Readers may recall that in late July, the BBC News website promoted a report produced by the corporation’s international editor, Jeremy Bowen, titled “‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza, former worker at GHF aid site tells BBC”. Additional coverage appeared on BBC television and radio stations.
BEHIND THE BBC’S PROMOTION OF A GHF ‘WHISTLEBLOWER’
Two days after Jeremy Bowen’s report appeared, that same ‘whistleblower’ (who earlier in July had also been featured anonymously in a report produced by the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Lucy Williamson) gave an interview to a political podcast in which he claimed that IDF soldiers had shot and killed a young boy at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites.
That claim was quickly picked up and recycled by numerous other podcasts and media outlets including the Qatari-funded ‘Middle East Eye’, MSNBC, Qatar’s Al Jazeera and the Turkish national broadcaster TRT.
On September 4th, the boy wrongly named by Anthony Aguilar as ‘Amir’ was revealed by the GHF to be alive, safe and well.
“Tony Aguilar, a former contractor terminated for misconduct, fabricated a story alleging that a young boy named “Amir” had been shot and killed by the IDF on May 28 after seeking aid at a GHF site. Aguilar repeated these claims in multiple media appearances, describing in vivid and false detail the boy’s supposed last moments. Aguilar circulated photographs of the boy across global media, knowingly misrepresenting their interaction and...
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