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ITV, a British broadcast network, edited out a pro-Palestine symbol worn on the T-shirt of a contestant from an episode of its reality show Big Brother, BBC has reported.

Big Brother is an international reality television franchise that originated in The Netherlands. The show follows a group of people living together in a house where they are constantly surveilled by cameras. Usually, contestants are free to wear whatever they please and notoriously act however they want. The show has birthed several iterations, including Bigg Boss in India and Tamasha Ghar in Pakistan.

In Tuesday night’s episode of the show, contestant Ali Bromley was wearing a black T-shirt by Wear the Peace, which displayed a watermelon in the shape of the Palestinian map. The watermelon has become symbolic of solidarity with Palestine among both Palestinians and their supporters.

Wear the Peace, a Palestinian-owned brand, has a dedicated Palestine collection through which they donate 100 per cent of profits to Gaza for food, aid, water and evacuations for medical surgeries outside of Gaza. The brand has so far donated over $1 million to Palestine.

Wear the Peace’s pro-Palestine clothes went viral in January when Violet Affleck, Hollywood actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s 18-year-old daughter, was spotted wearing a black sweatshirt with a watermelon graphic in the shape of the Palestinian map.

According to the BBC, the episode has since been edited and ITV said the housemate had told them she was “unaware of the implications” of the symbol and “did not wish to cause offence”. She was wearing the same watermelon graphic that Violet Affleck wore.

After airing, the episode was removed from ITV’s streaming platform ITVX and re-uploaded on Wednesday with the watermelon symbol removed from Bromley’s T-shirt.

A spokesperson for Big Brother said it did not “allow any personal items into the house that could be deemed harmful”.

“We regret that the implications of this particular item of clothing were not fully understood in our bag checks or prior to broadcast of last night’s show,” the broadcaster said.

“We apologise to any viewers who have been offended by the broadcast and assure viewers that Big Brother was unaware of the implications of the image.”

It stated that the item of clothing had been removed from the house and the housemate “expressed that they are unaware of the implications and did not wish to cause any harm or offence”.

After the original episode was aired, Campaign Against Antisemitism said it submitted a complaint to Ofcom, the British government-regulated office of communication, as the “incident represents a serious violation of broadcasting standards”.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), the organisation claimed the graphic was antisemitic and “caused significant distress among the British Jewish community, who regard it as a genocidal message similar to the slogan From the River to the Sea which calls for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state.”

Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip intensified after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and has killed over 42,000 Palestinians.

Cover photo: ITV