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.

Of course you can have compassion for the children of Gaza and still not like being lied to. Nobody has said otherwise.

What we have said is that very little compassion has been displayed here whereas we have a lot of speculation about the possibility of being lied to. It is a shame that this information was not initially included in the documentary but I believe it now is.

I know which I am most outraged about and agreed with a poster who had a similar view.

@AnxiousRose
I don't think the BBC intended to use a child of a Hamas officer as one of the stories but ultimately it is their responsibility to check the background of the children of Palestinian civilians if they are being used as representatives in this way. The fact that the BBC has apologised shows that they know they are at fault. Most people feel nothing but compassion for these innocent children. However, this lack of transparency has harmed the veracity of the documentary.
I think most posters are trying to point this out. If it had not been stained by the lack of proper due diligence, it would have had a wider audience and perhaps been nominated for awards. Now that is unlikely to happen.

Look at it this way. Would you believe a documentary about North Korea as true and honest if it was filmed by the ruling party and featured a child of one of the officials as the narrator?

They could have picked any kid from the street, an ordinary child, to tell the story. But perhaps that would have portrayed Hamas in the bad light? Instead, they lied and picked a boy who most likely is already brainwashed by his family to accept Hamas ideology and their version of events.

Complete wasted opportunity from the film makers to get a true picture of the suffering and disaster brought on Palestinians not only by Israel but also by their own despicable government.

One boy in the documentary having a father who works in the Gaza ministry for agriculture doesn’t make the documentary Hamas propaganda. When Hamas took over Gaza in a coup, all the civil servants became de facto employees of Hamas regardless of their views. It also doesn’t make them terrorists or members of Hamas. A boy’s uncle being “accused” of ties to some other group is also meaningless.

It is all mud designed to make viewers think of this boy as less than human, a child terrorist who deserves everything he’s seen and been through. It is all part of the Islamaphobic narrative that there are no innocent children in Gaza.

No one thinks he is less human but its very naïve to think Hamas have no influence over their officials and therefore over what this boy was expected to say on film.

You obviously have no idea how these dictatorial organisations operate and what value they place on ideology and propaganda.

Hamas have influence over everyone in Gaza. You don’t dismiss a documentary because it cannot be purified and free of all Hamas influence or connections. Similar to the documentary on Oct 7th funded, heavily edited, marketed and produced by the Israeli government.

Doesn’t mean both documentaries are not showing real events as they happened to real people.

You obviously have no idea how these dictatorial organisations operate and what value they place on ideology and propaganda.

As a matter of fact, I do.

I think it would have been acceptable if it was clear who the boy was from the beginning. I dont think Israelis ever tried to hide the fact who and why produced the documentary.

I mean, the documentary clearly marked as being presented by a child who's dad is in Hamas would have been interesting in its own right, but I can imagine his experience would be different from children of ordinary poor Gzans who have no connection to the government.

His father is a deputy minister of agriculture and before that an assistant minister of education. Ministers are appointed by Hamas. If it's true his grandfather was one of the founders of Hamas I'd say that's even more serious.

It is, and I've finally cancelled my license due to this. The BBC are an abomination and this is the last straw. I won't give them another penny.

watching it now- the BBC have put a notice at the beginning that Abdullahs’s dad was a minister in the Hamas government.
The BBC stated it maintained editorial control.
Quite interesting to have video footage of Palestinian lives in Gaza.

There are the areas of devastation that we have all seen photographs of- but amazing to see how people trying to build a life around the rubble.

And the bombs and drones…

His grandfather was apparently one of the founder members of Hamas.

To @Polka83 u think it was who said Hamas doesn’t have any money for sfx, you do know the leaders have billions? If they don’t have any funds, where have all the new uniforms, vehicles & arms come from. Do you know what they do have money for? All the av kit they’ve been using to film their disgusting hostage releases along with the massive amount they must have been spending in new custom banners each week. Today’s must have been quite pricey. Pity they didn’t do a documentary about the Bibas children before they were killed.

It certainly is not propaganda and not equal to a documentary created by the ruling party.
It seems that some people on this thread are attempting to discredit the documentary to the extent of claiming that it is all lies. We all know why some people would do this. The important part of this documentary is the plight of these poor children. People are trying to discredit it for their own agenda.

I hope that the documentary will help people see Palestinians as individuals, whose lives are equally important.

Absoutley and although it happened by accident it's no harm that the documentary can show children of different backgrounds in Palestine.

@AnxiousRose
Do you not see that you are arguing against yourself? If you want the world to see and recognise the conditions for ordinary children of Gaza, then the documentary has to be done properly. If there is mud attached to it, many people will not be aware of the very real experiences but instead will dismiss it as not being accurate and showing the child of a Hamas minister. I am not talking about it not being a valuable documentary. I watched it and found it very moving. A lot of people won't watch it because they will have 'heard' that it is not true. It is why I keep making the point that the BBC should have been vigilant about background checks. It has discredited a valuable source of information about life in Gaza for ordinary children.

Killing of innocent children and so many people on both sides is NEVER justifiable. What Hamas did was unforgivable but that doesn't justify killing so many civilians and especially children. It's not ok what's happening there, it's heartbreaking. My heart breaks for the casualties on both sides. The war is going to make everything worse in the long term. The documentary had the civilians cursing both Hamas and the Israeli army. Those people are trapped in hell.

Agree

They don't just think they are having a good time, they also seem to think every Palestinian child is a paid up card carrying member of hamas!

As the most recent footage has shown, Palestinian children are being brought up to hate and are being indoctrinated. Families are lining them up and getting them to cheer at the coffins of a dead toddler and a baby.

At what point does the child stop being innocent? They are indoctrinated from birth and encouraged to cheer death and hate partake in torture to Israelis held hostage, then one day they are 18/19/20… are they still innocent children who don’t know any better or are they adults complicit in terror crimes?

The BBC should have been more vigilant @Hitherzither but here we are- we have a documentary that still can tell us about the experiences of Palestinians that is valid in its own right.
Let’s hope Israel will allow in independent journalists soon.

But this was put out by the BBC which is one of the most trusted sources of news and information in the world.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/help-41670342

From their website
Our editorial values say: "The trust that our audience has in all our content underpins everything that we do. We are independent, impartial and honest. We are committed to achieving the highest standards of accuracy and impartiality and strive to avoid knowingly or materially misleading our audiences.

This is not a programme that was made by Israeli tv or by an Arabic company. It was produced by the BBC which claims to be impartial. The senior leadership at the BBC will not allow their name to be attached to a programme which has proved to be unreliable in representing the children's background honestly.