faced accusations of “whitewashing” Hamas propaganda after an article on the terror group’s handover ceremony for the bodies of murdered Israeli hostages, described banners, including images of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a vampire alongside slogans accusing him of being a Nazi war criminal, as “highlighting the catastrophic consequences of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the Palestinian determination to stay put”.

A BBC newsroom source told the JC: “How a top BBC correspondent can turn huge horrifying posters of Netanyahu as a zombie Dracula peering over the hostages, and rows and rows of Israeli coffins into simply 'imagery of the consequences of Israel's campaign' is deeply worrying. Worse still, nobody batted an eyelid. Serious questions need to be answered."

A BBC spokesperson rejected accusations of bias, stating: “We strongly reject this suggestion of bias. The BBC is committed to reporting the Israel-Gaza war impartially, with no agenda and to the highest standards.”

The BBC’s now-withdrawn documentary was also criticised by Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, a rumoured candidate to be the country’s next ambassador to London, who told GB News that “The British people shouldn’t have to pay for Hamas propaganda”.

Caroline Dinenage MP, the Conservative chair of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee told the Daily Telegraph that she would seek to question BBC officials at the earliest possible opportunity.

“It is something that will be of huge concern. You just want to feel that the BBC is impartial and is doing their due diligence”, she added.

Prior to the documentary being pulled by the BBC, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told LBC that she would be discussing the documentary with Davie.

She said on Thursday: "This is a conversation I'll definitely be having with the Director General... Particularly about the way they sourced the people in the programme.”

A spokesperson for the BBC said they would be responding to Badenoch’s letter “in due course”.

Yesterday, a source close to the BBC board told the Sunday Times that it is taking a “very real” interest in the matter ahead of a board meeting on Tuesday.

They added: “The BBC is currently doing additional diligence on the documentary and the board will want to see the outcome of that work once complete. The board has a scheduled meeting later this week where this matter is on the agenda”.