THE BBC spent £400,000 of licence payers’ cash making a documentary branded a propaganda show for evil terror group Hamas, The Sun can reveal.
Highly placed sources confirmed the huge sum was handed to the production company behind controversial prime-time programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
The main narrator of the BBC’s Gaza documentary, 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour, is claimed to be the son of Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri[/caption]
The documentary has now been pulled by the BBC[/caption]
The main narrator of the heart-tugging, supposedly factual exposé – 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour – was revealed to be the son of senior Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.
Money spent on the hour-long BBC2 programme was revealed yesterday as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded to know whether any of the cash went to Hamas.
BBC bosses were forced to withdraw the documentary from its iPlayer streaming service last week pending “further due diligence” checks after being accused of pro-Hamas bias.
Anger grew after Beeb bosses initially tried to defend the programme, and blamed London-based production company Hoyo Films for not revealing the boy’s link.
But the contract between the BBC and Hoyo suggests the corporation had direct and regular involvement – and shows action should have taken action.
One section of the contract reads: “We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor.”
The documentary was made by the BBC’s Current Affair TV arm which paid award-winning Hoyo Films to craft the production.
But it was still unclear last night why the boy’s appearance was allowed by the department’s commissioning editor Gian Quaglieni.
Under-fire corporation chiefs yesterday declined to add to previous comments on the continuing controversy.
But ex-boss Danny Cohen – former director of BBC television – demanded clarity as to who was responsible and whether Hamas were given licence cash on Monday.
Mr Cohen said: “The BBC needs to account for every penny spent on this documentary – £400,000 is a lot of licence-fee payers money.
“They should be transparently told where their money went and whether any of it reached the hands of Hamas.
“The BBC must also launch a wider investigation into systemic bias against Israel after repeated editorial failures since the October 7 massacres.”
In her letter to Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, Mrs Badenoch said: “It is now clear to me that you should commission a full independent inquiry to consider this and wider allegations of systemic BBC bias against Israel.
What happened on October 7?
ON OCTOBER 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel, marking one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
Terrorists stormed across the border from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people — most of them civilians — and kidnapping 250 others, including women, children, and the elderly.
The coordinated assault saw heavily armed fighters infiltrate Israeli towns, kibbutzim, and military bases, unleashing indiscriminate violence.
Innocent families were slaughtered in their homes, and graphic footage of the atrocities spread across social media, leaving the world in shock.
And as well as attacking people in their homes, they stormed the Nova music peace festival – killing at least 364 people there alone.
The massacre triggered a swift and massive retaliatory response from Israel, escalating into a full-scale war.
The attack not only reignited long-standing tensions in the region but also left deep scars on both sides of the conflict, setting the stage for the 16 months of devastation that followed.
“It is well known that inside Gaza the influence of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas is pervasive.
“How could any programme from there be commissioned, without comprehensive work by the BBC to ensure that presenters or participants were – as far as possible – not linked to that appalling regime?
“Would the BBC be this naive if it was commissioning content from North Korea or the Islamic Republic of Iran?”
Mrs Badenoch added that it was “profoundly troubling” that the BBC initially defended the documentary insisting it “remains a powerful child’s eye view of the devastating consequences of the war”.
And she warned the Tory Party would be unable to continue supporting the BBC’s licence fee generated funding unless heads roll.
She said: “Surely it should have been immediately apparent that the programme was fundamentally flawed?
“An investigation must consider allegations of potential collusion with Hamas’ and the possibility of payment to Hamas officials.
“These are not isolated incidents.”
Left-wing bias is alleged to have tainted BBC coverage of the Gaza War ever since October 7 and has sparked numerous calls for a crackdown.
And a BBC reporter who triggered one of the first bias rows of the war was yesterday revealed to have sparked more fury with an inflammatory online post.
On October 17 – ten days after Hamas massacred 1,200 people and grabbed 251 hostages – Jon Donnison told viewers it appeared “an Israeli air strike or several air strikes” had blitzed Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital.
It later emerged that a miss-fired Hamas rocket hit the medical centre in an attack reported to have claimed 500 lives.
But Mr Donnison was slammed on X for posting on Saturday: “The propaganda efforts by both Hamas and Israel over the hostage releases are pretty nauseating.”
He took down the post and apologised yesterday after his comment triggered fury.
X user David Collier raged: “He sees Hamas abusing and torturing Israeli hostages on TV.
“Then he sees Israeli families indescribable happiness as their loved ones return.
“And he thinks they are the same – we should not be paying his salary.”
Sarah Deech posted: “BBC Middle East reporter Jon Donnison seems to think Hamas’s grotesque displays of jihadi ideology, glorifying death and violence, are somehow equivalent to Israelis welcoming home emaciated, tortured hostages.”
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 programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company.
“The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
Questioned about the cost of the show to licence payers yesterday, a BBC spokeswoman told The Sun: “We have nothing further to add to our latest statement.”
The documentary tells the experiences of the conflict in Gaza from the perspective of children in the safe zone[/caption]
The BBC’s apology showed what new text will feature on the documentary to give clarification on Abdullah[/caption]
