Fresh impartiality row at the BBC as its own journalists accuse broadcaster of favouring Israel in its war coverage – after it came under fire for refusing to call Hamas a terror group

BBC journalists have accused the broadcasters of favouritism towards Israel and only using ‘atrocity’ and ‘massacre’ to refer to Hamas attacks. 

Eight UK-based staff wrote a 2,300-word letter to Al Jazeera in which they claimed the corporation had failed to ‘humanise Palestinian victims’ of the war. 

It is the latest salvo against the corporation from the pro-Palestinian side after supporters of Israel slammed it for failing to refer to Hamas as ‘terrorists’. 

The eight employees, who asked Al Jazeera not to share their identities, accused the BBC of being guilty of a ‘double standard in how civilians are seen’.

They said: ‘The BBC has failed to accurately tell this story – through omission and lack of critical engagement with Israel’s claims – and it has therefore failed to help the public engage with and understand the human rights abuses unfolding in Gaza.

Eight UK-based BBC staff wrote a 2,300-word letter to Al Jazeera in which they claimed the corporation had failed to ‘humanise Palestinian victims’ of the war

‘News updates and articles neglect to include a line or two of critical historical context – on 75 years of occupation, the Nakba, or the asymmetric death toll across decades.’ 

‘Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Oct 7. When will the number be high enough for our editorial stance to change?’

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The Times reported last month that some BBC staff had been left ‘crying in lavatories’ because they felt its coverage was ‘dehumanising’ to Palestinians.  

The BBC said its coverage of the war ‘has made clear the devastating human cost to civilians living in Gaza and Israel’.

Last week former BBC television chief Danny Cohen said the BBC was ‘fuelling antisemitism’ by failing to refer to Hamas as terrorists and describing the October 7 massacre as a ‘cross-border attack’.

He described the broadcaster’s choice of verbiage as ‘offensive’ and ‘reductionist’ as he called for a probe into an alleged antisemitism and anti-Israel bias at the BBC.

But the eight journalists who wrote to Al Jazeera claimed terms like ‘massacre’ and ‘atrocity’ were reserved ‘only for Hamas, framing the group as the only instigator and perpetrator of violence in the region’. 

They said that the Hamas attack on October 7, ‘while appalling and devastating… does not justify the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and the BBC cannot be seen to support – or fail to interrogate – the logic that it does.’

One of the BBC’s highest profile critics during the war has been Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who called the organisation ‘atrocious’ for describing Hamas terrorists as ‘militants’. 

A man salvages objects amid the rubble of a school hit during an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip 

He said: ‘I feel the BBC’s reporting is atrocious.

‘The fact that it does not recognise Hamas as a terror organisation requires a complete legal battle and public battle. It’s unbelievable.

‘What other type of torture do they want before they decide it was a terrorist organisation?’

The corporation has been criticised for some of its reporting during the war, including one correspondent’s decision to blame the blast at the Al Ahli hospital on October 18 on an Israel airstrike. 

A BBC spokesman said: ‘The BBC is one of the only news organisations to have journalists inside Gaza, and our journalists have been able to provide on the ground reporting, first-hand testimony and analysis on what is happening on the ground,’ a spokesman said. 

Last week former BBC television chief Danny Cohen said the BBC was ‘fuelling antisemitism’ by failing to refer to Hamas as terrorists 

‘This has included many stories of Palestinian victims and first-hand testimony from civilians, doctors and aid workers in Gaza, as well as a Panorama documentary, featuring human stories from both sides.

‘BBC News has also examined the history and complexities of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and continues to provide historical context and explainers throughout our coverage online, on our dedicated podcast – The Conflict – and on our radio and TV news programmes.

‘When interviewing either the Israeli government, Hamas, Palestinian representatives, or other leaders, we are robust, challenging and aim to hold power to account.’

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