UPDATE: Jewish support grows for letter to BBC defending Gaza film
JVL Introduction
UPDATE – As of Tuesday evening, February 25, more than 600 British Jews have publicly endorsed calls on the BBC to reinstate on iPlayer the documentary Gaza: How to survive a Warzone. The updated list of names has been sent to Tim Davie and appears at the end of this post.
Thanks are due to Skwawkbox for circulating the letter to BBC Director General Tim Davie which is gathering signatures from growing numbers of Jews appalled by the removal from iPlayer of an excellent documentary about the lives of children in Gaza. At the time of posting this (1830 on Saturday Feb 22) more than 300 British Jews have now signed, including film maker Mike Leigh, actress Miriam Margolyes, comedian and writer Alexei Sayle, author Gillian Slovo and other eminent academic and cultural figures. An updated list of names will be sent to Tim Davie tomorrow.
The letter is seeking Jewish signatories as a response to the initial complaint attempting to link the film to Hamas terrorism, initiated by veteran anti-Palestinian campaigner David Collier and promoted by prominent Jewish defenders of Israel keen to block public access to a rare BBC programme showing the humanity, humour and courage of Gazan youngsters.
The resulting furore on social media has very likely increased the audience for the film many times, with links to a variety of downloaded copies circulating widely.
NWI
This article was originally published by Skwawkbox on Fri 21 Feb 2025. Read the original here.
250+ leading British Jews call on BBC to restore documentary it deleted to please Israel lobby groups
Reject propagandists’ ‘cynical’ complaints, broadcaster told
A group of more than 250 leading Jewish Britons – a number that is still growing [now well over 600] – has written to BBC boss Tim Davie urging him to reject the ‘McCarthyite’ ‘cynical stunt’ of politically-coordinated complaints by the Israeli embassy and pro-Israel pressure groups that have seen the BBC delete its documentary on the suffering of Palestinians, especially the children and young people who make up half of Gaza’s population, during Israel’s genocide there – humanisation that is no doubt the driver for the coordinated pro-Israel outrage.
The group, which includes well-known names such as comedian and writer Alexei Sayle, actor Miriam Margolyes and film-maker Mike Leigh, has called on Davie to resist censorship and reject debunked smears against the children who appear in the documentary, which was made by one of the makers of the BBC’s Blue Planet series and an Emmy-winning independent film-maker.
Alexei Sayle said:
The film shows youngsters coping with death and destruction in a way that is both harrowing and hopeful. It is depressing that the BBC has been bullied into taking it off line. It should be restored for public view without delay.
The letter to Davie, signed by over 170 within just a few hours of the text being circulated, describes the complaint, by “strident” apologists for Israel’s crimes, as a “cynical stunt [intended] to prevent people viewing an account of the effect of Israel’s assault on Gaza on the people trying to live and stay alive there”, commends broadcasters for showing “details about the Israeli hostages and the tragic deaths of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas”, and points out that the people of Gaza must also be shown and seen “as full members of humanity deserving our attention and sympathy…The programme should be judged on its own merits and not be subjected to McCarthyite allegations of guilt by association.”
The full letter reads:
Dear Tim Davie,
Reject complaints about ‘Gaza; How to Survive a Warzone’
The BBC should be deluged in plaudits for broadcasting ‘Gaza; How to Survive a Warzone’, not subject to hostility. It is a moving and compassionate look at the terrible suffering endured by Palestinian children over the last year and a half. We commend the BBC for their courage in making and broadcasting this programme and urge them to maintain that courage against attempts to have it taken down or subjected to unnecessary disavowals.
It is impossible to regard the complaint by a number of strident defenders of Israel’s actions about the BBC’s broadcast of this documentary as anything other than a cynical stunt. It is clear their intent is to prevent people viewing an account of the effect of Israel’s assault on Gaza on the people trying to live and stay alive there.Abdullah Al-Yazouri is an articulate presenter of life in Gaza . His father’s job is not relevant. He is a person in his own right and must be judged on his own actions not his father’s or anyone else, whatever the extent of his father’s involvement in agreeing to his taking part in the film.
In any case the objectors have not provided any information that his father is a a member of Hamas’s military wing, not that if he were it would affect the standing of his son. His father is deputy minister of agriculture, a middle ranking bureaucrat. No evidence has been presented to suggest that Ayman Al-yazouri used any influence he may have had either to advance the participation of Abdullah or exercise any influence on the content of the programme. If he had the documentary would surely have had fewer or even no criticisms of the actions of Hamas in causing the catastrophe.
Had the BBC broadcast a programme featuring the child of an Israeli army officer who had served in Gaza we would not dream of objecting on that account, we would have concentrated on the merit or demerits of the content.
We are rightly asked to view details about the Israeli hostages and the tragic deaths of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas. In contrast, we do not have stories about individual Palestinian children and mothers who have been killed or the histories of many, if any, of the Palestinians who have been released in the exchanges, a large proportion of whom were imprisoned under administrative detention, without charge or trial and include many children.
It is clear that the letter writers regard any effort to show the people of Gaza as full members of humanity deserving our attention and sympathy as not fit for broadcast. The programme should be judged on its own merits and not be subjected to McCarthyite allegations of guilt by association.
We urge the BBC to reject these complaints and continue to be proud of and promote an exemplary documentary and not be dissuaded from showing us details of the lives of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Signed (in alphabetical order – signatories as of 2200 February 25):
- Phil Abel
- Helen Abeles
- Jeanette Abendstern
- Michele Abendstern
- John Abraham
- Allen Abramson
- Kate Adams
- Erika Adler
- Marion Adler
- Jennifer Ainsley
- Michael Albu
- Sapphire Allard
- Jeff Allison
- Bonny Ambrose
- Tony Ambrose
- Liz Amiel Harriman
- Rebecca Amiel
- Nik Ammar
- Ruth Appleton
- Philip Arditti
- Maureen Arnaiz
- Ilona Aronovsky FHA
- Deborah Asher
- M F Asna
- Martin Ayres
- Sophie Bagg
- Ambreen Baig
- Helen Banks
- Spencer Banks
- Daphna Baram
- Ilana Baram
- Julia Bard
- Sue Bard
- Mark Barnes-Gutteridge
- Celia Barnett
- Gemma Barnett
- Gretel Baron
- Judith Baron
- John Baruch
- Michelle Baruch Baron
- Graham Bash
- Sandi Beecher
- Moshe Behar
- David Bell
- Ella Benami
- Jennifer Bennett
- Jacqueline Bentley
- Martin Berman
- Linda Bernhardt
- Alan Bernstein
- Dr Jon Berry
- Polly Bindman
- Jo Bird
- Rica Bird
- Frank Black
- Pamela Blakelock
- Carla Bloom
- Louise Bloom
- Alice Bondi
- Tony Booth
- Philipa Bragman
- Gabriella Braun
- E.J. Brener
- Chris Brennan
- Prof. Haim Bresheeth-Zabner
- Imogen Bright
- Tania Bronstein
- Judy Brown
- Raymond Brown
- Peter Buckman
- Barry Buitekant
- Erica Burman
- Zana Calhoun
- David Cannon
- Diane Cannon
- Brian Capaloff
- Russell Caplan
- Simon Caplan
- Linda Carey
- Eli Carola
- Michael Chambers
- David Chapkin
- Esta Malka Charkham
- Jane Charlesworth
- Nati Charney
- Susann Chenery
- Eve Cina
- Katie Clarke
- Rosalind Clayton
- Sue Coatman
- May Cocozza
- Tony Cocozza
- Amnon Cohen
- Barbara Cohen
- Della Cohen
- Eran Cohen
- Norma Cohen
- Robert Cohen
- Ron Cohen
- Simon Cohen
- SR Cohen
- Zoe Cohen
- Katy Colley
- Louise Collins
- Margaret Conrad
- Susan Corby
- Judith Lesser Cravitz
- Hannah Cross
- Sheila Curran
- Oliver Currie
- Joan Curtis
- Mike Cushman
- Jill Daniels
- Edwin Darfi
- Rabbi Janet Darley
- Professor Miriam David
- Anne Davies
- Bernard Davies
- Sally Davies
- Kayla Dawes
- Felicity De Motta
- Hilary De Santos
- Alan Deadman
- Peter Deadman
- Nicky Defries
- Ivor Dembina
- David Denison
- Shaheda Dewan
- Mike Dixon
- Shlomo Dowen
- Elizabeth Dresner
- Dr Judit Druks
- Marc Eady
- Rebecca Earle
- Linda Edmondson
- Rosalind Edwards
- Susan Egert
- Professor Barbara Einhorn
- Sue Einhorn
- Nancy Elan
- Carolyn Emanuel
- Judith Emanuel
- David Epstein
- Simon Evans
- Rebecca Fall
- Judy Farrar
- Gene Feder OBE
- Pia Feig
- Andrew Feinstein
- Anna Feldman
- Rayah Feldman
- Shelley Feldman
- Sam Ferguson
- Neil Finer
- Deborah Fink
- Nathan Finkelstein
- Sylvia Finzi
- Rajmil Fischman
- Torr Fischman
- Raoul Fishman
- Rebecca Fishman Collier
- Sonia Florent
- Dr Jonathan Fluxman
- Carol Foster
- Erika Fox
- Jeremy Fox
- Stephen Fox
- Nancy Frankel
- Alexander Franklin
- Jonathan Franklin
- Professor Des Freedman
- Nicola Freeling
- Daniel Friedman
- Debbie Friedman
- Edie Friedman
- Michael Friedman
- Yael Friedman Silver
- Jonathan Galton
- Dave Gatrell
- Jane Gatrell
- Carrie Gaye
- Ben Gelblum
- Carolyn Gelenter
- Freda Gewirtz
- Professor Sharon Gewirtz
- Roisin Gewirtz-O’Reilly
- Polly Gifford
- Lynda Gilbert
- Vicki Gilbert
- René Gimpel
- Rose Glandfield
- Louise Glatt
- Rob Goddard
- David Goldberg
- Martin Golding
- Laura Gonzalez
- Arthur Goodman
- John Goodman
- Simon Goodman
- Stuart Goodman
- Elanor Gordon
- Mariella Gordon
- Tinka Gordon
- Adam Goren
- Monica Gort
- Joshua Gottlieb
- Tony Graham
- Lesley Grahame
- Cathy Green
- Helen Green
- Tony Greenstein
- M Greenwood
- Helen Grisdale
- Jacky Gruhn
- Emre Gunduz
- Rosie Gunn
- Ros Hancock
- Edith Hargreaves
- Alison Harris
- Caroline Harris
- Robert Harris
- Louise Harrison
- Stephanie Harrison
- Roger Haydon
- Abe Hayeem
- Caroline Hearst
- Ruth Heilbronn
- Dr Jane Henriques
- Jacob Heringman
- Bob Heyman
- Susan Himmelweit
- Beatrice Hoffman
- Justin Hoffman
- Andrew Hornung
- Rachael Horwitz
- Rachel-Leah Hosker
- Susan Hughes
- Gillian Hundt
- Adam Hurst
- Henry Hyatt
- Professor Jeffrey Hyman
- Anthony Isaacs
- Jade Isaacs
- Claire Jackson
- Laura Jacobs
- Steve Jansky
- Benjamin Jeffryes
- Professor Victor Jeleniewski Seidler
- Joanna Jellinek
- Leon Jevons
- MR William J Johnston
- Naomi Junnor
- Michael Kalmanovitz
- Gidon Kaminer
- Stephen Kapos
- Jenny Kassman
- Tessa Katz
- Ruth Kaufman OBE
- Talitha Kearey
- John Keidan
- Paul Kelemen
- Ian Kemp
- Jessica Kempner
- Professor Peter Kennard
- Shira Keshet
- Monash Kessler
- David Keys
- Brenda Kirsch
- Oliver Kletz
- Eleonore Kofman
- Katherina Kohler
- Toby Konyn
- Joe Korner
- Simon Korner
- Robert Kornreich
- Dr Agnes Kory
- Adam Kossoff
- Angie Kotler
- Ann Kramer
- Jay Kramer
- Judith Kramer
- Lewis Kranat
- Stephanie Krayer
- Bev Krell
- Debbie krsntz
- Mary Kuper
- Richard Kuper
- Jon Kurts
- Barbara Lambert
- Jake Lancaster
- Fred Frank Land
- M Landauer
- Nina Langrish
- Bernice Laschinger
- Ruth Lass
- Michelle Laufer
- Pam Laurance
- Felicity Rose Laurence
- Mike Layward
- Jennie Lazenby
- Louise Lee
- Reginald Lee
- Madeline Lees
- Joanna Leigh
- Mike Leigh
- Helen Lentell
- Clara Leon-Brown
- Hemdat Lerman
- Jessica Leschnikoff
- Leah Levane
- B Levene
- Dr Mark Levene
- Eva Levi
- Les Levidow
- Sue Levi-Hughes
- Peter Levin
- Prof Malcolm H Levitt FRS
- Annie Levy
- Dr Gerald Levy
- Erica Levy
- Paul Blain Levy
- Rosalind Levy
- Soreh Levy
- Jenny Lewenstein
- David Lewis
- Peter Lewis
- Wendy Lewis
- Sonja Linden
- Stephen Linton
- Adrian Litvinoff
- Robert Lizar
- Yosefa Loshitzky
- Dave Lukes
- Sue Lukes
- Ruth Lukom
- Nina Lyndon
- John Lynes
- Simon Lynn
- Deborah Harriet Maccoby
- Dorothy Macedo
- Louise Macgregor
- Ilana Machover
- Dr Viv Mackay
- Anna Magyar
- Kay Manasseh
- Philippa Jill Manasseh
- Professor Moshé Manchover
- Lydia Mangle
- Moshe Mankoff
- Jaycee Manson
- Jenny Manson
- Kristina Manson
- Miriam Margolyes
- Stuart Markless
- Helen Marks
- Lara Marks
- Stephen Marks
- Helen Martins
- Helen Mayer
- Katrina Mayer
- Lise Mayer
- Joanna Mazouzi
- Terence James McGinity
- Linda Meehan
- Orna Meir-Stacey
- Ronald Mendel
- Heather Mendick
- Karen Merkel
- Jane Merkin
- Baris Cayli Messina
- Simcha Michael
- Martine Miel
- Dr Laura Miller
- Angie Mindel
- Chris Mohr
- Simon Mohun
- Sara Mokone
- David Mond
- Gabriel Mond
- Isaac Montagu
- Chantal Morgenbesser
- Elizabeth Morley
- Andrea Morris
- Shosh Morris
- Miriam Moss
- Elisa Mulraney
- L Murdoch
- Alice Mutasa
- Thembi Mutch
- Keely Myers
- Ruth Nathan
- Mica Nava
- Marc Neal
- Diana Neslen
- Amitai Netser
- Roni Netser
- Maddy Nettleship
- Sophie Neuburg
- Michael Newbold
- David Nissen
- Dr Paul Oestreicher
- Paul O’Hanlon
- Kevin O’Neill
- Gary Ostrolenk
- Dr William Owen
- Mark Owen
- Sue Owen
- Ellie Palmer
- Kathy Panama
- Sureya Parsons-
- Abbie Paton
- Barbara Payman
- Caryne Pearce
- Kenneth Pearce
- Bob Phillips
- Charlie Phillips
- Sol Picciotto
- Anat Pick
- Anne Pickard
- Miranda Pinch
- Nancy Platt
- Anna Pollert
- Ofra Ben Porat Ram
- Stefan Povolotsky
- Charlotte Prager Williams
- Raphael Prais
- Elinor Prędota
- Viv Pribram
- Judy Price
- Isadora Pulman-Jones
- Caroline Raine
- Karen Raingold
- Dro Ramos
- Roland Rance
- Leo Reich
- Lorna Reith
- Valerie Remy
- Jenny Richardson
- Eddy Richman
- Angie Roberts
- Professor Marion Roberts
- Naomi Roberts
- Michael Robins
- Lee Robinson
- Paul Robinson
- Denise Robson
- Neil Rogall
- Ben Rogaly
- Eve Rogans
- Anne Rogers
- Marian Roiser
- Steve Roman
- Lawrence Rose
- Rachel Rosen
- David Rosenberg
- Monday Rosenfeld
- Marsha Rosengarten
- Professor Jonathan Rosenhead
- Robert Rosenthal
- Benny Ross
- Leon Rosselson
- Carolyn Roth
- Sonia Routledge
- Katy Rubin
- John Rubinstein
- Michael Ryan
- Pete Sacker
- Zaitun Sadikali
- Sabby Sagall
- Robert Sakula
- Naomi Salaman
- Raphael Salkie
- Wendy Saloman
- Karen Sambrook
- Ben Samuel
- Andrew Samuels
- Joel Samuels
- Marsha Sanders
- Myra Sands
- Esther Saraga
- Helen Saunders
- Joe Saunter
- Ian Saville
- Sean Sayers
- Alexei Sayle
- Pam Schickler
- Michelle Schneider
- Rachel Schraer
- Richard Scoones
- Claude Scortariu
- Mike Scott
- Vicky Scrivener
- Judy Sebba
- Glyn Secker
- Irene Sedler
- Marian Sedley
- Lynne Segal
- Dr Malcolm Segall
- Laurel Selby
- Paul Seligman
- Ori Selkirk
- Daniel Selwyn
- Jacob Serruya W.
- Meir Shabat
- Jane Shackman
- Dr Jon Shaffer
- Jessica Sharp
- Sue Shaw
- Anna Sherbany
- Peter Sheridan
- Judy Sherwood
- Brian Silk
- Stanley Silva
- Roger Silverman
- Edward Silvers
- Sue Simmonds
- Janet Simon
- Ludi Simpson
- Irris Singer
- Laurence Singer
- Sidney Singer
- Sophie Slater
- Gillian Slovo
- Robyn Slovo
- Dr Andy Sluckin
- Clare Smith
- Erica Smith
- Harry Smith
- Jonathan S Smith
- Mark Smith
- Leni Solinger
- Stephen Solley
- Jeremy Solnick
- Nika Soon-Shiong
- David Sperlinger
- Loz Speyer
- Bernard Spiegal
- Abi Stacey
- Sarah Stacey
- Tamara Stanton
- Georgina Stead
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- Lyndall Stein
- Julia Steinberger
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- Patrick Sternberg
- Shafia Stevens
- Emili Stevenson
- Frances Stewart
- Kitty Stewart
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- Adam Stock
- Helen Stollar
- Howard Stollar
- Oren Stone
- R Strelitz
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- Emma Tait
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- Florian Taylor
- Melanie Teff
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- Shaylees Tosney
- Avi Tragen
- Michel Trainer
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- Dr Alan Tuckman
- Eve Turner
- Denni Turp
- Lisa Van Der Velde
- Tessa van Gelderen
- Alan Van Loen
- Roger van Zwanenberg
- Misha Vertkin
- Daniel Vulliamy
- Tirza Waisel
- Bob Walker
- Gordon Walker
- Lorraine Walters
- Caroline Ward
- Philip Ward
- Annie Warwick
- Lily Watson
- Kristin Watt-Bonar
- Dr Rodney Watts
- Leo Wax
- Naomi Wayne
- Dave Weinbren
- Sam K Weinstein
- Barry Weitz
- Janet Weitz
- Ivan Wels
- Tom Wengraf
- Julia West
- Barbara White
- Martin White
- Miriam Williams
- Ruth Williams
- Dr G.M. Wilmers
- Cara Wilson
- Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
- Deborah Windley
- Geraldine Winkler
- A Winkler
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- Esther Woolfson
- Michael Wright
- G Yershon
- Ruth Young
- Gillian Yudkin
- Harriet Yudkin
- Professor John S Yudkin
- James Zacune
Excellent work by all concerned. I have written in to complain separately. BBC have been put under pressure from a handful of hypocritical shills led by the disgusting David Collier and are so weak-kneed it took just 48 hours for them to cave in. Its the ONLY full documentary that exists What a shameful suppression of these remarkable children’s voices-.
Publish and be damned.
One sort of human being takes responsibility for his or her actions. Another sort of ?human being wants to keep things secret.
In the matter of the film, it is the second sort that has been influencing the BBC and, clearly, they are ashamed of what they are doing and what has been done in their name. If what they had been doing, and the underlying reasons for the film were right, they would publicise it . They don’t want to. They have been responsible for their actions and those of their fellow deviants from civilised human behaviour and they must be ashamed.
Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission cleared the air after South Africa’s Apartheid and the time is shortly coming when a similar action will be needed to clear the air and the minds of people who are complicit in what must be the greatest crime of our era.
The BBC’s claims to impartiality are as flimsy as rice-paper in a rainstorm. The Zionist cabal says ‘Jump!’, and Tim Davie speedily does an imitation of a dog leaping up to lick its master’s face. The BBC news directors’ blatant attempt to make individual heroes of the Israeli hostages while discussing the Palestinian hostages as if they were no more than lost parcels being returned to their owners is nauseating to witness. This can’t sit well with the BBC’s real journalists. Who is going to persuade Tim Davie and the BBC’s Board that what Israel is doing is just WRONG, and needs HONEST reporting, whatever the Zionists say.
It is high time BBC stopped dehumanising Palestinians at the behest of Israeli pressure groups and lived up to its commitment to truth and transparency
Great work by the signatories and Skwawkbox but one has to suspect that religious identity invoked with regard to Israel, will once again simply turn out a beard, and that the anti-genocide critics will be treated once again, as the wrong sort of Jews. Put simply, the lobby has a nuclear armed state’s PR budget behind it, Israel is a strategic asset for the US, the UK government is its lapdog, and the BBC stands revealed a blatant state-affiliated propagandist. That is not an excuse to stop campaigning but instead to reject false pre-determined starting points for debate that the establishment presents to those fighting oppression. Nations are social constructs, they don’t have rights to exist, least of all those white colonial constructs built out of 19th racist colonial ideologies – is the establishment similarly clamouring to unite Ireland or mourning Yugoslavia? The term racism originated in the post war decolonisation consensus and described the ongoing structural oppression of western imperialisms victims. Especially, given the rigged nature of public debate, there isn’t any reason to be treating Israel with any greater sanctity or legitimacy, than its two sister colonial projects, Rhodesia & Apartheid South Africa, that also bucked the decolonisation consensus. This means publicly acknowledging Israel’s lobby – like previous colonialist lobbies – are simply racists supporting racism. In the end there is going to be more of the public outside the corrupted hollowed out centre, repeating this obvious logic, than those listening to distant over-centralised illogical establishment orthodoxies.
Every single day I fire off complaints to the BBC about its coverage of Gaza……
For me this episode shows the steady hypocrisy of the ‘Labour’ government which proves itself to be composed of shallow establishment politicians who act as if Zionism is the predominant belief of all Jewish people, a vile slur against Jews when selfish Zionist extremism in Israel has caused the deaths of disproportionate numbers of indigenous women and children.
Dear all , Thank you for your humanity and morality. God bless you all. Anjum
We stand with you.