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Israel Rescued a Bedouin Hostage; the Media Turned It Against Israel
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, uses his phone as he is reunited with loved ones after being rescued from Gaza by Israeli forces, at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Photo: Courtesy of the Government Press Office/Yossi Ifergan/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli Bedouin Arab Qaid Farhan al-Qadi was rescued by the Israel Defense Forces from a Hamas tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
He was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, and held in captivity for nearly 350 days. In the face of this miraculous news, however, the mainstream media were quick to turn the event into a political narrative that tries to slander Israel.
Here are some of the ones that HonestReporting caught this week.
How Hamas Treats Arab People and the Bedouin Community
On October 7, Bedouins and other minority groups suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists and their followers.
Hamas says it targets Jews, but the reality is that it targets people of every religion — Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or any other people inside Israel.
Despite the fact that al-Qadi is a devout Muslim himself, he was still brutally taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and kept as a hostage in horrific conditions for 11 months in Gaza.
He was one of five other Muslims taken hostage on that day, and two are still in captivity. There is also one additional Israeli Bedouin civilian, Hisham al-Sayed, who has been infamously held hostage by Hamas for a decade.
Despite the families’ pleas for Hamas to send them home in good faith as fellow Muslims, the response was silence.
Therefore, The New York Times trying to convince readers or make assumptions about “specific” targets of Hamas otherwise is completely unethical:
Farhan al-Qadi is not just a Bedouin Arab. He’s an Israeli citizen.
Say it, @BBCNews — Farhan al-Qadi is an *Israeli* Bedouin Arab.https://t.co/TgE8UkrlB7 pic.twitter.com/PNiFpXvRfx
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2024
How Israel Treats the Bedouin Community
Qaid Farhan al-Qadi is a Bedouin with Israeli citizenship. To deny this fact is to create a false narrative that suggests Bedouins do not have rights in Israel.
Indeed, many of them are citizens and have full rights. While the issues between the Bedouin community of the Negev and the Israeli government are complicated, that does not take away from their rights as citizens. Therefore, they should be referred to as such.
Unfortunately, biased media like the BBC seem to want readers to believe that Israel is an apartheid state.
Farhan al-Qadi is not just a Bedouin Arab. He’s an Israeli citizen.
Say it, @BBCNews — Farhan al-Qadi is an *Israeli* Bedouin Arab.https://t.co/TgE8UkrlB7 pic.twitter.com/PNiFpXvRfx
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2024
Bedouins are not “forced” to live on “reservations”
Bedouins are “forced to live in reservations” according to @CNN.
Bedouins are not Native Americans and the Negev is not a reservation.
Try reporting objectively instead of imposing your own cultural framing of the story. https://t.co/3RFNvkVIO8
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 28, 2024
The issue here is that a different country’s cultural framing, namely the United States, with its own separate history, is being applied to the Bedouins in Israel. Whenever this happens, it not only takes away from the Native Americans, a different group’s struggle or story, but it gives readers misleading context to the Bedouins’ story.
As is stated in the tweet above, Bedouins in Israel are not Native Americans and their villages in the Negev are not reservations. They are semi-nomadic, meaning they can move around, and don’t all live in cities and towns as Westerners are accustomed to. Rather, they pitch up structures wherever desired. So they are not “forced” to live anywhere. They can also, as all Israeli citizens are entitled to do, buy or rent an apartment in Tel Aviv if they so wish.
What is worse, is that CNN also misquoted the one-sided Minority Rights Group article that it relied on its information from. Changing past tense to present tense is a distortion of the truth and reality to appease an agenda. It also delegitimizes a news publication’s journalistic integrity to do such a thing.
See a more extensive explanation of the Bedouin community in Israel on Jewish Virtual Library. And correct the facts when you see the truth about Israel’s Arab and Bedouin community distorted.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Israel Rescued a Bedouin Hostage; the Media Turned It Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.