The British Telegraph newspaper criticized the BBC for its positive portrayal of a unit of the Hamas terrorist group. In a recent video clip, the BBC Arabic channel portrayed the “shadow unit” of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigade as merely “guarding” kidnapped Israeli hostages, without any reference to the starvation and torture endured by the hostages. The video has since been edited by the BBC
According to the Telegraph, the controversial BBC video featured female Israeli hostages who “thanked” their captors for the treatment they received. The report comes as BBC Arabic faces mounting criticism that it has given a platform to hate and terror, with Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, saying it was “fomenting extremism and misleading audiences.”
These concerns emerged just weeks after the BBC was forced to pull a controversial documentary on Gaza which featured the son of a Hamas government minister as the narrator without informing viewers of his parentage.
In the video, published at the end of January, BBC Arabic described the Al-Qassam Brigade as “responsible for securing the hostages” and portrayed the terrorists as “guarding the Israeli hostages,” according to a translation from Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.
“Its mission is to secure the hostages and hide them from view in Gaza,” the report added, according to the translation. The video from Jan. 30 claimed that Al-Qassam had shown footage of “soldiers as they thank the unit’s personnel for the ‘good treatment’ while in custody,” completely ignoring the fact that the hostages did so under duress.
Following a complaint from Camera, the broadcaster updated the report to remove the section claiming hostages had received good treatment and added evidence of Hamas abuse of those held captive. In response to the complaint, BBC News stated that “the report was both duly accurate and contained due context for the issue it was focused on.” However, Camera has now escalated the complaint to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit.
Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, described the organization’s reporting of the conflict as propaganda for the terror group.
“This is a jaw-dropping piece of propaganda – a puff piece on war criminals who have executed, starved, beaten and sexually assaulted the hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7,” Cohen said. “The shadow unit are not ‘guards’ tasked with keeping hostages safe, they are monstrous terrorists who have committed unspeakable crimes,” he added.
Cohen further criticized the broadcaster, saying: “Part-funded by license fee and part-funded by taxpayers, BBC Arabic pumps antisemitic poison and terrorist propaganda out to a global Arab-speaking audience of 38 million people.”
He noted that Camera this week published a 33-page report detailing how “BBC Arabic has given a platform to extremists and succor to terrorists for years.
“This video shows what now cannot be in any doubt – that the rot of anti-Jewish hate that festers within BBC Arabic must be rooted out,” Cohen concluded.
Hadar Sela of Camera emphasized that the shadow unit was complicit in kidnapping and torture and should not be featured “uncritically” on the BBC.
“To uncritically platform the Hamas claim that hostages were thankful for their care is as offensive as it is inaccurate, and to omit the horrific reality of the torture and execution of hostages shows once again why the rot of BBC Arabic needs to be rooted out,” she added.
A BBC spokesman defended the video, saying: “This short video report explains to audiences the history of a little-known Hamas unit which featured in reports during the recent release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
“Although the initial report was accurate and correctly describes the group as guarding not protecting the hostages, it has since been amended to provide additional context and clarification to audiences,” the spokesman added.
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