The BBC repeatedly mistranslated references to ‘the Jews’ and omitted instances of the word jihad in its controversial documentary on Gaza, The Telegraph reported on Monday.
The Telegraph reported that in several instances in the film, the Arabic words Yahud or Yahud, meaning "Jews," were translated as “Israel” or “Israeli forces" or were completely removed from the subtitles. Mistranslations were originally highlighted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
In one interview shown within the documentary, praise of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his "Jihad against the Jews" was mistranslated to say he was "fighting Israel forces," The Telegraph shared.
Additionally, in the film, when a Gazan woman is asked about the October 7 attacks, the subtitles read, “First time we invaded Israel – it was always the other way around." However, The Telegraph revealed that in Arabic, she said, “We were invading the Jews for the first time.”
At one point in the film, in which a doctor amputates the arm of a child in front of the camera, the medic is quoted as saying: “Look what the Israelis are doing to the children of Gaza.” However, the word Israeli was not used by the doctor, The Telegraph's translation revealed.
According to Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism (LAAS), the mistranslation of the word Jewish to Israeli was one of a number of “ongoing issues” with “the BBC’s sympathetic coverage of Hamas.”
“In so doing, the BBC have sanitized views expressed about Sinwar, orchestrator of the Hamas massacre, and instead presented a more acceptable version for a Western audience,” he said, according to The Telegraph.
“It is this whitewashing that keeps viewers ill-informed about the nature of Hamas and promotes sympathy for their deadly ideology. This documentary signifies the institutional failure behind the BBC’s reporting of the Israel-Hamas conflict.”
Hamas ties to the BBC documentary
The documentary has recently faced scrutiny after investigative journalist David Collier discovered Hamas’s ties to the BBC production last Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post previously reported.
Collier revealed that the father of the film’s narrator, 13-year-old Abdullah al-Yazouri, was a senior Hamas official. Additionally, the father of another child featured in the film was a Hamas police officer. Collier also asserted that the cameramen had praised terrorist attacks in Israel.
Following this revelation, Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the UK Conservative Party, wrote a letter to Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, on Sunday, requesting an independent inquiry to investigate the commissioning and production of the BBC documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone.
Additionally, pro-Israel activists and supporters, including Campaign Against Antisemitism, protested outside the BBC’s London Broadcasting House on Tuesday night, demanding transparency regarding whether any of the £400,000 in license-fee funds used to create the documentary went to Hamas officials.
“The BBC has become a mouthpiece for terror,” CAA CEO Gideon Falter said at the event.
“It cannot call terrorism by its name. The BBC has become a spokesperson for terrorists.” CAA argued on X/Twitter that the BBC could not be trusted to review its own mistakes and respond to complaints and should be regulated in the same manner as other broadcasters.
Collier spoke at the rally and, according to CAA, stated that the BBC only removed the production and issued an apology on Friday because they were caught.