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.

Yes, we have discussed this on this thread already.

You don't actually know which posters may be supporters of Hamas here because they will never admit to it. Same as the marchers in London who support Palestinians but there are Hamas supporters among them.

Well I have said many times on this thread that I am not a Hamas supporter

I wasn't aiming at you. Just making the point that Hamas supporters won't admit to being one (on MN.)

It's reported today that the BBC paid £400k for the documentary.

The number of comments about them being ‘brave freedom fighters’ on social media is totally nuts. I’ll happily say I think Netanyahu does need to answer to an independent investigation as to his war tactics, and that both sides have been very ugly. But there is an almost cult-like devotion to the Palestinian cause which relies on fake news, event denial, and a refusal to acknowledge that the Palestinians are in any way anything other than completely oppressed people who are liberals at heart and just want to live in a peace loving democracy alongside Israel.

…… to who?

OMG, nobody was finding the subject matter hilarious, only certain comments on here. But you know that.

That would be really interesting to know.

I get that you’re trying to sound noble and moral, on the side of the poor oppressed Gazans, but it is not "silencing voices" to expect the BBC to be objective, rather than accepting and presenting without question the viewpoint of people closely associated with terrorists.

But as you said, we all have different moral standards, don't we.

Exaaaactly!

I haven’t been on X yet to see what’s come out and I get that you can’t make a programme for free, BUT…

I saw last night that the Beeb paid a production company based in London. All good. Did the production company pay anyone in Hamas? We don’t know. Should the BBC have been extra vigilant about the possibility of licence fee money finding its way to Hamas? Absolutely. Do I think they will have been? Not a chance. Kemi Badenoch has called for an urgent enquiry into where the funds have ended up (I mean, doesn’t take much to know where some of the money will have ended up which means the BBC have funded a proscribed terror organisation, but “both sides”).

David Collier posted earlier that he doesn’t have a huge network of researchers with masses of IT knowledge who spent days uncovering this. He was one bloke with the internet that managed to put this together in the course of an evening so the BBC should have been able to find this out before the documentary was even broadcast.

To those saying “Oh now the BBC is to be trusted”, that should be the standard. The BBC has (had) the reputation for being the Gold standard for impartial reporting worldwide. People will trust what it’s saying without researching everything that they say (frankly we shouldn’t have to with our national broadcaster). That is the problem with this documentary.

Daily Fail exclusive https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14431529/BBC-400000-Gaza-documentary-Hamas.html
'The row over the BBC’S Gaza documentary deepened on Monday after it emerged the corporation spent £400,000 on the controversial film.
The huge sum was paid to London-based Hoyo Films which was behind the documentary called Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.'

I’ve just read the thread by David Collier on X. Seems like several of the people who participated in the production of the documentary (including kids) have links to Hamas?

https://x.com/mishtal/status/1894294971005501502

The boy posing with a Hamas fighter, is that the child paramedic from the doku?

Another interesting X thread on the child paramedic:

https://x.com/jonsac/status/1892620616206860423

The comment that stands out to me is:

11/ We now know that Zakaria also liked (or was forced, or groomed) to pose alongside Hamas terrorists and even holding a gun. You’d think this mistreatment of children would be worth a mention in a film about their experience of life in Gaza. But it seems the BBC left that part of the story out of their film. Hamas wouldn’t want the world to see it. Nor did the BBC. How much longer will they get away with doing this with no repercussions? Was the entire film similarly staged and deceptively edited? How and why could they miss this, or did they actually know all along?

While you are all busy trying to discredit a documentary because something something Hamas, maybe David cCollier could be investigating more important things like this

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/25/more-than-160-gazan-medics-held-in-israeli-prisons-amid-reports-of-torture

Or are the doctors Hamas too like everything

Why don’t you want the Hamas connection of several participants of the documentary to be pointed out and investigated?

Especially when the BBC has spent £400k of our tax payers money on the film?

Because it is all just distraction from the indisputably horrific situation that does exist for children in Gaza.
maybe people could obsess about that

Distraction is what you’re trying to do on here.
Why can’t the situation of children in Gaza be shown without Hamas interference? Of all the children there, why is the son of a Hamas official chosen to tell the story?
Why all the inconsistencies pointed out in the X thread about the “child paramedic”?
By the way, it’s not like this documentary is the only current footage of Gaza available.
There are many clips on social media uploaded by Gazans themselves.
What’s the value of a possibly highly fabricated and biased documentary?

100% this. Especially when our taxes via the licence fee has helped pay for it.

No I am not trying to distract from the real situation if it suits your conscience to think what is presented is all a terrible fabrication by evil Hamas you do you
and all the evil Hamas stuff is wearing, I don’t like or agree with them as repeatedly stated, they may be evil, but monsters don’t exist, they are people and it could be good to reflect on why they exist, not sure even Israel can kill everyone, so maybe better to address some of the issues which allowed their support to increase.

Dehumanising helps no one

Part of the horrendous situation for these children is the grooming into terrorism by the adults in their lives.

We are repeatedly told that Israel’s horrific actions in Gaza are creating the Hamas fighters of the future. How is this happening? Clearly that poor paramedic boy is being groomed. But the documentary apparently doesn’t show that, despite it being a feature of the children’s lives.

They may be evil?

they are people and it could be good to reflect on why they exist

It wasn’t a documentary on why Hamas exist.