The BBC‘s anti-Palestinian propaganda during Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been appalling — one telling example came when it dropped a piece about British and Palestinian children sharing poetry ‘for impartiality’ reasons. The BBC Gaza coverage sinks to a new low.

We spoke to the project coordinator behind the collaboration to find out more.

Showcasing the humanity of Gaza’s children

The latest pro-Israel coup at the BBC is the culmination of longstanding efforts to further compromise its already dismal reporting on the illegal settler-colonial occupation of Palestine. But its decision to drop a piece showing the humanity of Gaza’s children exemplifies how the BBC has consistently prioritised Israeli lives over Palestinian lives.

In early 2025, the Hands Up Project brought British children together with children from Gaza via a poetry event. The educational charity seeks to connect children around the world through

online interaction, drama, and storytelling — and recently organised an event at a primary school in Dartington, Devon.

Hands Up had previously arranged an international poetry competition, which later became a book – Moon tell me truth – including the poems and illustrations of 9-to-15-year-old children from Palestine, India, Argentina, and Spain. An exhibition of the collection then toured the UK.

Dartington primary offered to host the exhibition. But as Hands Up coordinator Nick Bilbrough told us, the school had insisted on the event being purely cultural rather than political. Considering the fact that “it’s been really difficult to get any of our work into UK schools”, he said, the tough decision was made to remove a couple of poems that explicitly mentioned Palestine. This made it possible for the work of other Palestinian children to enter the school.

Soon after, local BBC journalists expressed interest. Bilbrough asked if they wanted to come to the school and “do an interview with me there, and with the teacher, and some of the kids”. He said “they loved that idea”. So they got all of the necessary permissions and then sent someone along to film.

Weeks of silence followed, until a BBC editor finally confirmed the broadcaster had dropped the story.

So why might BBC bosses have stepped in?

Bilbrough explained:

We did a live link-up with one of the young poets, Nada, who at that time was still in Gaza. She’s got three poems in the book. The kids at Dartington primary interviewed her. And I had a really lovely chat with her about why she writes poetry, and what it’s like to be a poet in Gaza.

He added that:

The kids were blown away by her – very inspired by her.

The children in Britain also “read out some of the poems that they’d written, inspired by the poetry of the children of Gaza”.

The BBC reporter got lots of content, and “obviously didn’t want to make it political in any way”. But as Bilbrough said:

All the kids know, even though the BBC‘s trying to keep it all quiet or doing their best to, what’s going on in Gaza. And responding to the question ‘What was it like to meet a poet from Gaza?’ they were saying things like ‘Wow, it’s amazing that, even though Israel is bombing them really badly, she’s able to write such beautiful poetry’.

So considering the longstanding pro-Israel bias at the BBC, it’s understandable that it wouldn’t want to green-light that kind of clear, factual statement specifically. But as Bilbrough stressed:

There was enough footage for them to show. I wasn’t talking about anything political, nor was the teacher. We were all just talking about the value of writing poetry in a difficult situation, and how inspirational the poems are.

He also argued that Nada’s efforts alone should have been reason enough to show at least a short report on the event:

Nada had gone out of her way. At that time, she was still in Gaza. She subsequently managed to get out. At considerable risk to herself, she had to go somewhere where she could do the Zoom link and it was quite risky for her to do that.

Indeed, the reporter suggested the piece may be “out by the end of the week” on local news programme BBC Spotlight. But the higher-ups clearly had a problem with that.

Below is a short clip that Bilbrough had recorded himself:

BBC Gaza coverage — when impartiality during a genocide becomes complicity

Many days came and went with no news. And then, weeks later, a BBC editor sent Bilbrough an email (which the Canary has seen), saying “some key people [have] been away” and “it’s taken time to fully understand what happened”. But the crux of the message was to inform him that:

After reviewing everything, we’ve decided not to proceed with the piece.

The explanation was that:

Every story we run is carefully considered, balancing editorial considerations, news value, and audience interest, while also being assessed in the context of what else is in the news at the time. In this case, it became clear that to meet our editorial standards, we would need to provide significantly more context to ensure due impartiality, which would be challenging within the scope of the piece.

Did they think poetry from Israeli bomber pilots was necessary to balance the story out? We’ll never know.

But as Bilbrough said, there was clearly more than enough material for the BBC to, at the very least, put out a dry 30-second report with a couple of quotes about the importance of children from around the world sharing poetry and sharing their humanity. That was apparently not something BBC editors wanted, though. Bilbrough added:

I just think they don’t want to show this human side of the children of Gaza.

That wouldn’t be surprising. Because this is just one instance of many where the BBC selectively humanises people according to whether the British state sees them as worthy or unworthy victims (depending on whether Britain’s adversaries or allies are to blame). One report earlier in the year, for example, showed that Israelis who died had got 33 times more BBC coverage, despite Israeli occupation forces killing at least 34 times more Palestinians. In short, it’s hard to argue that the BBC has even sought to be ‘impartial’ during the genocide. Instead, it has unapologetically taken Israel’s side.

Never forget

Nine-year-old Fatema Saidam wrote the following poem for the Moon tell me truth collection:

Eyes are for looking

And seeing sun

Tongues are for greeting

And saying fun

Legs are for walking slowly

And also run

Hands are for shaking with friends

Not for shooting gun

This is the humanity of Gaza’s children that BBC bosses have actively sought to silence or minimise in the last two years, with the excuse of ‘impartiality’.

Israel murdered Fatema and her entire family in October 2023. And it took the lives of over 20,000 more children in the following two years.

The BBC‘s behaviour since 2023 is a stain it will never be able to wash off. And we should never forget what it has done.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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