'People need to lose their jobs,' says Campaign Against Antisemitism in protest outside BBC HQ over Gaza documentary
25 February 2025, 20:18 | Updated: 26 February 2025, 10:54
The BBC Gaza documentary was ‘Hamas propaganda’, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism told LBC as protesters gathered outside the BBC headquarters.
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A large crowd gathered at Broadcasting House, the BBC’s headquarters, on Tuesday to protest against their controversial recent Gaza documentary.
The protesters held placards that feature the BBC logo and the text 'spokespeople for terrorists'.
The raw and often graphic documentary featured multiple accounts of the conflict, featuring a young Palestinian in devastated Gaza who was revealed to be the grandson of one of Hamas' founders.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, who organised the protest, said 'people need to lose their jobs' at the BBC over the documentary.
“Has our licence fee money gone to Hamas? The BBC doesn't even seem to be able to tell us, but they spent £400,000 on this thing,” Falter said.
“It seems inconceivable that some of that money hasn't gone to people who are in some way associated with Hamas. And we need to find out now. And people need to lose their jobs,” he added.
The BBC issued an apology on Wednesday night, claiming it “had not been informed” of the Hamas connection by the documentary’s producers before it was broadcast.
It later added a disclaimer to the programme, and then completely removed it from iPlayer, with a pop-up reading: "This programme is not currently available on iPlayer."
But Mr Falter claims the documentary is “the cap on a long litany of egregious bias by the BBC in this regard,” and accused the BBC of “trying to cover it up” when they initially added a disclaimer to the program before removing it.
He said: “This is not just the first incident. It has been disgracing itself and now it seems to be sending licence fee payers money over to Hamas… This legacy of impartiality and honest inquiry is long dead.
Read more: Kemi Badenoch calls for investigation into BBC Gaza documentary featuring grandson of Hamas founder
“It's been corrupted and hijacked by many of the people in that building. And we want to stop this.
“We want to see people lose their jobs, we want a proper inquiry and we want the BBC to stop being able to mark its own homework.”
On its clarifications and corrections page, 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 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."
Asked whether the stories of the children in Gaza are important to tell, Falter said the documentary “is not about journalism, this is about propaganda.”
“This is about screening Hamas propaganda in people's living rooms at the expense of the licence fee payer and telling people this is journalism. That ain't journalism,” Falter said.
LBC has contacted the BBC for comment over Mr Falter's claims.
