The BBC has stood by its decision to mistranslate the Arabic word for “Jew” as “Israeli” in subtitles on a Gaza documentary.

In interviews with Palestinian children on the Children of the Gaza War documentary, which aired last week, references to “yahud” (Arabic for “Jew”) were subtitled as “Israeli”.

The corporation received complaints from viewers after journalist Lyse Doucet told the JC that the decision was taken on the advice of Gazan translators.

She claimed that the Gazan children meant to say “Israeli” when they used the Arabic word for “Jew”.

The admission sparked outrage on social media, with some viewers claiming that the Corporation had deliberately attempted to cover up antisemitism in Gaza.

A BBC spokesperson said: “As our viewers would expect, the BBC produced an impartial and accurate portrayal of the experience of children on both sides of the conflict, this is equally true of how their own stories were translated.”

Israeli Noru Tsalic, who lives in Bushey, Hertfordshire, said: “I obviously felt very bad and slighted as an Israeli, a Jew and a member of the audience. I think the BBC is trying to hide the antisemitism among Palestinians.”

Mr Tsalic said he had complained in 2013 when a report on Gaza by journalist Jon Donnison on Radio 4’s PM programme included the same mistranslation.

The BBC refused to say exactly how many complaints were received, adding that it did not reveal the number when "there has been lobbying or where media coverage has influenced the number".