Anger as Gaza documentary producer allegedly celebrated Palestinian terrorists as 'martyrs' - including one who gunned down Jewish boy, 14, and six others in Holocaust Memorial Day killing spree

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

A producer of a Gaza documentary axed by the BBC over impartiality concerns - but later shown on Channel 4 - is accused of having called a terrorist who brutally gunned down seven Israeli s as a 'martyr' and of previously having shared 'celebratory' footage of the October 7 attacks.
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, was originally commissioned by the BBC more than a year ago.
However, the corporation paused its production in April following the launch of an investigation into another documentary, Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, which featured the son of a Hamas minister - a fact omitted by filmmakers.
Instead, Channel 4 aired the documentary, made by Basement Films, on July 2 after saying it had gone through 'rigorous fact-checking and extensive compliance processes'.
The broadcaster had concluded the film was 'duly impartial'.
But concerns have now arisen over social media posts shared by Osama Al Ashi, one of the two Gazan producers of the documentary, The Telegraph claims.
In one, the producer is said to have described Khairi Alqam as a 'martyr' on January 27, 2023, the same day the 21-year-old from East Jerusalem carried out a deadly mass shooting in the settlement of Neve Yaakov.
The settlement is considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes that view.
Seven people were killed, including a 14-year-old child, after Alqam opened fire on worshippers leaving a synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day.
The terrorist was shot dead shortly afterwards by police as he fled from the scene.
It is also claimed that in a now-deleted post, Ashi shared a video montage of photographs showing Alqam alongside the caption: 'The martyr Khairi Alqam – may God have mercy on him and forgive him'.
Ashi is also said to have shared footage on October 7, 2023, showing Hamas terrorists flying into Israel by paraglider and described them as 'the resistance'.
A caption underneath his post reads: 'These are the videos that settlers are now circulating of the resistance storming and infiltrating the occupied territories in the Gaza Strip.'
Ashi was also said to have shared a video on October 7, 2023 to TikTok showing Hamas rockets being fired into Israel.
He is additionally said to have called a Hamas terrorist who shot three Israelis as a 'wounded hero' while sharing social media posts during rising violence between Israel and Hamas in 2016.
In response to the claims put to him, Ashi deleted several social media posts and told The Telegraph his posts 'have absolutely nothing to do with Hamas.'
The producer added he only wanted to share news and updates through reposts, and he did not have 'time to analyse' the material shared on October 7, 2023, due to the rapidly developing nature of events.
However the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera UK), a media monitoring organisation, said the sharing of such posts has raised red flags.
A Camera UK spokesman said: 'A producer who celebrates the deaths of Israeli civilians on what he sees as 'the other side', and who appears unable to distinguish them from legitimate military targets, cannot be considered an impartial observer.'
Basement Films defended Ashi and said claims put forward by The Telegraph posed a threat to his safety.
A spokesperson said: 'Osama has not posted anything himself about Oct 7 but shared news and other posts on social media as it was breaking, and The Telegraph interpretations of these tweets are misleading.'
Channel 4 previously said it had fact-checked Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, to ensure the documentary met editorial standards and the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
Louisa Compton, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs and specialist factual and sport, issued a statement at the time saying: 'We are showing this programme because we believe that, following thorough fact-checking and verification, we are presenting a duly impartial view of a subject that both divides opinion and frequently provokes dispute about what constitutes a fact.
'Channel 4 has a strong tradition of putting uncomfortable reporting in front of our audiences.
'In doing so, we know we will antagonise somebody somewhere sometime. But we do it because we believe it is our duty to tell important journalistic stories – especially those that aren't being told elsewhere.'
The BBC announced in June that it would not broadcast Gaza: Doctors Under Attack after concerns over impartiality.
'We wanted the doctors' voices to be heard,' the broadcaster said in a statement.
'Our aim was to find a way to air some of the material in our news programmes, in line with our impartiality standards, before the review was published.
'For some weeks, the BBC has been working with Basement Films to find a way to tell the stories of these doctors on our platforms.'
But, the corporation added it would no longer be possible to air the documentary.
'We have come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC.
'Impartiality is a core principle of BBC News. It is one of the reasons that we are the world's most trusted broadcaster.
'Therefore, we are transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films.'
The debate arose just months after critics were enraged by the BBC's failure to disclose the narrator of Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone was the son of a senior member of Hamas.
It was originally broadcast on BBC Two on February 17 with the aim of showing a 'vivid and unflinching view of life' in the strip.
The documentary was made by two producers based in London who remotely directed two cameramen on the ground over nine months.
However, independent investigative journalist David Collier discovered one of the child narrators, Abdullah, was the son of a Hamas government minister and grandson of one of Hamas's founding members.
Using Facebook and publicly available data online, Mr Collier found the young narrator was the son of Gaza's deputy minister of agriculture, Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.
This meant his grandfather is Hamas founder Ibrahim Al-Yazouri, previously jailed by Egypt and Israel for involvement in proscribed groups.
The BBC subsequently apologised, with a spokesperson for the corporation saying at the time: 'Since the transmission of our documentary on Gaza, the BBC has become aware of the family connections of the film's narrator, a child called Abdullah.
'We've promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission.
'We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film.'
A BBC report published earlier this week concluded the documentary, which was pulled from iPlayer in February, had breached editorial guidelines on accuracy.
The review also found three members of independent production company Hoyo Films knew about the family connections of the narrator, but the BBC did not.
BBC staff however were not 'sufficiently proactive' with their editorial checks.