'BBC Is Responsible For Anything That Happens To Me': 13-Year-Old Abdullah Al-Yazouri
The 13-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri told to the Middle East Eye (MEE) in an interview about the smearing campaign against him for his role in narrating a documentary about Gaza Children suffering. Reportedly, the Child spent nine months on filming the movie about Gaza’s children suffering under a sky full of Israeli warplanes. But all efforts are vasihsed in an instant and silenced by the BBC.
The withdrawal of the documentary on February 16, just after the four days, not only wasted his efforts and omitted the field, but also has not reached out to apologise for the child, the report said.
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As per the reports, Abudllah Yazouri found himself at the centre of a national row in Britain with a charge of ‘a son of a “Terrorist”. Deleting the film was coupled with torrents of online harassment, hate-mail, threats, and abuse targetting Abdullah and his family.
Abdullah reportedly said that the script was written by a company commissioned for the documentary without any outside actors. Now, the BBC is on the blast for ‘playing politics with the lives of the children traumatized by 17 months of genocidal violence.
The BBC withdrew documentary after finding that the 13-year old narrator was alleged to be the son of a Hamas official. However, the report with MEE told that Ayman Yazouri was the deputy minister of Gaza’s agriculture ministry, a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background.
The BBC’s director general said that he decided to pull the documentary after the concerns were raised about the Boy’s connection to Hamas.
However, the BBC’s decision to pull the documentary has attracted backlash from the media freternity. Sir Vincent Fean said, “BBC has a duty to protect the dignity and wellbeing of an innocent 13-year-old boy”. There are calls outporing for the film to be reinstated. So far over 1,000 signatures from UK media professionals and activists including Gary Lineker, Juliet Stevenson and Miriam Margolyes has been received.
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Suhasini Haidar, the Diplomatic Affair Editor at The Hindu said, “One has to ask why BBC, publicly funded, researches, films and pays for documentaries, makes final checks, broadcasts…. and then withdraws them”.
One has to ask why BBC, publicly funded, researches, films and pays for documentaries, makes final checks, broadcasts…. and then withdraws them. https://t.co/ux5vc3lirr
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) March 6, 2025
