On the evening of February 17th, BBC Two aired what it described as a “dramatic documentary” titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”. The synopsis to that programme includes the following:
“Israel does not allow foreign journalists to report independently in Gaza. To make this film, two producers based in London remotely directed two cameramen on the ground in Gaza over nine months, gaining access to key locations out of reach to foreign press.”
David Collier provided more information about the producers and cameramen involved in making that film as well as some of its featured protagonists. As reported by the Jewish News:
“The BBC faces claims that it failed to disclose that a teenager who appeared as the main narrator in a harrowing film on the impact of Israel’s war in Gaza is the son of a senior Hamas minister.
The corporation is also accused of turning a blind-eye to the hardline anti-Israel positions of those who made the documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, aired on BBC2 on Monday night.”
Two days after the film was first aired, the BBC issued a clarification:
Prior to its initial broadcast – and despite being available only to UK based viewers – that documentary was promoted on BBC World Service radio and on the BBC News website in written and filmed items.
“‘We followed lives of three children surviving war in Gaza. Here’s what we found’” Jamie Roberts, 15/2/25
“Boy, 11, living alone in Gaza hospital, has ‘witnessed scenes no child should see’” 15/2/25
“Zakaria is 11 and helps at one of the biggest hospitals in Gaza – al-Aqsa – under the mentorship of an experienced paramedic. As war raged across the strip, he could be found carrying wounded and traumatised victims into the emergency ward for treatment, wiping blood from his hands as he went about his duties. He says he has seen thousands of dead bodies.
He is one of three children who are the focus of a new BBC documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. Others featured include Renad, 10, who stars in her own cookery show on social media, and Abdullah, 13, who leads the viewers on a tour of the “humanitarian zone” as he narrates the programme.
The documentary was directed from the UK by Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash, working with Gaza-based cameramen Amjad Al Fayoumi and Ibrahim Abu Ishaib.”
One part of that filmed report is particularly notable in light of past BBC content. According to the sub-titles, eleven-year-old Zakaria tells the BBC team that:
“We left our home because of shelling and bombs. We were happy but the Israeli’s [sic] destroyed everything and so did Hamas.”
Except that Zakaria did not say the word Israelis – he used the term ‘Yahud’ – i.e. Jews.
Longtime readers may recall that this is not the first time that the BBC has chosen to mistranslate the term ‘Yahud’ when reporting about children in the Gaza Strip.
In July 2015 the Jewish Chronicle reported that:
“A BBC documentary has substituted the word “Israelis” for “Jews” in its translation of interviews with Palestinians, its maker has admitted.
Lyse Doucet has stood by the decision to translate “yahud” as “Israeli” in subtitles on her hour-long documentary Children of the Gaza War, which airs on BBC Two tonight.
The correct translation for “yahud” from Arabic to English is “Jew”.
The BBC’s chief international correspondent said that Gazan translators had advised her that Palestinian children interviewed on the programme who refer to “the Jews” actually meant Israelis.
In one instance, a Gazan child says the “yahud” are massacring Palestinians. However the subtitles read: “Israel is massacring us”.”
As noted here at the time, that was not the first time that the BBC had mistranslated the Arabic word ‘Yahud’. In February 2013 the same issue arose in a series of multi-platform reports by Jon Donnison – the BBC’s Gaza correspondent at the time.
“Another version of the same story was also featured on Radio 4’s ‘PM’ programme on February 26th […]. In that version, at 43:37, one can hear a translator interpret the words of interviewee Nour Adwan as “If we meet an Israeli and they are speaking in Hebrew..”. Sharp eared listeners will notice that the fifteen-year-old actually says the word “Yahud” – Jew – in Arabic rather than “Israeli”, but for some reason, the BBC chose to modify that in translation.”
Following a complaint about that mistranslation, the BBC’s Editorial Standards Committee at the time produced a decision which included the following: [emphasis added]
“The complaint concerned the translation of the Arabic word “Al-Yahoud” in an item about Hebrew being taught in Hamas-run schools in Gaza. The complainant said that the term translates literally into English as “the Jews” and it was inaccurate for the programme to have translated this as “an Israeli” in the English voice over. The complainant alleged that this was a mistranslation which was materially misleading. […]
The Committee concluded:
that it was not the case that only a literal translation would have met audience expectation for due accuracy.
that no interpretation of the editorial guidelines requires content producers to make direct word-for-word translations without also taking account of relevant context.”
BBC TRUST ESC RULES: NO REQUIREMENT TO TRANSLATE ACCURATELY
In other words, already well over a decade ago the BBC had given itself carte blanche to blur language indicative of the indoctrination of children in the Gaza Strip which produces not only would-be paramedics and TikTok cooks as showcased in this documentary but also the next generation of terrorists committed to killing ‘Yahud’, in whom the BBC shows remarkably less interest.
Related Articles:
THE HISTORY – AND THE BBC TRUST DECISION – BEHIND LYSE DOUCET’S MISTRANSLATION OF ‘YAHUD’
BBC DOES KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE ‘YAHUD’ – WHEN IT IS SAID IN THE UK
BBC CONTINUES TO SIDELINE HAMAS EXPLOITATION OF GAZA HUMANITARIAN ZONE
BBC documentary: ‘A child’s view of the SS and the Jews by the son of an SS officer.’
Just when you thought the BBC had plumbed the depths of moral depravity.
When are they going to sack these film-maker.
The BBC should be definded. Then they can be as biased and depraved as they like.
Thankfully the Labour Government are calling in the top brass at the BBC to explain themselves. The BBC has now officially become a mouthpiece of Hamas. They have also commissioned a programme to deal with “settler violence”. The fact that seems to have escaped these terrorist enablers is that in 2024 there were over 2000 terrorist attacks by their chummies against Jews in Judea and Samaria and a substantial decrease in, by comparison, the miniscule alleged attacks by Jews against Arabs.