LONDON: NGO officials have accused Britain’s public broadcaster of "blocking" a major humanitarian appeal for Gaza.
The BBC, which placed the appeal “under review,” is said to be concerned over a potential backlash from supporters of Israel.
Several other television channels have agreed to air the humanitarian appeal for the embattled Palestinian enclave.
The campaign is organized by the Disasters Emergency Committee, The Guardian reported on Friday.
The BBC claimed DEC’s appeal had failed to meet all the criteria for a national appeal but noted that the option to air it was “under review,” a position that dismayed the DEC, an umbrella group of UK charities.
Sources within the DEC, the BBC and aid agencies accused the BBC of “blocking” the appeal because it feared backlash from groups supporting Israel in its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
One senior NGO figure said that staff were “furious” at the BBC’s decision.
The DEC follows three criteria when launching an appeal. The scale and urgency of the disaster must warrant immediate international humanitarian aid.
DEC member agencies, or some of them, must be able “to provide effective and swift humanitarian assistance at a scale to justify a national appeal” and there must be “evidence of existing public sympathy for the humanitarian situation” or “the likelihood of significant public support should an appeal be launched,” according to the DEC’s website.
The DEC is an umbrella organization of 15 leading UK aid charities raising funds to address humanitarian disasters.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, launched in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, has so far killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Relentless bombardment over the past 11 months has devastated medical and sanitation infrastructure, razed entire neighborhoods, almost annihilated the education sector, brought the enclave’s healthcare system to its knees and displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population at least once.
An enormous humanitarian response is needed to address the overlapping crises, aid officials have warned.
About 96 percent of Gaza’s population is facing acute food insecurity, according to UN figures.
The vast majority of the international community has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to enable uninterrupted aid flow into Gaza, to no avail.
