Gary Lineker among 500 figures calling for BBC to reinstate Gaza documentary

Ex-footballer and prominent BBC presenter Gary Lineker is among 500 film, TV and media professionals calling on the BBC to reinstate the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. 

The BBC has pulled its documentary about children in Gaza from BBC iPlayer after mounting pressure over a featured child being the son of a Palestinian minister.

Most criticism has focused on the fact, first reported by researcher David Collier, that the documentary's 13-year-old narrator Abdullah Alyazouri is the son of a minister in Gaza's Hamas-run government.

Middle East Eye found on Thursday that Dr Ayman Alyazouri, Gaza's deputy agriculture minister, appears to be a technocrat with a scientific background who previously worked for the United Arab Emirates government and studied at British universities.

A letter sent to the BBC, seen by the Guardian, describes the film as "an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinians".

The signatories said that Alyazouri was a civil servant concerned with food production. 

"This broad-brush rhetoric assumes that Palestinians holding administrative roles are inherently complicit in violence – a racist trope that denies individuals their humanity and right to share their lived experiences," the letter stated.