Ex-BBC chief claims corporation’s Arabic channel is the ‘media wing of Hamas’ as Tim Davie faces calls to clamp down on output

The BBC‘s director-general is under increasing pressure to shut down a channel described as ‘the media wing of Hamas‘.

Tim Davie has been written to by Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, in the wake of a string of controversies about contributors to BBC Arabic.

Last week it was revealed that ‘journalist’ Samer Elzaenen, who has appeared on the channel a number of times, called for Jews to be ‘burned as Hitler did’.

Mr Cohen’s move comes as BBC insiders said that ‘action would soon be taken’ to clamp down on the output of BBC Arabic, which is funded through the licence fee and a Foreign Office grant.

In the letter, which has been seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Cohen said that BBC Arabic ‘was responsible for a multitude of editorial failings in breach of BBC guidelines’ and, in the five months which followed the October 7 attacks, ‘was forced to make a correction at an average of one every 48 hours’.

Mr Cohen wrote: ‘All of these corrections related to breaches that favoured an anti-Israel narrative… The BBC has also refused to sack BBC Arabic staff who had shown support for the October 7 terror massacres’.

Referring to Mr Elzaenen, Mr Cohen described as ‘deeply disturbing’ the fact that he ‘was presented to audiences as a journalist’, saying: ‘Any single one of the many posts in which Mr Elzaenen displays vile racism against Jews should have been enough to preclude his being repeatedly platformed by the BBC, yet he has appeared as a reporter on BBC Arabic at least 14 times. 

‘To make matters even worse, the BBC’s response to this information was to mislead licence-fee payers.

Danny Cohen (pictured) said that BBC Arabic ‘was responsible for a multitude of editorial failings in breach of BBC guidelines’

Tim Davie (pictured) has been written to by Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, in the wake of a string of controversies about contributors to BBC Arabic

Last week it was revealed that ‘journalist’ Samer Elzaenen (pictured), who has appeared on the channel a number of times, called for Jews to be ‘burned as Hitler did’

A BBC source said: ‘Tim [Davie] knows that BBC Arabic is a problem and some form of action will soon be taken’

‘The BBC’s statement claimed that Mr Elzaenen was an “eyewitness”. Yet an analysis of his appearances shows that he was repeatedly introduced to audiences as a journalist or reporter.’

In the letter, which was also sent to members of the BBC Board, Mr Cohen said: ‘Given the platform it has repeatedly provided to supporters of terrorism some may conclude that [BBC Arabic] has now effectively become the media wing of Hamas.’

A BBC source said: ‘Tim [Davie] knows that BBC Arabic is a problem and some form of action will soon be taken’.

Yesterday BBC Chairman Samir Shah said that there would be an investigation into the behaviour of BBC Arabic journalists.