BBC Apologises After Jeremy Bowen Entered October 7th Survivors’ Home Without Permission

The BBC has apologised after Jeremy Bowen filmed inside the home of an Israeli family who survived the October 7th terror attack without their permission. The Telegraph has more.

Days after the Hamas attack in 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, the BBC’s International Editor entered the home of a family who had fled and filmed without their knowledge or permission.

The family criticised the broadcaster for using its camera “as a weapon” and for committing “yet another intrusion into our lives”.

The BBC has apologised and paid £28,000 compensation, which the family’s lawyer described as setting a legal precedent in Israel.

Ori Eldar, representing the family, said the case was inextricably linked to broader criticism of the BBC in Israel and the widespread feeling that it was biased.

Mr Eldar told the Telegraph: “It is worth noting that when I first issued a formal letter before action to the BBC, it rejected the claims entirely. It was only following the negotiations that took place after the lawsuit was filed that it was prepared to compensate the family and provide a formal letter of apology. ​For myself and my firm, Yarkoni Segev Eldar, this was a landmark case of profound ethical significance.”

The apology followed a series of scandals in which the corporation faced accusations of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.

An internal memo, published by the Telegraph, which documented the bias in its coverage of the war in Gaza, led to the resignations of Tim Davie, the director-general, and Deborah Turness, the ead of news.

Other controversies included the BBC’s airing of a documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which featured the son of a Hamas official whose identity was not disclosed to viewers. It was later pulled from BBC iPlayer.

In the aftermath of October 7th 2023, the BBC crew arrived in Netiv HaAsara, a small village on Israel’s border with Gaza, where 17 residents were murdered.

During the visit, the crew entered the home of the Horenstein family and began filming inside the wrecked property, depicting personal photographs of their children.

The Horensteins, who only discovered the BBC report “by chance”, said it happened at a time when many of their family and friends did not know whether they were alive.

“Not only did terrorists break into our home and try to murder us, but then the BBC crew entered again, this time with a camera as a weapon, without permission or consent,” Tzeela Horenstein told Jewish News. “It was another intrusion into our lives. We felt that everything that was still under our control had been taken from us.”

Mrs Horenstein told the newspaper how Hamas terrorists had murdered their neighbours in the early hours, and then “they came for us”.

They threw a grenade at her husband Simon, but he managed to escape and reach the shelter. She told how, for hours, they tried to capture the family and were “physically struggling” over the door handle while their two young children hid under the bed.

The terrorists then detonated an explosive device that they had attached to the shelter door, but the door twisted and jammed. “That is what saved us,” said Mrs Horenstein.

“Our house became a battleground. The terrorists entered and exited it repeatedly and exchanged fire with the village’s emergency squad from inside. We survived only by making immediate decisions under extreme pressure. The house was destroyed and declared uninhabitable. We have no home. Only the shelter remained standing.”

The family eventually escaped by crawling out through a window and running barefoot to their car.

Worth reading in full.