A BBC documentary, ‘One Day in Gaza’, which was aired on Monday on BBC 2, details how last year’s violent events on the Gaza border unfolded, including the transportation of Gazan civilians by Hamas to the most violent locations on the border for use as human shields.
A Palestinian woman interviewed in the documentary, Aintisar Abu Hassanein, recounted her fear when the bus she had boarded to the main popular protest site was sent by Hamas to an exposed military area. She described being informed by militants that “it’s been decided that today, everyone will stay here”.
Made by the documentary maker Olly Lambert, ‘One Day in Gaza’ examines what happened on 14th May 2018, which saw the deadliest clashes along the Israel-Gaza border since the 2014 Gaza conflict, amid the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
The protests along the border fence were the culmination of a six-week ‘March of Return’ campaign, and were coordinated by the Hamas terror organisation, which is proscribed in the UK.
60 people were killed in the violence on 14th May 2018. Hamas claimed that 50 of those who were killed, were members of the terror organisation.
The documentary draws on more than 120 hours of archive footage filmed on both sides of the border that day, and includes interviews with senior commanders and intelligence officers from the Israel Defense Forces, as well as political leaders of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The BBC faced criticism for substituting the word “Israelis” for “Jews” in its translation of interviews with Palestinians. It defended the decision, saying that they sought expert advice on the translation before broadcast.
24-year-old Bader Saleh, told the interviewers in Arabic: “The revolutionary songs, they excite you, they encourage you to rip a Jew’s head off”. The BBC’s translation, which ran subtitled across the screen, quoted Mr Saleh as saying: “They encourage you to rip an Israeli’s head off”. The correct translation for “yahudi” from Arabic to English is “Jew”.
Watch the documentary here on BBC IPlayer.
