The BBC just aired a new documentary on Gaza. It was titled ‘How to Survive a Warzone’ and this is one of the worst Palestinian propaganda pantomimes you will ever get to see. It was raw Hamas garbage funded by the British public.
I had written quite an extensive take-down, but the key findings were so outrageous that I put almost everything else aside so they would not get completely lost. Please read to the bottom – you won’t be sorry.
The BBC’s agency problem
I want to start with the BBC’s elitist arrogance. Professional staffers in London – who speak neither Hebrew nor Arabic, and know nothing about the conflict, are used to legitimise a well-oiled Hamas propaganda machine. In this case one of the two co-producers is the filmmaker Jamie Roberts.
Jamie Roberts is so disinterested in it all, that on the evening of October 7 2023, he posted about a documentary on Ukraine.
It is like someone *only* posting about an event in Slovakia on September 11 2001. There is nothing inherently wrong with it – but it highlights a fundamental flaw with this documentary. Jamie Roberts likely has no understanding of the workings of Gaza at all – and is therefore at the mercy of the honesty and integrity of those he is working alongside.
The initial BBC deceit
The other co-director/ producer is Yousef D. Hammash. Which brings us to the first piece of BBC deceit. Jamie Roberts wrote a promo article, explaining how the documentary was put together. He explains they had to co-direct from London because international journalists cannot enter Gaza. This was the reason they needed to employ two local cameramen (more on them shortly).
There is a major problem with that statement. Yousef D. Hammash is Palestinian himself and was living in Gaza until June 2024.
Hammash chose to leave Gaza and come to the UK. The Robert’s article omits all this – and any reader would think that Hammash is as neutral on this issue as Roberts may be.
The professional Palestinian propagandist
What is being hidden is that Hammash is a long-standing professional Gazan propagandist. He has recently completed propaganda documentaries for Channel 4. Just scroll through his feed on X. Almost every possible false accusation is there. This man appears to have little problem sharing non-factual content.
Before starting with Channel 4, Hammash even worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council. The NRC provides massive funding to anti-Israel NGOs.
He is a Palestinian activist with a camera. How on earth did the BBC give this man the reins to produce a documentary?
The two Gazan cameramen
With Jamie Roberts probably unable to do much but nod along, and the Palestinian activist in London pulling the strings – the documentary needed cameramen in Gaza to do the legwork. The two they found were Amjad Al Fayoumi and Ibrahim Abu Ishaiba (although the BBC skewed Ishaiba’s name – I believe his public profiles have him as Ebraheem Ateef).
This is a post from Amjad Al Fayoumi – one of the cameramen employed by the BBC and paid with by your license fee – openly saluting October 7.
Fayoumi also shared ‘resistance’ videos full of terrorists, rockets, and Israeli funerals in 2021.
The lack of originality
You would think with 1.7 million or so people in Gaza, there would be a lot of untold stories to tell. This documentary focuses on four. Statistics would suggest these are fresh faces we have never seen. It turns out that is not the case. The BBC only used their first names – but I tracked them all down.
- The narrator is Abdullah Ayman Eliyazouri. His story was all over Channel 4 in November 2023 (but under a different name – more on that shortly).
- Zakharia Sarsak the young boy in the hospital. His story was all over the news in April 2024 (ABC News, Reuters)
- 10-year-old Renad Attallah. She has over a million followers on Instagram. Her story has been all over the news for months. (CBS, Al Jazeera)
- The young mother is Rana Salah. Her story has also been all over the news for months. (Reuters, MSN)
It seems as if there are so few stories in Gaza, the BBC had to borrow targets from other channels.
Not just ordinary Gazans
It is interesting that the story on Renad failed to mention that her family has created quite the online business, and that fundraising for her family had so far received over €215,000 in donations. With average salaries about 10% of western standards- Renad is now a multi-millionaire by Gazan standards. And back in spring 2024 when the BBC was telling everyone that Gazans were starving, Renad was busy doing ‘unboxing‘ videos of international aid.
Not just your ordinary Gazan then. But minor details I suppose – given what comes next.
The headline act
I want to focus on the young narrator. We are given his name as Abdullah. You need to see this Channel 4 clip from November 2023:
This is where it gets really interesting. 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.
The man in the image presented as his father is Khalil Abushammala.
Abushammala is Director of the NGO, Al Dameer – a hard-core activist group with strong ties to the PFLP. We are witnessing a pantomime directed by Gaza’s elite.
They are genuinely family though. Here is Khalil on FB, giving us Abdullah’s real name as Abdullah Ayman Eliyazouri and calling him his nephew:
It is an interesting video. It is from 2022 and it shows that Abdullah has been shaped as a child propagandist for years. But I now had a name, so I went looking in Abushammala’s timeline for any further clues, and I found this post, tying Abushammala to the ‘Eliyazouri’ clan through marriage:
I now had a likely father for Abdullah, and his name is Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri. And sure enough I found Abdullah on his timeline:
There are plenty of references to his son Abdullah on his timeline (1,2,3,4). This connection had been hidden, and is not mentioned in the documentary – probably because Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri holds a senior government position in Gaza.
He is the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and has held other posts in Education and planning.
Here he is at an event (centre) in full Hamas colours:
The naivety, stupidity and arrogance of our media has long been apparent. It has allowed Palestinian propagandists to turn our legacy channels into foolish outlets blindly spouting Hamas lies 24/7.
Here is a post from Abdullah’s father, praising the Hamas terrorists who murdered four Israelis on 20 June 2023. Just one of many pro-terrorist messages on his timleline:
A basic rule of Gazan life is this: You do not achieve a position of power (head of a hospital, head of anything) unless your clan has factional weight – and you must also hold a respected position within it. The same is true here.
Ibrahim al-Yazouri was a founder of Hamas. He spent time in Egyptian and Israeli jails. One of his sons (Moamen) died alongside Sheikh Yassin when he was killed. On February 11 2021, Ibrahim al-Yazouri died of coronavirus.
And sure enough on February 11 2021, Ayman Al Yazouri posted his message of mourning:
And another poster linked the family together as notables to be referenced in the mourning post. So we can be clear Ayman Al Yazouri – and his son Abdullah – are part of Hamas royalty:
And finally, Ayman himself – while the head of the family was still alive – asking for a speedy recovery for the ‘dean’ of the family – the founder of Hamas – Ibrahim Eliyazouri.
At the funeral, someone by the name of Ayman Al Yazouri spoke for the family and was presented with a special Hamas shield. There is no footage – but it would be logical to assume that the Ayman who spoke – is the same one holding a position in the Hamas government.
The child of Hamas royalty was given an hour on a BBC channel to walk around looking for sympathy and demonising Israel.
The cameramen followed this family for months. There is no way on earth they did not know who this family was. What about the producers? At the very least the cameramen held back the Hamas ties of the star of their show. How can the BBC possibly justify trusting anything else in the entire documentary?
The current hierarchy at the BBC has turned a once respected state broadcaster into a propaganda outlet for a radical Islamic terror group.
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Amazing analysis. Thank you
Thank you, David. I recorded the programme but you’ve saved me from wasting an hour of my time watching it. I would never have managed to put together all the facts you have revealed.
I note that the odd Canadian woman reporter for the BBC, Lyse Doucette has now been made “chief international reporter”! This person has until recently shown bias toward the terrorists in Gaza when reporting for the BBC,swallowing wholesale the lies that Hamass tells her and fawning over the lying West Bank population she interviews! But having made a study of Arabs,who she appears to admire as a race,why wouldn t she? But why would the corrupt BBC make this flawe person a chief foreign reporter,especially with her practically unintelligible pronunciation! And what of her fellow middle easten BBC correspondents: the proven liar Jeremy Bowen,who is known for being anti’Israel,and the dire Orla Guerrin,another pro Hamass creep! BBC Fake News! It can be relied on to be the mouthpiece of the lying left and terrorists!
Oh dear oh dear – I prefer a more balanced view so will not be subscribing
Oh Gail, bless.
They don’t call it a subscription. It’s a licence fee.
Sweet!
Superb analysis, David! I watched a clip (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c9d5z794jpjo) published by BBC News, which is part of this ‘documentary’. There are a few interesting things:
1. At 0:21, one of the ‘helpers’ in the hospital is shown wearing a T-shirt with the logo of Tohar Cohen / The Cube. This is an Israeli dance studio. Where did that Gazan man get the T-shirt? It is unlikely that he worked at the studio. It may be far-fetched – but was this a T-shirt worn by one of the hostages, or simply picked up from the Nova Festival, where such dance studios may have been represented?
2. There are dozens of random Gazans ‘caught on camera’ in this 4-min clip. None of them looks gaunt and malnourished. We are talking July and August 2024, when the BBC was airing daily reports of ‘starvation’. From about 2:50, the camera focuses on a group of 4 children. Again, looking quite normal, no signs of ‘starvation’.
3. At 1:25 (after being prompted) Zakaria says that he can’t live at home, as there is no food and water. But only a few seconds later, the camera catches parts of a market, including a smoking barbeque counter. There are large sacks of nuts and something that looks like kumquat. Once at home, Zakaria is shown being washed by his mother. she is using a coffee pot to pour water over him. The camera shows at least one bucket and a plastic jerrycan containing water. Apparently, Zakaria also bought nappies (he refers to them in Arabic as ‘Bambers’ i.e. Pampers). This is quite a bulky product. How did it get into Gaza in a period when the BBC claimed that not even essential food and medicine was getting in? BTW, the narrator says that Zakaria left and went home because the IDF was closing in on the hospital. But it turns out ‘just by chance’ that his sister was getting married… At the wedding, again nobody looked gaunt and starving.
4. At 3:10, Zakaria claims he personally saw ‘at least 5,000 bodies’. Even if we are to believe Hamas, less than 50,000 Gazans were killed. What are the chances that this one child in one hospital personally saw more than 1 in 10 fatalities?
5. Mistranslations: at 1:53, Zakaria says that ‘the Jews’ (al-Yehud) destroyed everything and Hamas ‘like the Jews’. But the BBC translates ‘the Israelis’ instead. At 2:20 he says ‘if they give me 50 shekel, I buy food for my family’. The BBC translates ‘money’ instead of ’50 shekel’ – probably because 50 shekel is quite a substantial amount in Gaza.
Quick answer to #1–Israelis, especially of younger generations, will sometimes donate clothes and other items to Gazans. This is the most plausible and likely explanation.
The rest is further evidence IMO of what was described—actually disenfranchised Gazans are not as easy to get to spit propaganda as the ones receiving a (probably) disproportionate amount of aid.
1. it’s possible, yes. But I’d still like to check it. For instance: did that dance studio participate/perform at Nova?
As for the ‘disenfranchised Gazans’: I was referring to people in the streets, not just those spewing propaganda. The BBC has constantly reported that Gaza’s population was starving. Yet it was all words and no pictures of starving, gaunt, emaciated people – as we often see from areas of famine (Yemen, Sudan, etc.) The pictures we are getting now (including from this documentary, which shows images from the period of alleged ‘starvation’ do not support those claims. Just to be vlear: I’m not claiming that food wasn’t scarce in Gaza, that people there did not experience tremendous hardship. But there’s a huge difference between that and starvation or famine. It’s the difference between honest journalism and libelous exaggeration.
As I have always said, antisemitism is a refuge for the inadequate. And there is none more antisemitic (anti-Zionist) than the BBC, nor none more inadequate.
BBC (ITV/Channel 4 are not any better) is not the mouth piece of Hamas, it’s the active complice of Hamas.
Without buyers of stolen goods, goods would not be stolen.
Out of interest! What was the Hamas supporters, demonstrating in front of the BBC, protesting about?
The equivalent of BBC in the US, is Margaret Brennan, for example.
___
https://freebeacon.com/media/margaret-brennan-resumes-resistance-tweeting-after-disastrous-rubio-interview/
https://freebeacon.com/media/watch-cbss-margaret-brennan-gives-new-meaning-to-the-word-anti-semitic/
This very same radical twisted Margaret Brennan, a true bigot Israelophobe, has suggested another historical and factual error on 10.15.23. Reacting to DeSantis who said, “palestinians” are antisemites, Brennan, on her Sunday talk show ‘Face the Nation’ – argued: “I’m sure you know all Arabs are Semites.”
Does Brennan not know that Arab leadership of “palestine” hooked up with Hitler?
She aught to kmow, that Arab press in “palestine” [Falastin, ad Difa’a, etc., except in WW2 years, when the British censored, controlled it] was admiring Hitler and justified his hate;
that ‘Mein Kampf’ was a best seller among palestine-Arabs in 1937…and as is right now too.
Was Emil Ghuri not a semite when he wrote on his ‘Arab Federation’ on July 7, 1934: “Hitler, whom the Arabs admire very much”?
Or PLO’s first leader Ahmad Shukeiri when he wrote in 1969 that they prayed, cheered for Hitler?
Or PLO’s Farouk Qaddoumi on Dec. 7, 2013, admitting – “palestinians” supported Nazis, for both were against Zionists?
She aught to kmow, that it was explained by a very popular magazine, ‘Pathfinder’ – on March 16, 1940: “Palestine Arabs admire Hitler for his Jew-baiting”;
that the ‘New York Times’ reported on May 23, 1937 that all Arabs in “palestine” celebreated Muhammad’s birthday with: “Hitler and Duce Cheered”;
that journalist John Gunther in 1939 [‘Inside Asia’] wrote: “The greatest contemporary Arab hero is — Adolf Hitler”;
that 88% of Arabs in “palestine” polled by Sari Sakakini in Feb 1941 were pro Nazis;
the atrocious June-1941 Farhud Arab-Nazi pogrom in Iraq by ‘semitic’ Arabs – incited by Arab “palestinian” leadership and teachers;
that 93% polled “palestinians” in 2014 showed to be antisemitic..
Thank you very much for all your hard work David. As “the BBC had full editorial control” is it possible to establish and investigate who in the BBC controlled the actual edit.