BBC documentary - children of Gaza

[SmokeRingsOfMyMind]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/17/gaza-how-to-survive-a-warzone-review-these-incredible-children-offer-a-sliver-of-hope

Did anyone see this last night? Heartbreaking and enraging in equal measure.

Was this the one where the little boy was helping the paramedics? I know he wanted to help but I couldn't help thinking that those around him needed to be protecting him a bit more. I appreciate it's a war zone and that kids are going to see terrible things and that nothing is normal, l but do not think he should have been exposed to what he was dealing with on a daily basis.

I haven't watched it so I dont know if its the same boy but apparently a boy who features prominently in that film is the son of a senior Hamas minister and gramdson of a founder of Hamas suggesting the BBC was tricked into airing Hamas propaganda.

@SharonEllis I think it's this one?
https://david-collier.com/bbc-pantomime/

Yes.

Labour Against antisemitism has now made a formal complaint and Danny Cohen previously senior exec at the BBC has voiced serious concern. The boy's uncle is the former director of a non-governmental organisation called Al Dameer, which campaigns on behalf of Palestinian fighters jailed by Israel.
Al Dameer is accused of links to the PFLP, a designated terrorist organisation by the US, the EU, Canada, and Israel.
The film took months to make. There's no way the cameramen on the ground didn't know of the boys links to the Hamas government and other terrorists.

That’s shocking, but it’s the BBC showing it,so you know….

Is it the message that unpopular with pro-Israelis or just the messenger? I am sure that the destruction and casualties are real. It’s not like Hamas could afford computer generated imagery.

Might be time for Israel to allow international journalists unfettered access to Gaza. This would allow more independent journalism.

I watched a few minutes but changed channel commenting to DH that I don't suppose the programme will mention that his family most likely voted for Hamas. I didn't realise that his family were actually Hamas politicians!

I'm not so sure the BBC were 'tricked'. I expect the collusion was quite intentional.

Why does it matter who his family voted for?

He’s 10.

I think you are missing the point. If the BBC weren't able to produce an independent piece because Israel does not allow foreign journalists to report independently in Gaza they should have disclosed they allowed Yousef D. Hammash who has a history of making pro-Palestinian documentaries to co-direct/ produce it. The cameraman working on the programme Amjad Al Fayoumi posted a salute to the October 7 Hamas attacks and shares “resistance” videos full of terrorists, rockets and Israeli funerals. The teenage boy Abdullah is actually the son of Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri, a senior official in the Hamas government, and with family links to one of its founding members. The BBC should be honest and transparent.

The links to Hamas do no service to the the people in Gaza. Shame on the BBC.

It's propaganda.

Agreed!

It’s children talking about their lives day to day.

How is that propaganda?

It's context.
What has happened in Gaza is horrific.
But it has not happened in a vacuum.
Hamas killed, raped, mutilated, took hostages in the knowledge that Israel would retaliate.

Perhaps the programme covered this for all I know

No, it hasn’t happened in a vacuum.

October 7th was horrific and inhuman.
The decades before that terrible day were awful for the people of Gaza, too.

A line needs to be drawn now.
It was possible in NI.
Surely, surely it’s possible here, too?

They should have been transparent about his family connections to Hamas.

BaMamma · Today 23:55

MrsSkylerWhite · Today 23:37
It’s children talking about their lives day to day.
How is that propaganda?

They should have been transparent about his family connections to Hamas.

How would that change his reality? He is a 10 year old child living in a war zone. no child deserves to live the life he is living, whatever his “family connections”.
You have no idea at all how he feels. He may wholeheartedly reject the ideals of his parents, many young people do.

In that case, it shouldn't have been a problem to say who his family was and let the viewers decide.

Why? He is an autonomous human being. His family could be the commanders in chief. Why does that have anything to do with how he feels?

It’s Hamas propaganda

And do posters think children in Gaza are having a great time?

That's not the point. The point is that the documentary wasn't clear about his family connections.

I really don't want to watch the documentary, but according to the David Collier article posted above, not only were they not transparent, but, "On the screen in November 2023 Channel 4 introduce Abdullah as ‘Abdullah Abu Shamalah’. It also introduces us to his father. But that is not his father and that is not his name. Someone was telling Channel 4 lies."
You still don't think it matters who he is? Then why did they lie?

It's so tragic. All those children and innocent Palestinians.