Latest news with #Abdullahal-Yazuri
Middle East Eye
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
BBC review says pulled Gaza documentary did not break impartiality rules
A BBC investigation into the airing of a documentary on children in Gaza, narrated by the son of a Palestinian official, has found that the corporation did not breach its impartiality rules. Just four days after the documentary, Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone, aired on 17 February, the BBC pulled it from its streaming platform, iPlayer, following an intense campaign by pro-Israel groups and rival British media outlets. Pro-Israel activist David Collier alleged that the boy who narrated the film, Abdullah al-Yazuri, was the son of a deputy minister in Gaza's government and was related to a co-founder of Hamas, Ibrahim al-Yazuri, who died in 2021. Collier, whose revelations sparked a national scandal, described Abdullah as the "child of Hamas royalty", a claim later repeated by mainstream British newspapers. Monday's long-awaited review, which was conducted by Peter Johnston, the corporation's head of Editorial Complaints and Reviews who is independent of its management, found that three members of Hoyo Films, the independent production company that produced the film, knew of the father's position as deputy minister of agriculture, but no-one within the BBC knew this before the broadcasting of the documentary. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The review said the BBC had breached its editorial guidelines in terms of accuracy by failing to disclose the boy's ties to Hamas. However, the review found that there were no other breaches of editorial guidelines, including impartiality. It also found no evidence "to support the suggestion that the narrator's father or family influenced the content of the programme in any way". War on Gaza: How the BBC sanitises Israel's genocide Read More » The Media watchdog Ofcom said later on Monday that it would conduct its own investigation into the airing of the documentary. The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, had told MPs the broadcaster had received hundreds of complaints alleging the documentary was biased against Israel, as well as hundreds more criticising the programme's removal from its streaming service. Middle East Eye revealed earlier this year that the boy's father was in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background and had previously worked for the UAE's education ministry and studied at British universities. The narrator's father also disputed the allegations against him, saying his full name is Ayman Hasan Abdullah al-Yazuri, whereas the Hamas founder's full name was Ibrahim Fares Ahmed al-Yazuri. He added that his father was named Hasan and died in 1975. "Our family is not as some claim," he told MEE, insisting he was not "Hamas royalty". "There are many individuals within our family who are affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), including some in leadership positions within these movements." Ministers, bureaucrats and civil servants in Gaza are appointed by Hamas, while in the West Bank, they are appointed by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
Middle East Eye
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Prominent health workers accuse BBC of 'censorship' for withholding film on Gaza medics
Prominent health workers have written to the BBC expressing "profound outrage" over its decision to delay the broadcast of a new film about doctors working in Gaza, which they say is "censorship by omission". The documentary, Gaza: Medics Under Fire, was ready to broadcast in February but was pulled because of a scandal that erupted over another BBC documentary on children in Gaza, entitled How to Survive a Warzone. The BBC launched a review into the film after the Israeli embassy in London and British ministers criticised it over revelations that its 13-year-old narrator Abdullah al-Yazuri's father is a technocrat in Gaza's Hamas-administered government. Britain's public broadcaster has said it will broadcast Gaza: Medics Under Fire after the review into the earlier documentary has been concluded, although it is not clear when that will be. The new film has been signed off by the broadcaster's lawyers, and the BBC reportedly abandoned an earlier plan to screen the film despite the review. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Amira Nimerawi, the CEO of Health Workers 4 Palestine, Dr Omar Abel Mannan, its founder and president, and Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the rector of Glasgow University who worked in Gaza's hospitals in 2023, were among healthcare workers who signed an open letter to the BBC's Director-General Tim Davie on Thursday. "This is not a neutral editorial choice," they wrote. "The BBC's refusal to air this film constitutes censorship by omission, and it is no less dangerous than overt propaganda. "By denying the public access to this crucial testimony, the BBC is actively shielding war crimes from scrutiny and undermining its own stated commitment to impartiality, truth, and public service." 'No moral or professional reason' Basement Films, the documentary's producer, said it was "deeply disappointed" at the BBC's decision, adding: "There is no moral or professional reason why a mistake in one film should repeatedly prevent the release of another film. "We gathered searing testimony from multiple Palestinian doctors and health workers who had survived attacks on hospitals and their homes that killed both colleagues and loved ones. The Settlers: Louis Theroux takes an unflinching look at the Israelis intent on stealing the West Bank Read More » "We also spoke to multiple medics who had been detained and testified they had been tortured, and we made solemn undertakings that their stories would be told, and done so as soon as possible." Basement Films added: "The film has been made by an experienced and multi-award-winning team both from Basement Films, and the BBC. It has been fact-checked, complied and signed off multiple times within the BBC, as well as experts we consulted with. "We are desperate for a confirmed release date in order to be able to tell the surviving doctors and medics when their stories will be told." The letter on Thursday noted that the health workers featured in the BBC film "have witnessed countless colleagues being killed, and have risked their lives not only to care for their patients, but to document and expose the relentless targeting by Israel of healthcare infrastructure and personnel". A spokesperson for the BBC said: "We are committed to journalism which tells our audiences the stories of this war, including what is happening in Gaza. "This documentary is a powerful piece of reporting and we will broadcast it as soon as possible. We have taken an editorial decision not to do so while we have an ongoing review into a previous documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone." This comes just over a week after the BBC aired Louis Theroux's film The Settlers, which recived enormous attention and focused on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Middle East Eye
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
BBC accused of violating own child protection guidelines in Gaza documentary
The BBC is facing mounting criticism for "failing in its duty of care" to the 13-year-old Palestinian narrator of the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, who said he has experienced intense online harassment and abuse amid the British broadcaster's withdrawal of the film. The documentary, which sheds light on the experiences of children in Gaza amid Israel's assault through the eyes of narrator Abdullah al-Yazuri, was abruptly removed from the BBC iPlayer, after a campaign centred on al-Yazuri's relationship to a minister in the enclave's Hamas-run government. Abdullah's father Ayman al-Yazuri, who is a deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza, has been labelled by media and pundits as a "Hamas chief" while he is in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background, who has previously worked for the UAE's education ministry and studied at British universities. Speaking exclusively to Middle East Eye this week, Abdullah explained that he and his family have been the targets of online abuse, adding that the affair has caused him serious 'mental pressure' and made him fear for his safety. 'I did not agree to the risk of me being targeted in any way before the documentary was broadcast on the BBC. So [if] anything happens to me, the BBC is responsible for it," he said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The boy also said the BBC had not reached out to him to apologise. His interview with MEE about his experiences has sparked a debate on media ethics and the broadcaster's responsibility to protect children it works with. "I posted about this concern shortly after BBC pulled this documentary," said Chris Doyle, chair of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, responding to Abdullah's video. "BBC has a duty of care. The BBC used these children, aired their stories, but then ditched and dumped on them. Not one of the anti-Palestinian mob have expressed one iota of concern that I have seen." I worked on a doc for @BBC and we went to GREAT lengths to protect the children we worked with per their policy below. Abdullah, the child in the Gaza doc, says he is facing online threats after the film was dropped — the BBC is responsible for his safety. They must rectify this. — Ahmed Eldin | احمد الدين (@ASE) March 6, 2025 "[The BBC] has completely failed in its duty of care," Artists for Palestine UK said. "It is playing politics with the lives of children traumatised by 17 months of genocidal violence." Several journalists and social media users have highlighted Section 9 of the BBC's editorial guidelines concerning children and young people as contributors, which states that the BBC "must take due care over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of under-18s who take part or are otherwise involved in our editorial content, irrespective of any consent given by them or by a parent, guardian or other person acting in loco parentis. Their welfare must take priority over any editorial requirement". The guidelines also emphasise that "protecting children and young people online is a shared responsibility for the BBC, parents/guardians, and the under-18 concerned". This is what the BBC Editorial guidelines say about protecting children that it works with. Abdullah, the child in the Gaza doco, says that after the film was dropped he and his family received online threats. He says, the BBC is responsible for his welfare. He's right: — Sangita Myska (@SangitaMyska) March 6, 2025 MEE reached out to the BBC to ask whether it had taken the steps outlined in the section, including guidelines that dictate that if a person under 18 is suspected to be at risk in the course of their work, 'the situation must be referred promptly to the divisional Working with Children Adviser or, for independent production companies, to the commissioning editor'. Section 9 further states that "procedures, risk assessments and contingencies for the impact of participating on an individual's emotional and mental well-being and welfare may be appropriate in some circumstances". A spokesperson said: "The BBC takes its duty of care responsibilities very seriously, particularly when working with children, and has frameworks in place to support these obligations" and directed MEE to its public statement on the documentary. 'Put a target on a 13-year-old' Social media users accuse the BBC of exposing Abdullah to danger, and say the broadcaster has a responsibilty to ensure his safety. "Abdullah says he's been targeted & the BBC hasn't reached out. As a former @BBCNews journalist I can tell you that child safeguarding is a key part of our training. To see none of it applied here is shocking & speaks to the dehumanisation of Palestinian children over months," a user wrote on X. .@DanFriedman81 immediately deleted his post calling to bomb a Palestinian child and his family, then blocked me. What a coward. — Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) March 5, 2025 Prominent British journalist Owen Jones described the BBC as having put "a target on the back of a 13 year old boy". Others underlined the larger media context in which the film was removed, arguing that it appeared to be another example of media bias against Palestinians. "Had the situation been reversed and an Israeli boy revealed to be the child of a junior minister in Netanyahu's government the BBC might have felt obliged to issue one of its 'corrections and clarifications' but it's highly unlikely the film would have been withdrawn and the - extremely vulnerable - production team humiliated in such a public manner," said journalist and film-maker Richard Sanders. Former BBC journalist Sangita Myska said the makers of the documentary "did not meet editorial standards of transparency" but this was unlikely to have made "a material difference to the overall accuracy of the film". "The BBC has apologised for the mistake, which was the right thing to do. Yet, the BBC's inconsistent application of editorial standards across its coverage (eg, over-scrutiny of some Palestinan sources vs under-scrutiny of some Israeli ones) means 'public trust' was dropping well before this controversy," she continued. British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, an emeritus professor of international relations at Oxford, told MEE that the pulling of the film was 'only the latest example of the public broadcaster's regular capitulation to pressure from the pro-Israel lobby'. — Just Jews (@JustJewsUK) March 5, 2025 Tayab Ali, the director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, wrote: "It terrifies those complicit in war crimes and genocide to see Palestinian children as not only human but eloquent. They would rather erase him, label him, dismiss him, silence him - than let the world hear his voice." "Censorship won't hide the truth. Abdullah's story, and the suffering of Gaza's children, must be heard," he added.
Middle East Eye
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Palestinian official in BBC documentary row denies he and son are 'Hamas royalty'
The father of the 13-year-old Palestinian boy at the heart of the row in Britain over a BBC documentary on Gaza has denied claims that he and his son are "Hamas royalty" in an interview with Middle East Eye. Just four days after the documentary Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone aired on 17 February, the BBC pulled it from its streaming platform, iPlayer, following an intense campaign by pro-Israel groups and rival British media outlets. The comments came after pro-Israel activist David Collier alleged that Abdullah al-Yazuri, the boy who narrated the film, was the son of a deputy minister in Gaza's government and was related to a co-founder of Hamas, Ibrahim al-Yazuri, who died in 2021. Collier, whose revelations sparked a national scandal, described Abdullah as the "child of Hamas royalty", a claim later repeated by mainstream British newspapers. But speaking exclusively to Middle East Eye from Gaza this week, the official, who is British-educated, denied that he was related to the Hamas founder. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters He said that his full name is Ayman Hasan Abdullah al-Yazuri, whereas the Hamas founder's full name was Ibrahim Fares Ahmed al-Yazuri. He added that his father was named Hasan and died in 1975. 'Our family is not as some claim' - Abdullah al-Yazuri, deputy minister of agriculture, Gaza "Our family is not as some claim," he told MEE, insisting he was not "Hamas royalty". "There are many individuals within our family who are affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), including some in leadership positions within these movements." Fatah is the party which governs the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. A British-educated technocrat Yazuri has been widely labelled a 'Hamas chief', 'Hamas official' and 'terror chief' by commentators and news organisations in Britain. Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, told the Daily Mail in February that "the BBC appears to have given an hour of prime-time coverage to the son of a senior member of the Hamas terrorist group". MEE revealed on 20 February that Yazuri is in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background who has previously worked for the UAE's education ministry and studied at British universities. He is a civil servant in Gaza's government - which is administered by Hamas. Many Palestinians in Gaza have family or other connections to Hamas, which runs the government. This means that anyone working in an official capacity must also work with Hamas. Labour MP Rupa Huq suggested during a session of the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday that the BBC's pulling of the documentary could be "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". She noted that "obviously transparency was lacking", but added: "This was a kid whose dad had that job title, and I know in some of these regimes, with the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, from having constituents there, and I know from Bangladesh, having roots there, to be a doctor you had to be in that party." Designing UAE textbooks The revelations come after 14-year-old Abdullah told MEE this week that the affair has caused him serious 'mental pressure' and made him fear for his safety. He said that when when he found out that the film had been taken down, he was devastated but added that the BBC had not reached out to him to apologise. Exclusive: Palestinian child in Gaza documentary row holds BBC responsible for fate Read More » MEE found that Ayman al-Yazuri taught chemistry in a high school in Dubai between 1995 and 2003. According to his CV, he also studied at British universities, gaining a masters degree in analytical chemistry from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in 2004. Yazuri then did a PhD in environmental analytical chemistry at the University of Huddersfield, which he completed in 2010. During that time, between 2003 and 2011, he was a specialist in the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Education, designing textbooks and editing the science curriculum. In 2011 he became an assistant deputy minister in Gaza's Ministry of Education. His current role as deputy minister of agriculture, which he began in July 2021, involves supervising and supporting "agricultural activities" in Gaza, "especially in the field of crops cultivation, livestock and fishing", according to his LinkedIn profile. The BBC has continued to face scrunity this week, with its chair telling MPs that revelations about the documentary were 'a dagger to the heart of the BBC's claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy'. Abdullah says he's been targeted & the BBC hasn't reached out. As a former @BBCNews journalist I can tell you that child safeguarding is a key part of our training. To see none of it applied here is shocking & speaks to the dehumanisation of Palestinian children over months. — Karishma (@KarishmaPatel99) March 6, 2025 Sir Vincent Fean, who was British consul-general to Jerusalem between 2010 and 2014, told MEE on Wednesday that the BBC and producers 'have a duty to protect the dignity and wellbeing of an innocent 13-year-old boy. 'They have failed, he is receiving hate-mail, and his mental health is suffering,' he said. 'He has done nothing to deserve this. Shame on them.' Former BBC journalist Sangita Myska said that Abdullah was right that the BBC is "responsible for his welfare", according to its editorial guidelines. A BBC spokesperson said: 'The BBC takes its duty of care responsibilities very seriously, particularly when working with children, and has frameworks in place to support these obligations.'
Al Bawaba
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Narrator of BBC's 'Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone' feels threatened
Published March 6th, 2025 - 10:51 GMT ALBAWABA - Abdullah al-Yazuri, the 13-year-old narrator behind BBC's deleted documentary 'Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone,' recently expressed concern for his life in an exclusive clip with the Middle East Eye. According to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), Abdullah is the son of Dr. Ayman Alyazouri, Gaza's deputy agriculture minister. The long-awaited documentary was pulled out after the BBC discovered that Abdullah, is the son of a Hamas leader due to an objection from the Israeli lobby. The 13-year-old boy said during the interview, "If anything happens to me, the BBC is responsible," and then expressed his disappointment as he had worked on it for nine months. Exclusive: "If anything happens to me, the BBC is responsible."Abdullah al-Yazuri, the 13-year-old narrator of Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, speaks to MEE after the BBC pulled the documentary. "I worked for nine months, and it was all wiped." — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 5, 2025 He stated further that neither his father nor mother influenced his lines during the documentary, but instead worked hand in hand with the documentary's producer. Abdullah added that he was threatened by anonymous individuals on social media by getting cyberbullied, harassed, stalked, and more. Abdullah also explained how these incidents affected his mental health and family. The "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone" documentary was filmed largely through the eyes of three children in Gaza with the main narrator named Abdullah Alyazouri. 13-year-old. "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone" documentary. (Photo: The hour-long documentary was produced by two directors, based in London, UK who worked remotely with two local cameramen. The documentary took more than nine months to be ready and was deleted after an objection from the Israeli lobby. In response to the BBC's decision to remove the documentary, several social media users uploaded the whole film on social media: © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
