Alert – Director-general Tim Davie admits BBC Arabic staff’s liking ‘pro-Hamas’ tweets is ‘unacceptable’

Director-general Tim Davie has admitted it is ‘unacceptable’ that some of his BBC Arabic staff ‘liked’ pro-Hamas tweets about the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Speaking in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee today, Mr Davie defended the corporation’s ‘impartiality’ and said he is ‘proud of our output under huge pressure’.

His comments come after Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer recently said she believes the broadcaster is biased ‘on occasion’.

He added that the BBC is able to ‘steer the course amongst the noise’ despite ‘the storms of social media’ being ‘very demanding’. However, he said he also ‘worries’ about public institutions losing trust in the current social climate.

Last week the BBC was plunged into a bias row after journalists behind a damning report which accused Israeli soldiers of beating and humiliating medics at a Gaza hospital ‘liked’ videos celebrating Hamas terror attacks.

BBC director-general Tim Davie pictured speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee today

Mr Davie has defended the corporation’s ‘impartiality’ and said he is ‘proud of our output under huge pressure’ [Stock image]

The story led to worldwide condemnation of Israel, and was called ‘very disturbing’ by Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron who called for ‘answers’.

However, the Mail on Sunday revealed how two BBC Arabic reporters Soha Ibrahim and Marie-Jose Al Azzi, who were credited with working on the story, ‘liked’ pro-Hamas tweets.

Earlier this month Ms Ibrahim liked a video on X of Palestine Action activists slashing an oil painting of former British prime minister Arthur Balfour, who helped pave the way for the creation of Israel. 

On the day of the Hamas attacks on October 7, she ‘liked’ videos of people in Lebanon and Tunisia chanting, dancing and waving Palestinian flags in the street in apparent celebration.

London-based Ms Ibrahim, who has worked for the BBC for 12 years, also liked another post on X on October 7 which celebrated ‘the first of the martyrs of the operation’. The tweet featured a picture of an Egyptian man who was killed after shooting dead three Israeli soldiers last June.

She also liked a video of Egyptian football fans chanting ‘we sacrifice our souls, our blood for Palestine’ following the attacks.

Meanwhile Ms Al Azzi, who has worked at the BBC since 2019 and is based in Lebanon, described Israel as a ‘terrorist apartheid state’ in a post from 2018 that has since been deleted, according to anti-Semitism researchers.

Asked about BBC Arabic staff ‘liking’ remarks on social media that are ‘essentially pro-Hamas’, Mr Davie said: ‘Some of those tweets that we’ve seen are unacceptable, and we have taken action and we’ll continue to take action; whether I can convince you that it will never happen again… of course not.

‘We are robust and I think we’re doing the fair thing, we’re acting fairly and judiciously and it’s not easy.

‘I mean, you’re seeing it around the world, every news organisation, every cultural institution as you know is under enormous pressure… this is enormously fraught.’

He said ‘social media activity with regard to this issue’ has led to many BBC staff facing ‘threats’ and has caused some to leave.

Mr Davie was also asked about the BBC’s reporting of a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa alleging that Israel breached the Genocide Convention with its military offensive against Hamas.

Soha Ibrahim liked a video on X of Palestine Action activists slashing an oil painting of former British prime minister Arthur Balfour

Marie-Jose Al Azzi, who has worked for the BBC since 2019, branded Israel a ‘terrorist apartheid state’ in a now deleted post from 2018

He said he gets ‘significant feedback from either side’, and added: ‘Overall I think we have been pretty robust in covering the ICJ rulings. We’ve been in a reasonable position.’

BBC director of editorial policy and standards David Jordan told the committee that South Africa and Israel’s submissions receiving different amounts of coverage on different days ‘only happened on our UK output’, due to the need to cover a hearing about the Post Office scandal.

‘When News looked at it in retrospect, they did think that perhaps they did make a mistake by not making the two live coverages similar or the same, but all the other coverage was similar or the same,’ he said.

Mr Jordan added that an update to editorial guidelines will be available for publication ‘hopefully before the general election’.

Israel has denied the accusations by South Africa saying they are ‘wholly unfounded in fact and law, morally repugnant, and represent an abuse both of the Genocide Convention and of the court itself’ in court documents.

New guidance on social media for BBC employees was published in September, which said they must not bring the corporation ‘into disrepute’ and are required to be respectful in public.