Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October

One sided, incomplete and morally disappointing. Same as with "The Iraq war"

Israel and the Arabs: The Elusive Peace" presents itself as a balanced political documentary, but in reality it offers a narrow and Western centric view of a deeply complex and painful conflict.

Tim Stirzaker's method of focusing on high level diplomats and decision makers may appear insightful at first glance, but it leaves out crucial perspectives. Voices outside the halls of power are almost entirely missing. There is little attention to those directly affected on the ground, or to independent observers who could challenge the official narrative.

The documentary relies heavily on a familiar storyline: diplomatic efforts framed as reasonable and constructive, while failures are blamed on instability, missed opportunities or internal divisions on one side. Structural injustice, daily realities and deeper historical context are barely explored.

Instead of asking difficult questions or holding powerful actors accountable, the documentary presents geopolitical decisions as complex but understandable, even when their consequences are devastating. It gives the impression of neutrality while avoiding any real moral stance.

This is not serious journalism. It is carefully packaged storytelling that keeps the focus on those who created the problem, while leaving out those who live with the consequences.

Polished and professional on the surface, but lacking the depth and courage true journalism demands.

Perhaps the worst thing about the grim tragedy of the last coule of years in Israel and Gaza is how predictable it was; in the eastern Mediterranean, it sometimes seems things can only get worse. This documentary charts the two decades without progress prior to the 2023 eruption. The politicians interviewed, on all sides, are quite frank (perhaps their only virtue), and thus it's hard to see the story as one of great chances unfortunately squandered; when both sides want all the land, the result is going to be terrible, particularly for the weaker party. The level of access gained by the production team is impressive; sadly, the interviewees are mostly men inadequate for the moment they live in.

The noisy clamour over How to Survive a Warzone has dominated headlines, overshadowing another new BBC documentary on Gaza - this one a three-part, blockbuster series on the history of Israel and Palestine - that has received none of the controversy.

And for good reason.

Israel and the Palestinians: The Road to 7th October, whose final episode airs this Monday, is such a travesty, so discredited by the very historical events it promises to explain, that it earns a glowing, five-star review from the Guardian.

It "speaks to everyone that matters", the liberal daily gushes. And that's precisely the problem.

What we get, as a result, is the very worst in BBC establishment TV: talking heads reading from the same implausibly simplistic script, edited and curated to present western officials and their allies in the most sympathetic light possible.

Which is no mean feat, given the subject matter: nearly eight decades of Israel's ethnic cleansing, dispossession, military occupation and siege of the Palestinian people, supported by the United States.

But this documentary series on the region's history should be far more controversial than the film about Gaza's children. Because this one breathes life back into a racist western narrative - one that made the genocide in Gaza possible, and justifies Israel's return this month to using mass starvation as a weapon of war against the Palestinian people.

Jonathan K Cook.