In a strongly worded open letter to BBC leadership, a group of U.K.-based film and television professionals have condemned the broadcaster’s decision to remove the documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” from its streaming platform iPlayer.
High-profile signatories include Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Gary Lineker and Riz Ahmed. The letter has more that 450 signatories, Variety understands.
The documentary, which initially aired on BBC Two on Feb. 17, features 14-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri chronicling daily life in Gaza. The BBC pulled the program from its streaming service last week after revelations that Abdullah’s father, Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri, holds the position of deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
Hamas is the terrorist organization responsible for the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, killing about 1,200 people and sparking the war in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When announcing that it was pulling the doc, the BBC acknowledged its failure to disclose the narrator’s family ties to Hamas and said it would be conducting “further due diligence” with London-based production company Hoyo Films.
The open letter, addressed to BBC chair Samir Shah, director general Tim Davie and chief content officer Charlotte Moore, characterizes the removal as “politically motivated censorship” and defends the documentary as “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinian children living in unimaginable circumstances.”
The signatories strongly reject the conflation of civil service roles in Gaza with terrorism, calling it “both factually incorrect and dehumanizing.” The letter specifically addresses Dr. Al-Yazouri’s position, describing it as “a civil service role concerned with food production” and arguing that assumptions about Palestinians in administrative positions are rooted in “racist tropes.”
A significant portion of the letter focuses on safeguarding concerns for Abdullah, the teenage narrator. The media professionals argue that “children must not be held responsible for the actions of adults, and weaponising family associations to discredit a child’s testimony is both unethical and dangerous.”
The letter expresses alarm at what it describes as “the intervention of partisan political actors” and warns about the precedent this sets for broadcasting in the U.K. It specifically references the BBC’s International Safeguarding Policy, suggesting that publishing unverified claims about Abdullah’s family could expose him to harassment or harm.
The coalition urges the BBC to “reject attempts to have the documentary permanently removed or subjected to undue disavowals,” arguing that capitulation would signal that “Palestinian children’s stories are only valid if their families pass arbitrary ‘purity tests.’”
The letter also defends the documentary’s creators, Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash of Hoyo Films, as “experienced journalistic filmmakers who prioritized the safety of their contributors and production team.”
The doc was pulled from iPlayer last week following a letter form 45 Jewish industry figures — including “Friday Night Dinner” star Tracy-Ann Oberman, Neil Blair of J.K. Rowling’s literary agency The Blair Partnership, former BBC One boss Danny Cohen and producer Leo Pearlman — demanded the program’s removal and pressed for transparency regarding the broadcaster’s vetting process.
In a statement at the time, the BBC said: “‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ features important stories we think should be told – those of the experiences of children in Gaza. There have been continuing questions raised about the program and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company. The program will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
U.K. culture secretary Lisa Nandy has even gotten involved, telling the BBC on Wednesday night that she has “deep concern” about the documentary. “It is paramount that the investigation the BBC is conducting sheds light on what happened and who knew what when,” Nandy said. “I expect to be kept informed of the outcome of their investigation.”