The BBC dare not show it. Anything critical of the actions of the State of Israel will be falsely branded as "antisemitic" by supporters of Israel's racist genocide.
"In the aftermath, it decided not to broadcast another documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, because it “risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC”.
That second documentary finally aired last night on Channel 4, a publicly owned but more risk-taking broadcaster. Its narrative is stark: doctors have been killed, detained and tortured during Israel’s military offensive, which followed Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Medics may even have been specifically targeted.
You can feel almost immediately that Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, made by independent production company Basement Films, is not a BBC film. It isn’t ponderous and caveated in the way once might have expected had it aired, as once intended, on Panorama.
“From the first day of the war, Israel attacked the one thing Palestinians needed most: its healthcare system,” says British reporter and narrator Ramita Navai.
First come the direct Israeli strikes. Israel hit al-Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital, claiming there was a Hamas command centre underneath. The filmmakers say Israel failed to provide “sufficient evidence” of this and has prevented an independent investigation. In April, the Israeli military killed Palestinian Red Crescent medics, falsely claiming their ambulances did not have their lights on. A video found on one dead medic’s phone contains the tragic last words: “Forgive me, mum. I swear I only chose this path to help others.”
After the strikes come the detentions. When Israeli troops have stormed hospitals, many medics have been detained. We see footage of men stripped to their underwear near a hospital, although it’s not clear who they are. The film focuses on one military detention site, Sde Teiman. A former worker there says that Gazan medics were detained mainly because they had witnessed Israeli hostages being transported and treated, and that abuse of them was encouraged.
In the documentary, medics make allegations of torture, which tally with other accounts. One says that he was refused treatment by Israeli doctors. An Israeli doctor, speaking to Navai under anonymity, admits: “I am an accomplice.” The doctor goes on to say that there isn’t even a need to cover up wrongdoing, because Palestinians have been dehumanised in Israeli society, starting before October 7. “You can do almost whatever you want when it comes to Gazans.”
Some Palestinian medics have died in detention, including Adnan al-Bursh, an orthopaedic surgeon. A year later, al-Bursh’s body has still not been returned to his family. Others have been released without charge, among them Khaled Hamouda, who lost 12 relatives, including his wife and daughter, in an Israeli strike on his home, and who testifies that he was tortured.
The filmmakers reveal that two of the medics featured, al-Bursh and Hamouda, had expressed support for the October 7 attacks. This is not discussed in detail. The implication is that even such support would not make them legitimate targets. This is surely right, but it also leaves some complexities underexplored, including that we don’t know how freely other Gazans who appear in any documentary speak.
Israel didn’t respond to some of the film’s allegations, such as why it apparently targeted Hamouda’s family. In general, the military and the prison service say they act legally; the military has emphasised that Hamas is embedded in civilian infrastructure. Navai, the reporter, notes that Israel reported killing Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’s military leader, in an air strike on a bunker under the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis in May."
FT.com
"In the aftermath, it decided not to broadcast another documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, because it “risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC”.
That second documentary finally aired last night on Channel 4, a publicly owned but more risk-taking broadcaster. Its narrative is stark: doctors have been killed, detained and tortured during Israel’s military offensive, which followed Hamas’s October 7 massacre. Medics may even have been specifically targeted.
You can feel almost immediately that Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, made by independent production company Basement Films, is not a BBC film. It isn’t ponderous and caveated in the way once might have expected had it aired, as once intended, on Panorama.
“From the first day of the war, Israel attacked the one thing Palestinians needed most: its healthcare system,” says British reporter and narrator Ramita Navai.
First come the direct Israeli strikes. Israel hit al-Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital, claiming there was a Hamas command centre underneath. The filmmakers say Israel failed to provide “sufficient evidence” of this and has prevented an independent investigation. In April, the Israeli military killed Palestinian Red Crescent medics, falsely claiming their ambulances did not have their lights on. A video found on one dead medic’s phone contains the tragic last words: “Forgive me, mum. I swear I only chose this path to help others.”
After the strikes come the detentions. When Israeli troops have stormed hospitals, many medics have been detained. We see footage of men stripped to their underwear near a hospital, although it’s not clear who they are. The film focuses on one military detention site, Sde Teiman. A former worker there says that Gazan medics were detained mainly because they had witnessed Israeli hostages being transported and treated, and that abuse of them was encouraged.
In the documentary, medics make allegations of torture, which tally with other accounts. One says that he was refused treatment by Israeli doctors. An Israeli doctor, speaking to Navai under anonymity, admits: “I am an accomplice.” The doctor goes on to say that there isn’t even a need to cover up wrongdoing, because Palestinians have been dehumanised in Israeli society, starting before October 7. “You can do almost whatever you want when it comes to Gazans.”
Some Palestinian medics have died in detention, including Adnan al-Bursh, an orthopaedic surgeon. A year later, al-Bursh’s body has still not been returned to his family. Others have been released without charge, among them Khaled Hamouda, who lost 12 relatives, including his wife and daughter, in an Israeli strike on his home, and who testifies that he was tortured.
The filmmakers reveal that two of the medics featured, al-Bursh and Hamouda, had expressed support for the October 7 attacks. This is not discussed in detail. The implication is that even such support would not make them legitimate targets. This is surely right, but it also leaves some complexities underexplored, including that we don’t know how freely other Gazans who appear in any documentary speak.
Israel didn’t respond to some of the film’s allegations, such as why it apparently targeted Hamouda’s family. In general, the military and the prison service say they act legally; the military has emphasised that Hamas is embedded in civilian infrastructure. Navai, the reporter, notes that Israel reported killing Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’s military leader, in an air strike on a bunker under the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis in May."
FT.com
