The BBC was accused of engaging in “jaw-dropping propaganda” in support of a unit of the Hamas terrorist organization that held Israeli hostages captive, the Telegraph reported. According to the report, in January, BBC Arabic published what was described as a "puff piece" for a "shadow unit" of the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigade, specifically the unit that was placed in charge of "guarding" the hostages. The BBC Arabic piece claimed that female Israeli hostages thanked their captors for their "good" treatment. Following a complaint from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera), the BBC edited the report and removed the section that claimed the hostages were treated well while in custody. Related articles: BBC sorry for misusing Israeli city in 'settlements' report The myth of Masafer Yatta UK counter-terror police probe BBC doc on Hamas official’s son UK government summons BBC over Gaza documentary controversy Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, who has been highly critical of the BBC's biased coverage against Israel since the October 7 massacre, said last night (Saturday), “This is a jaw-dropping piece of propaganda – a puff piece on war criminals who have executed, starved, beaten and sexually assaulted the hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7." “The shadow unit are not ‘guards’ tasked with keeping hostages safe, they are monstrous terrorists who have committed unspeakable crimes. Part-funded by licence fee and part funded by taxpayers, BBC Arabic pumps anti-Semitic poison and terrorist propaganda out to a global Arab-speaking audience of 38 million people. CAMERA this week published a shocking report that details how BBC Arabic has given a platform to extremists and succour to terrorists for years. This video shows what now cannot be in any doubt – that the rot of anti-Jewish hate that festers within BBC Arabic must be rooted out,” Cohen added. CAMERA official Hadar Sela said, “In addition to the obvious war crime of kidnapping 251 people in the first place, there are numerous corroborated reports that the shadow unit has waged a horrendous campaign of torture, sexual violence and starvation against the hostages." “To uncritically platform the Hamas claim that hostages were thankful for their care is as offensive as it is inaccurate, and to omit the horrific reality of the torture and execution of hostages shows once again why the rot of BBC Arabic needs to be rooted out,” Se;a said. A BBC spokesperson said in response to the controversy, “This short video report explains to audiences the history of a little-known Hamas unit which featured in reports during the recent release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Although the initial report was accurate and correctly describes the group as guarding not protecting the hostages, it has since been amended to provide additional context and clarification to audiences.” Earlier, the Jewish Chronicle reported that the BBC has issued an apology after using footage of an Israeli city while discussing "settlements" in the Golan Heights. In a BBC Arabic video from December 2024 about the Golan Heights and its "strategic importance," aerial footage of Tiberias—a city well within Israel's internationally recognized borders—was shown. A voiceover in the video described Israeli “settlements” in the Golan Heights, with subtitles appearing on the screen stating, "There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan." Tiberias, which is located on the western shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), has maintained a Jewish majority since the beginning of the British Mandate in 1922. CAMERA flagged the mistake to the BBC, which later republished the video with the correct footage. A spokesperson from CAMERA told the Jewish Chronicle, "Tiberias is a city with a continuous Jewish presence since the 1700s at least. By implying that it is a 'settlement' while regularly referring to nearby Arab communities, some far newer, as 'villages' or 'towns,' BBC Arabic fuels the antisemitic stereotype according to which Israel's Jews can never be truly indigenous to the land.” "More broadly speaking, given the BBC's longstanding and disproportionate focus on Jewish 'settlements,' one might expect BBC Arabic editors to at least know what they look like," added the spokesperson. In an email to CAMERA seen by the Jewish Chronicle, a BBC News spokesperson stated, "We apologize for the errors but also do not accept the interpretation of these errors as 'racism.'" The latest controversies come as the BBC faces mounting scrutiny for using the son of a senior Hamas official as a narrator in its documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.” The BBC has acknowledged that there were “serious flaws” in the program. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer later said he was "concerned" by the documentary. The BBC has repeatedly been criticized for the blatant anti-Israel bias in its reporting. This criticism has increased since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza that followed. In November of 2023, the corporation published an apology after falsely claiming that IDF troops were targeting medical teams in battles in and around the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Before that, the BBC falsely accused Israel of being responsible for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza, which the IDF proved was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket. The network later acknowledged that “it was false to speculate” on the explosion. In August, more than 200 people from Britain's TV and film industry called for an urgent investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the BBC. A month later, a report found that the BBC violated its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the first four months of the war between Israel and Hamas, and noted “deeply worrying pattern of bias" against the Jewish state during that period. Just a few weeks ago, BBC News presenter Nicky Shiller referred to three hostages who were released by Hamas as “prisoners”, similar to the term used for the terrorists imprisoned in Israel. His remarks sparked an uproar, leading the network to apologize.
