The cowardly, craven BBC

Hundreds of film, TV, and media professionals, have condemned censorship and racism after the BBC removed a documentary about the children of Gaza. In a letter to BBC executives, they criticised the decision as “racist” and “dehumanising”, blaming pressure from pro-Israel groups. Billed as “following the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas war as they hope for a ceasefire - a vivid and unflinching view of life in a warzone” the documentary has now been pulled by the BBC.
Gary Lineker and Miriam Margolyes are among more than 800 media figures who have condemned the BBC's decision to pull a documentary about children's lives in Gaza. 
The BBC says it removed Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer while it carried out "further due diligence" after discovering that the young narrator was the son of a Hamas official. Zionists, including the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, had written to the BBC asking how a child with alleged family ties to Hamas was allowed to be the focus of a documentary about the lives of ordinary Palestinians.   
The open protest letter published by Artists for Palestine UK criticised what the signatories said was a "racist" and "dehumanising" campaign targeting the documentary. It called on the BBC to reject efforts to have the film permanently removed or “subjected to undue disavowals” saying that surrendering to efforts to stop its return to iPlayer would indicate “racialised smears against Palestinians outweigh journalistic ethics and public interest”.
The signatories also warned against intrusive scrutiny of Abdullah Al-Yazouri, a 14-year-old  child who narrated Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone. His father, Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri, served as Gaza’s deputy agriculture minister – a civil service role concerned with food production.
“​​Almost half of Gaza’s population are children. What they have experienced over the past 17 months is something no child deserves to ever go through” said Liam O’Hare, an award-winning documentary producer/director who signed the letter. “As journalists and filmmakers we have a duty to help tell their story and that’s what this film did so brilliantly. The BBC cannot allow a politicised campaign to succeed in silencing the children of Gaza.”
Artists for Palestine UK (APUK) is a growing network of artists and cultural workers standing together in support of Palestinian liberation and for a just resolution for all in Israel/Palestine, including Palestinian refugees. 
The campaign that was launched in 2015 believes that those who work in the arts have a responsibility to consider the impact of their work when engaging in a situation of radical inequality.
APUK says that the arts are of particular significance where a people’s history, cultural heritage and future are under constant threat of erasure and it believes that the arts have an important role to play in connecting audiences with Palestinian experience. It opposes all forms of racism, including anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.
“The UK film and TV industry will no longer be intimidated by those whose sole mission it is to censor the voices of the many who are defending the rights of children, the marginalised and those in desperate need. All stories have the right to be told and journalistic scrutiny should not be at the whim of those who deem certain lives unequal,” said letter signatory Nada Issa, an award-winning producer/director and journalist who is part Palestinian and Lebanese. We whole-heartedly agree.

Tales from a heroic age

by Ben Soton

Odyssey: Stephen Fry, Penguin London 2024, 416 pp, pbk rrp £10.99

Odyssey by Stephen Fry is the latest translation of Homer’s epic poem. The original, believed to have been written sometime in the eighth century BC, was probably written in an archaic form of Ancient Greek, probably Doric. Suffice to say there have been numerous translations of The Odyssey; some in poetic form others in prose.
The Odyssey has had an immense influence on Western literature. The Aeneid by the Roman Virgil has numerous similarities with The Odyssey; both stories originate in the Trojan War. James Joyce’s Ulysses (Joyce uses the Roman name for the hero Odysseus) is also based on it. In modern science fiction the famous words from Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, “Luke I am your father”, has its origins in the meeting between Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, while the term “odyssey” is often synonymous with any epic journey.
Odyssey by Stephen Fry differs little from previous translations of Homer’s account of the king of Ithaca’s return from the Trojan war. His desire is to return to his wife Penelope, whom he has been parted from for twenty years and his son Telemachus, who was little more than a babe in arms when he left. Penelope is continually pestered by suitors who she manages to outwit who want to marry her and take the throne. Time is running out and few believe Odysseus to be alive. Meanwhile in his attempt to return home Odysseus, faces Cyclops, sea monsters and is continually shipwrecked.
Fry’s translation, which is written in prose format and reads more like a novel, differs slightly in that he makes passing reference to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Aeneas fled from Troy, put to the torch by the victorious Greeks, and his descendants eventually founded Rome.
Whilst Odyssey ends with the defeat of the suitors, other translations continue with further stories. For instance the E V Rieu translation of 1946 describes the brutal killing of the disloyal female slaves of his household who had sided with the suitors. Fry makes no mention of this, even in the prologue, making this translation more sympathetic to Odysseus.
The problem with the story is that so little is known about the original author, Homer. Some scholars even doubt his existence and attribute the work to a number of different writers. Perhaps Homer, assuming he existed, simply played an editorial role.
Nevertheless the Odyssey is still a timeless work of literature. It has inspired numerous translations, television series, feature films and will continue to arouse curiosity for many years to come. On that note Odyssey by Stephen Fry is well worth reading and will make a worthwhile addition to any bookshelf.