Mick Hartley

From the Jerusalem Post:

Yariv Mozer, the director of We Will Dance Again, a documentary film about the Nova festival, said that he had to agree with the BBC to not describe Hamas as a terrorist organization if he wanted it to air, according to an interview he gave to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

The film, which is set to broadcast on the BBC today, contains unseen footage of the Hamas massacre at the festival on October 7. It was commissioned by BBC Storyville.

Mozer told The Hollywood Reporter that this was a concession he had to make if he wanted the film to be seen by the British public.

“It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organization or not,” Mozer said.

The JC however spins it differently, after the film's official launch last night at JW3, the Jewish Community Centre on Finchley Road:

There appeared to be a new controversy a few hours after the launch, perhaps reflecting some discussions during the process, when an interview with Yariv in the Hollywood Reporter reported him saying BBC had asked him not to describe Hamas a terrorist organisation if he wanted it to air. ‘It was a price I was willing to pay so that the British public will be able to see these atrocities and decide if this is a terrorist organisation or not.”

However the word terrorist will be seen scores of times during the documentary as not only do many of the contributors use it but a title in the film says: "The IDF says that more than 3000 terrorists breached the 40 mile-long border in around 30 places”

In a statement, a BBC spokesman said: “The BBC Storyville film shows in unsparing detail the way in which Hamas set out to slaughter as many people as possible at a music festival on October 7th. It is entirely focused on their stories, told in their own words without commentary, and their descriptions of Hamas as a terrorist organisation have of course not been changed.”

The film is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday 26th) at 9.00pm on BBC2.