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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the BBC headquarters in London, England, on Thursday to protest the recent broadcast of a documentary titled “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” which was narrated by the 13-year-old son of a Hamas official.
The BBC acknowledged last week “serious flaws” in the making of a documentary and pulled it from its iPlayer platform. However, the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) — the organizer of Thursday’s protest — is demanding a suspension of BBC license fee payments until an independent investigation is conducted.
“The BBC has allowed license fee money to go to the family of a Hamas terrorist in the production of what was essentially a Hamas propaganda film,” the CAA stated. “The BBC is trying to pretend that it is business as usual while hoping to get away with an internal report, but the British public is having none of it and does not want the BBC to mark its own homework.
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Public Affairs Officer Natalie Sanandaji — a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre on October 7th — attended and addressed Thursday’s protest, saying, “This is not just a case of poor judgment. This is an active betrayal of the trust that the public has in institutions like the BBC. The BBC is supposed to be a respected, reliable source of news for the British public. The BBC is supposed to uphold standards of fairness and responsibility. And yet here they are, amplifying the voices of those connected to the very people who are responsible for the deaths of our friends, our families, our communities.”
We now have the honour of hearing from Natalie Sanandaji.
Natalie is a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre on 7th October, where a reported 364 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists.
“This is not just a case of poor judgment. This is an active betrayal of the trust… pic.twitter.com/z1rcAQXzBF
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) March 6, 2025
Other speakers included CAA Chief Executive Gideon Falter, Our Fight UK Founder Mark Birbeck, broadcaster and comedian Josh Howie, and actress and columnist Dame Maureen Lipman.
Watch Sanandaji’s remarks in full HERE:
A day earlier, Sanandaji was a panelist at a forum — “Antisemitism, Intersectionality, and the Response of the Feminist Movement to the Sexual Violence Committed by Hamas on Oct. 7” — in Cambridge, co-hosted by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) and Woolf Institute.
The full transcript of Sanandaji’s BBC protest speech follows:
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Natalie Sanandaji, and today I am here to speak out against the BBC and their recent documentary, which I find deeply disturbing and damaging. I am here as a survivor of the nova festival , as someone who has lived through the horrors of what happened on October 7th and witnessed firsthand the incredible pain and suffering caused by the Hamas terrorist organization.
On that fateful day, I lost friends. I lost loved ones. I saw brutality that no human should ever have to witness. The massacre was horrific, and the terrorists who carried out those attacks are not people we should be excusing or enabling. These are the same people that the BBC’s documentary chose to center. A family member of a Hamas official was featured prominently, and it was later revealed that British taxpayers’ money — money collected through the BBC’s license fee — was funneled to the family of a senior Hamas member.
I cannot express enough how damaging this is. Imagine the hurt and frustration we feel when, as survivors of this unimaginable violence, we learn that our pain is being used to fund those who are responsible for it. This is not just a case of poor judgment. This is an active betrayal of the trust that the public has in institutions like the BBC. The BBC is supposed to be a respected, reliable source of news for the British public. The BBC is supposed to uphold standards of fairness and responsibility. And yet here they are, amplifying the voices of those connected to the very people who are responsible for the deaths of our friends, our families, our communities.
I’ve spent this past year and a half fighting for truth and justice. But it seems that sometimes, the narrative gets manipulated for political gain. Let me share with you an experience I had. I had been preparing for an interview with CNN about what had happened on October 7th. The world needed to hear our story, to understand the horror we went through. But then, just before my interview, CNN pulled out. Why? Because they wanted to cover a rocket that fell near a hospital in Gaza. And when they reported on it, they claimed it was an Israeli rocket without fact-checking. This wasn’t just an oversight — it was misinformation that spread like wildfire. It incited hate, it sparked riots, and it contributed to the anti-Semitic hatred that escalated in the days and weeks that followed. By the time they corrected the report, it was too late — the damage had already been done.
This is the reality we live in. A reality where the media, including organizations like the BBC, have too often failed to take responsibility for the narratives they push. When a trusted institution like the BBC promotes propaganda that indirectly supports Hamas, it does more than just misinform. It contributes to a culture of hate and division, and it undermines the very values of truth, justice, and accountability that we hold dear.
Let’s be clear — the money that the BBC receives from the British public is meant to serve the public good. It is meant to inform, educate, and unite. But instead, it has been used to fund those who perpetuate violence, terrorism, and hatred. How am I, as survivors of this tragedy, supposed to feel when I know that peoples tax dollars are supporting the families of the very people who want to destroy my people?
This documentary — and the BBC’s failure to take responsibility — is not just a media issue. It’s a human issue. It’s a question of ethics, of truth, of justice. It is a betrayal of the survivors, of the victims, and of every single person who has suffered at the hands of Hamas.
I stand before you today to call for accountability. I call for the BBC to take responsibility for their actions, to examine how their content is impacting the real people affected by the violence they so casually report on, and to make a commitment to never again be complicit in promoting the causes of those who spread terror. It’s time for the BBC to stop making excuses and start being the institution of trust and integrity it claims to be.
To everyone who stands with us — the victims, the survivors, the families — we will not be silenced. We will continue to speak out. We will continue to fight for truth. And we will not allow the BBC, or any other institution, to stand by while innocent lives are used as pawns in a political game.
Thank you.
