4 days ago
Gaza documentary producer celebrated Palestinian terrorists as ‘martyrs'
A producer of a controversial documentary on Gaza called a terrorist who shot dead seven Israeli civilians on Holocaust Memorial Day a 'martyr', The Telegraph can reveal.
The Channel 4 film Gaza: Doctors Under Attack was billed as a 'forensic investigation' into claims the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were deliberately targeting Palestinian medics in a systematic campaign to cripple Gaza's hospitals.
But one of the two Gazan producers, Osama Al Ashi, had previously described Palestinian terrorists as 'martyrs' and has been accused of posting 'celebratory' footage of the Oct 7 2023 attacks on social media.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera UK), a pro-Israel monitoring organisation, said it raised questions about the producer's objectivity and the documentary's impartiality.
A Camera UK spokesman told The Telegraph: '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.'
The documentary, made by Basement Films, an independent production company, proved controversial even before it was broadcast.
It was originally commissioned by the BBC, but the broadcaster decided it 'risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC.'
Earlier, in February, the corporation had been forced to remove a Gaza documentary by a different production company from iPlayer. It had emerged that the child narrator of Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was the son of a Hamas government minister.
In light of this, the BBC reviewed Gaza: Doctors Under Attack and decided to axe it.
Channel 4 acquired the film, stating it had carried out 'thorough fact checking and verification' to ensure it met its editorial standards and the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. The film aired on July 2.
But it is now known that, in an Instagram post on Jan 27 2023, Ashi, a producer from Gaza, described Khairi Alqam, a 21-year-old terrorist from East Jerusalem, as a 'martyr'.
Earlier that day – Holocaust Memorial Day – Alqam drove to a synagogue in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov, took out a handgun, and opened fire on worshippers leaving the building. This settlement is recognised as being illegal under international law.
The attack, the most deadly in Israel by a Palestinian gunman since 2008, resulted in the deaths of seven Israeli civilians. The youngest was a 14-year-old child.
Alqam was shot dead by police as he fled on foot.
Ashi responded to the attack by posting a commemorative video showing photos of the terrorist, captioned 'the martyr Khairi Alqam – may God have mercy on him and forgive him', a common Arabic condolence message.
The clip is a slideshow of photos of the gunman in various settings, including wearing a bow tie and three-piece suit, and posing in sunglasses beside a car on a mountain road, set to melancholic music.
Mr Alqam has not been formally linked to any terror group and could have been motivated by personal trauma and a desire for revenge.
His grandfather, also his namesake, was stabbed to death in 1998 by Chaim Pearlman, a Jewish extremist from the Kach movement. Pearlman was legally represented by Itamar Ben-Gvir, now Israel's Minister of National Security.
Nine months later, on Oct 7 2023, as Hamas launched its attacks on Israel, Ashi posted videos on his social media.
On Instagram, he shared footage of Hamas terrorists flying into Israel by paraglider as dawn broke over the Gaza Strip, set to an uplifting Islamic song encouraging fighting against oppressors.
The clip contains the footage of the attack overlaid with the Arabic lyrics: 'Fill the earth with Takbir [the praise of God] – to shake the oppressors.'
He captioned it: 'These are the videos that settlers are now circulating of the resistance storming and infiltrating the occupied territories in the Gaza Strip.'
A Camera UK spokesman commented on the clip, saying: 'The video Mr Ashi posted on Oct 7 combined with rallying against 'oppressors' is celebratory of terror atrocities that were carried out against Israelis.'
On TikTok, Ashi posted another video on Oct 7, this time showing Hamas rockets being fired into Israel, accompanied by an excitable child's voice saying: 'Go, go!'
He captained the video 'keep going, oh Mahdi, keep going!' adding two fire emojis and a laughing-crying emoji.
The Mahdi is a messianic figure in Islam expected to appear at the 'end of times' to defeat evil and bring justice.
Camera UK also said Ashi had made several social media posts during the intensification of hostilities between Israel and Gaza in 2016, including one calling a Hamas member involved in the shooting of three civilians a 'wounded hero'.
'We are presenting an impartial view'
Announcing the decision to air the documentary, Louisa Compton, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, said: '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.'
Earlier this week, Deborah Turness, the BBC's head of news, revealed it was concerns over the 'social media activity' of a journalist involved in Gaza: Doctors Under Attack that prompted them to pause production.
She said the decision to drop the film came after its reporter, Ramita Navai, said during a BBC radio interview that Israel was ' a rogue state that's committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass-murdering Palestinians'.
The revelations about the producer's social media activity have now prompted calls, including from a former head of BBC Television, for the media regulator Ofcom to investigate.
Danny Cohen, who oversaw the BBC's television networks from 2013 to 2015, said: 'Ofcom should launch an investigation immediately.'
He added: 'Channel 4 has serious questions to answer on why they saw fit to broadcast this documentary. They have broadcast a programme in collaboration with those who appear to revel in the violent death of Jews and presented it as journalism.
'It is shameful. Channel 4 should be deeply embarrassed.'
Lord Austin, a non-affiliated peer and former Labour MP, said: 'The hateful social media posts by the producer on this film are really shocking.
'Ofcom should launch an investigation into why Channel 4 saw fit to broadcast this film made by someone who appears to glory in the murder of Jews.'
'Wounded hero'
Earlier posts from Ashi include one, dated June 8 2016, in which the producer, then aged 20, called Khalid Al-Muhamra, a Hamas member, a 'wounded hero' and described his cousin Muhammad as a 'martyr'.
The two men had opened fire that evening on diners at the Max Brenner Cafe in Tel Aviv's Sarona Market, killing three civilians, with a fourth later dying of a heart attack. Both were arrested alive.
A month later, on July 1 2016, Ashi posted an apparent reference to the fatal shooting of Rabbi Michael Mark, a 48-year-old father of ten, who had just been killed by a Palestinian gunman while driving with his wife and two children through the South Hebron Hills.
Citing a news report of the attack, Ashi appeared to praise the terrorist's aim, writing 'either hit like this or not at all' alongside a smiley face emoji.
A spokesman for the Jewish Leadership Council, which represents the largest Jewish organisations in the UK, including synagogues, care organisations, and education charities, told The Telegraph that Ashi's involvement in the film was 'a betrayal of basic journalistic standards'.
'That this documentary was produced by someone with such a horrific track record of glorifying terror is not just a betrayal of basic journalistic standards; it fuels the anti-Israel bias which has been linked to anti-Semitism in the UK.'
'My posts have nothing to do with Hamas'
Osama Al Ashi said: 'My posts have absolutely nothing to do with Hamas. And I only cover and repost the news and updates. I only fear that these allegations will worry my family and friends and that the situation will develop into a direct threat.
'You know how the army deals with us here in Gaza. I hope that this article will not be highlighted in the responses and its content will be explored in depth in the media.
'When Oct 7 happened, there was a rush to post videos, and I shared them because there was extensive coverage of the events, and I did not add the audio. They were simply reposts done quickly as part of event coverage. I did not have time to analyse them.'
A spokesman for Basement Films 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.
'This story puts his life at risk. A record 230 journalists have been killed doing their jobs in Gaza.
'It is shocking to us that Danny Cohen and Camera should seek to justify the killing of medics including Dr Khaled Hamouda's wife and 7-year-old daughter, because of some social media posts.
'By doing so they appear to be supporting every aspect of Israel's assault on Gaza, including the killing of at least 17,000 children.'
'Rigorous fact-checking'
A Channel 4 spokesman said: 'Gaza: Doctors Under Attack is an important piece of public service journalism that has been through rigorous fact-checking and extensive compliance processes from Channel 4.
'We stand by this forensically researched film and are satisfied it is duly impartial, accurate and compliant with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
'Foreign journalists are banned from reporting inside Gaza. In line with other media organisations, the producers of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack used Palestinian journalists.
'According to the UN more than 200 journalists in Gaza have been killed during this conflict.'
