BBC Admits It Aired Guest Who Praised October 7 Hamas Massacre

The BBC has acknowledged that it failed to conduct adequate background checks before featuring a guest who had previously posted inflammatory statements about Jews and appeared to celebrate Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. The British broadcaster conceded that its screening procedures fell short of its own standards and said it would implement changes following the controversy.

Bushra Shaikh, a former contestant on the British reality television series The Apprentice, appeared on BBC One’s “Sunday Morning Live” last month to discuss whether women should be permitted to wear burkas in public. Her appearance subsequently drew criticism after attention turned to her history of social media comments concerning Jews, Israel, and the Hamas attacks.

According to The Telegraph, Shaikh had previously described Jews who moved to Israel from European countries as “lying scumbags” and “the biggest charlatans on this planet.”

On October 7, 2023, just hours after Hamas terrorists launched their deadly assault on southern Israel, Shaikh posted a message appearing to applaud the attack.

“Palestinians have done more in 5 minutes than Zelensky has done with 75bn. Humiliation is an understatement.”

Shaikh also attracted criticism for comments following the October 2025 terrorist attack at a Manchester synagogue, where two people were murdered and three others suffered serious injuries. Rather than placing responsibility on the perpetrators, she directed blame toward Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

“He has Jewish blood on his hands,” she wrote on X.

In another controversial post in January, Shaikh responded to early reports about the number of Iranian demonstrators killed during the regime’s crackdown by invoking the Holocaust.

The Telegraph reported that the BBC subsequently admitted in correspondence with a member of Parliament that its staff had failed to properly examine Shaikh’s social media activity before inviting her onto the program. The broadcaster acknowledged that the vetting process had not met “the standards we expect” and indicated that corrective measures would follow.

Shaikh rejected allegations that her previous remarks were antisemitic.

The incident comes amid continuing scrutiny of the BBC’s coverage of Israel, Hamas, and antisemitism, with critics repeatedly questioning the broadcaster’s editorial decisions and its handling of sensitive issues involving the Jewish community.

In November 2023, the BBC issued an apology after broadcasting an inaccurate report suggesting that Israeli troops were targeting medical personnel during operations near Gaza’s Shifa Hospital.

The network also faced criticism over its reporting on an explosion at a Gaza hospital in October 2023. Initial coverage suggested Israeli responsibility before the IDF presented evidence that the blast had resulted from a failed rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The BBC later acknowledged that “it was false to speculate” about the cause before the facts had been established.

Another major controversy erupted in 2025 over the BBC documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” after it emerged that the young narrator was the son of a senior Hamas official, a connection that had not been properly disclosed during production.

The broadcaster subsequently acknowledged “serious flaws” in its handling of the documentary.

Separately, The Telegraph reported last week that the BBC had agreed to pay £400,000 to an award-winning Jewish documentary filmmaker who alleged that she had experienced antisemitic harassment from colleagues and had been pushed out of the organization following the October 7 massacre.

The controversy prompted Labour MP David Taylor to write to BBC director general Matt Brittin, demanding an explanation of the checks conducted before Shaikh’s appearance. Daisy Scalchi, the BBC’s head of religion and ethics for television, responded that the program’s senior production team had been unaware of the offensive posts and that the independent company responsible for producing the show had been asked to investigate the failure.