Exclusive: Film and TV stars among those writing to corporation after it pulled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. Gary Lineker, Ruth Negga, Juliet Stevenson and Miriam Margolyes are among 500 film, TV and other media professionals calling on the BBC to reinstate its documentary on children and young people living in Gaza, describing it as an “essential piece of journalism”.
The broadcaster removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from BBC iPlayer pending a “due diligence” exercise after it emerged that the film’s 14-year-old narrator was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the territory’s Hamas-run government.
Critics of the programme, including dozens of prominent Jewish journalists, condemned a failure of commissioning standards and questioned whether the BBC had paid any member of Hamas as part of the filming of the documentary. A letter, sent on Wednesday to the BBC executives Samir Shah, Tim Davie and Charlotte Moore and seen by the Guardian, describes the film as “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinians”.
The letter claims that some criticism of the documentary is based on “racist assumptions and weaponisation of identity”, and that the deputy agriculture minister and father of the teenage narrator is a civil servant concerned with food production.
“This broad-brush rhetoric assumes that Palestinians holding administrative roles are inherently complicit in violence – a racist trope that denies individuals their humanity and right to share their lived experiences,” it says. The UK government proscribed the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation in 2006, and in 2021 also proscribed the Islamist movement’s political wing. There are civil servants in Gaza not involved in political activities, some of whom worked for the government before Hamas took over the territory.
The letter also claims that criticism levelled against Abdullah, the 14-year-old narrator, disregarded “core safeguarding principles”, adding 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 BBC documentary was based on nine months of footage filmed in the run-up to last month’s Israel-Gaza ceasefire, with three children among the main characters. It was produced by an independent company, Hoyo Films. The Bafta-winning director Jasleen Kaur Sethi, who signed the letter, said: “At the heart of this film are children surviving a war zone and as documentary-makers we have a sacrosanct duty to protect them. The campaign to discredit this film has dehumanised them and shamefully risked putting their lives and safety in danger.”.
Lineker, who signed the letter and is the BBC’s best-paid star, announced last year that he would step down as host of Match of the Day. He has previously been criticised for wading into politics, including condemnation of government immigration policy, and has been a staunch defender of the BBC.
Other signatories include the actor Khalid Abdalla, the Bridgerton star India Amarteifio, the novelist Max Porter, the director Ken Loach, the photographer Misan Harriman, the comedian Jen Brister, the presenter Ayo Akinwolere and the writer and actor Asim Chaudhry. The Guardian understands 10 current BBC staff have also signed.
Last week, the BBC received a letter signed by 45 prominent Jewish journalists and members of the media demanding the programme be taken down. Signatories included the former BBC One controller Danny Cohen, the former BBC governor Ruth Deech, the EastEnders actor Tracy-Ann Oberman and the Strike producer Neil Blair.
Phil Rosenberg, the director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called for an independent inquiry into the broadcaster earlier this week, saying he was concerned by the its “credulous” approach to Hamas. A spokesperson for the BBC pointed the Guardian to two statements on its corrections and clarifications page saying it was conducting further due diligence with the production company. The documentary will not be available on iPlayer while investigations continue.
