Cameron urges BBC to describe Hamas as terrorist organisation
David Cameron has urged the BBC to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation, reviving an argument that the corporation was shying away from a valid description of the Islamist group holding Israeli hostages.
The foreign secretary told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday that it should reconsider its guidelines in the light of a video released by Hamas on Saturday showing a BritishIsraeli hostage, Nadav Popplewell.
Later that day the group released a further statement saying Popplewell, 51, had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike a month ago.
The fresh video showed him with a black eye and visible signs of physical abuse. Popplewell’s family asked that the video not be published or used.
Lord Cameron said he could give no updates on the fate of the British hostage, as the Foreign Office investigates what happened.
“Like everyone else, I watched the video on Twitter/X last night, put out by Hamas of Nadav answering a question as to who he was. And I watched that video and you just think, what callous people they are to do that, to play with the family’s emotions in that way,” said Cameron.
He said he had met the family and knew what “heartbreak they’ve been going through for over 200 days, and when you see what Hamas are prepared to do, you just realise the terrible, dreadful, inhuman people, frankly, that we are dealing with”.
Cameron continued: “Maybe it’s a moment actually for the BBC to ask itself again, shall we describe these people as terrorists? They are terrorists.”
The BBC calls Hamas a proscribed terrorist organisation, but has been reluctant to go further, fearing it would be seen to be taking sides in a conflict it is seeking to report objectively.
After meeting the Board of Deputies of British Jews in October, the BBC said it “does not … use the word terrorist without attributing it, nor do we ban words”. It added that “for some days we had not been using ‘militant’ as a default description for Hamas, as we have been finding this a less accurate description for our audiences as the situation evolves”.
Popplewell was captured with his mother from her home in the Nirim kibbutz, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. His brother was killed during the attack. His mother was released during a temporary ceasefire in November.
A BBC spokesperson said: “No one consuming BBC News can be left unaware of the horrific nature of Hamas’s acts.
“We’ve made our longstanding position on this matter very clear – we use the word terrorist when it is attributed to others, such as the UK government.”