A fierce row erupted between GB News presenter Martin Daubney and former BBC producer John Mair over controversial comments made by BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness regarding Hamas.
The heated exchange centred on Turness's distinction between Hamas government officials and the terrorist organisation's military wing, following the BBC's documentary scandal involving a Gaza child narrator whose father serves as Hamas's deputy agriculture minister.
Martin launched a scathing attack on the BBC's stance, declaring: "Once again, the BBC utterly tone deaf on reality here. Let's face it, it's like saying Adolf Hitler wasn't really a Nazi, he was a farmer."
Mair defended the corporation, immediately countering that GB News was "tone deaf on Gaza" and attempting to shift focus to Israel's military actions.
GB NEWS
|Martin Daubney locked horns with Mair
The controversy stems from a video obtained by The Telegraph showing Turness telling BBC staff that Abdullah Al-Yazouri's father "was a deputy agriculture minister, and therefore was a member of the Hamas-run government, which is different to being part of the military wing of Hamas."
She added: "Externally, it's often simplified that he was in Hamas, and I think it's an important point of detail that we need to continually remind people of the difference."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- BBC executive slammed for telling staff that Hamas government is 'different' to its military
- Nadiya Hussain fumes she's been 'bullied' after addressing BBC axe: 'I'm not playing a victim'
- BBC sacked John Torode for using 'worst racial slur there is' as statement pulled apart by colleague
The BBC had pulled its documentary "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone" from iPlayer in February after revelations that the 13-year-old narrator was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture.
An internal BBC investigation found the broadcaster breached its guidelines by failing to disclose the narrator's father's position in the Hamas government.
GB NEWS
|Martin Daubney was baffled by Mair's arguments
During the explosive debate, Martin pressed Mair to address the BBC's position directly, saying: "Answer the question. The BBC chief of news doesn't think that a senior executive in Hamas is actually the same thing as Hamas, when it clearly is."
Mair deflected by questioning when international journalists would be allowed into Gaza, prompting Daubney to accuse him of "immediately deflecting and blaming Israel."
The former BBC producer defended Turness, noting she "had an unfortunate choice of words" and wasn't "a BBC lifer," having worked at ITN and American television.
"So the BBC head of news is not BBC?" Martin challenged, to which Mair insisted: "She's not, she's ITV, she's American TV, she's come from a different journalistic world."
GB NEWS | A BBC executive has been slammed for 'minimising' failings of its Gaza documentary after telling staff that Hamas government is 'different' to its military
The UK Government makes no distinction between Hamas's political and military wings, with the organisation proscribed in its entirety since 2021.
Dr Amira Halperin, an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, told The Jerusalem Post that the Home Office had assessed the distinction as "artificial" and membership or support for Hamas is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Andrew Gilbert, VP of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, expressed extreme concern about Turness's remarks, stating: "Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization, and this so-called distinction between political and military wings has been categorically dismissed as artificial by the British Government."
He warned that Turness appeared to be "obfuscating and minimising the BBC's failings" and suggested the corporation had not learned from its mistakes.