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2024 Dishonest Reporter of the Year Awards

The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Following the horrific events of October 7, 2023, news and analysis related to Israel’s war against Hamas dominated the headlines around the world for months on end. But instead of rising to the challenge of covering the fast-moving, multi-front battle accurately and impartially, media outlets did their viewers and readers a great disservice by producing a plethora of skewed coverage.

And with the alarming spike in antisemitism, fueled by the warp-speed dissemination of baseless accusations against Israel and its motives for fighting Hamas, the negative impact of dishonest reporters in 2024 was felt more acutely than at any other time in recent memory.

Some of this year’s nominees for the Dishonest Reporter of the Year Award are old favorites — outlets that incessantly delegitimize Israel by distorting the truth, not providing relevant context, using loaded language, publishing misleading headlines, as well as other sleights of hand that are part of the biased journalist’s bag of tricks.

And then there are the influencers with massive online followings who contributed to the wave of anti-Israel bias that swept through the media in 2024. By perpetrating a distinct narrative, that of unbridled Israeli aggression in contrast to perpetual Palestinian victimhood, these online activists have had an impact on the public discourse over the last year.

Our hope is that by tracking and spotlighting the most egregious examples of journalistic malfeasance and presenting our findings, the serial offenders will be held to account for their spreading of malicious untruths about Israel.

Before we reveal the winner of the 2024 Dishonest Reporter Award, here are all the nominees, those publications and individuals who excelled in getting it totally wrong about Israel…

(nominees presented in no particular order)

Most Useful Idiot: Adam Schrader, UPI

UPI’s Adam Schrader in 2024 repeatedly used terror groups and state-run Palestinian agencies as the primary sources in his articles. Among Schrader’s many offenses, the one that stood out this year was when he produced a biography of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar that depicted the arch-terrorist in heroic terms.

According to UPI, Sinwar — a mass murderer and the mastermind behind the October 7 massacre in southern Israel — is a “Palestinian militia” leader who had been arrested in Israel “for supporting a free Palestine.”

While he may have supported a Palestine free of Jews, Sinwar was most definitely not a militia leader. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization that has ruled all aspects of life in Gaza for almost two decades.

In the same abysmal story, Schrader referred to the October 7 attack, “which many have characterized as a terror attack” and “Jewish settlers during the 1948 war.”

He even had the gall to accuse Israelis of raping Palestinians in 1948 while singularly ignoring the very real Hamas rape cases that had literally just occurred on October 7.

Biggest Car Crash Interview: Michael Moore (on CNN)

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore’s April 2024 interview on CNN was difficult to watch. Among many, many gaffes, Moore suggests that anti-Israel campus demonstrations are a hallmark of healthy “democracy and free speech,” and complains that protesters have been beaten and clubbed by police in response, even though no protesters are “committing any acts of violence.”

 Another stand-out moment is when he states that 98% of protesters are not antisemitic — something he suggests is impossible “because the Palestinian people are Semites.”

The fact that the there was virtually no pushback from CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins allowed Moore to reimagine facts and rewrite history.

This is can’t-miss viewing in the worst conceivable way.

Most Malicious Mouthpiece for the Iranian Regime: Seyed Mohammad Marandi, (Interviews on BBC, Sky News, and Channel 4 News)

In the aftermath of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel in April 2024, several British media outlets provided a platform for Seyed Mohammad Marandi. While he was presented innocuously enough as a University of Tehran professor, he is nonetheless an educator in a closed society, where the Iranian regime maintains control over every facet of life, including education. Moreover, Seyed Mohammad Marandi has been exposed as a former IRGC soldier. Despite this revelation, UK media continue to turn to the good professor for sage analysis.

None of the various UK-based news channels alerted their audience that Marandi is effectively a representative of the Iranian government. And so, viewers were fed a feast of lies by the ever-smirking professor who accused Israel in various interviews of genocide, and the Israeli government of being a Nazi regime – an overt act of antisemitism. The fall of the Iran-led axis of resistance will be that much sweeter if it manages to knock that irritating grin off Marandi’s face.

New Master Race: Owen Jones, The Guardian

Having published a lengthy screed exposing the BBC for being pro-Israel, Guardian columnist Owen Jones liked a couple of blatantly antisemitic comments posted by his supporters. After being called out, Jones sort of backtracked, posting that “the lesson here is don’t scan through comments reading the first line and pressing ‘like,’ which is what I did.”

A heartfelt apology this most assuredly was not.

Then again, Jones is no stranger to the Dishonest Reporter of the Year Award. This is, after all, the same man who, after watching 47 minutes of footage from the October 7 Hamas massacre, concluded that Israel still hadn’t provided enough proof of horrors like the gang-rape of women and the deliberate killing of children.

In Memoriam: Mehdi Hasan, On Leaving Legacy Media (Hopefully for Good)

In late 2023, MSNBC announced the cancelation of long-time detractor of Israel Mehdi Hasan’s regular show. Hasan eventually chose to quit the network and launch his own independent media company, Zeteo, in early 2024.

In theory, Hasan now has even more freedom to pursue his obsessive attacks on Israel through his own outlet and on social media.

How did he fare without MSNBC as a platform? Based on his performance in the Munk Debate on anti-Zionism, where he spoke against the motion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, Hasan’s flame-throwing days may be behind him. Between the beginning of the debate and the end, support for Mehdi’s position dropped by 5%.

Most Dysfunctional News Network: CBS

In July, HonestReporting revealed that a CBS News journalist in Gaza praised terrorists at an official event of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and had contacts with terrorists as a member of the Gaza City municipal council.

Marwan al-Ghoul has been working as a CBS News producer in Gaza for more than two decades, and his affiliation with a proscribed terror group, as well as his official public role in the Hamas-ruled Strip, raises alarming questions regarding the network’s journalistic standards.

Unsurprisingly, Al-Ghoul’s reports from Gaza are typical — they include destruction and victims, not Hamas terrorists.

Marwan Al Ghoul Dishonest Reporter 2024

Despite having no problem with al-Ghoul’s continuing employment, CBS did take issue when its anchor Tony Dokoupil pressed author Ta-Nehisi Coates on the most contentious parts of his new essay collection, The Message, which tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Instead of engaging in an open debate, CBS succumbed to internal backlash and forced Dokoupil to apologize. The resulting fallout led to Paramount Global’s CEO, Shari Redstone reportedly admitting that CBS’s decision to reprimand Dokoupil was a “mistake.”

Al-Ghoul gets a free pass but Dokoupil gets hauled over the coals? Something just isn’t right at CBS News.

Biggest New Influencer Antisemite: Dan Bilzerian

Like many other influencers, Dan Bilzerian’s sudden interest in Israel ignited after the October 7 Hamas massacre that sparked the current war in Gaza. His public embrace of anti-Jewish bigotry is part of a wider online trend that includes such luminaries as Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, and Jackson Hinkle.

In 2024, Bilzerian posted dozens of disturbing comments about the Jewish state, including conspiratorial claims that Israel murdered U.S. soldiers, that Israel’s Mossad controls the U.S. government, and that Israel orchestrated October 7 as a pretext to seize land in Gaza.

Another antisemitic social media trend that Bilzerian has latched onto involves using either fake or manipulated quotations from the Talmud to supposedly “prove” that Jews are evil, thereby “contextualizing” the war in Gaza.

Bilzerian’s post-October 7 boost in popularity underscores how antisemitism is flourishing online, resulting in real-world consequences.

Dan Bilzerian

Most Creative Use of Hezbollah to Correct a Story: Washington Post

The Washington Post in September managed to “correct”’ an error of its own making with … Hezbollah propaganda.

Comments in Post connected with an interview conducted with Alma, an independent research and education center focused on Israel’s security challenges along its northern border, implied that the Galilee region in northern Israel is “disputed” territory. After confirming with Alma that its representative never made any such statement during her interview with the Washington Post, the publication issued a correction…of sorts.

Instead of doing the right thing and simply removing the word “disputed” from the article, journalist Loveday Morris appeared to double down, attempting to justify or explain why the status of the Galilee region could be considered disputed.

Yet even after HonestReporting called out The Washington Post for Morris’s shoddy journalism and subsequent ‘correction,’ the media outlet continued to platform Hezbollah’s false claims.

Biggest Disappointment: The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal, long seen as a reliable voice on Israel, is now pushing a dangerous narrative by drawing disturbing moral equivalencies between Hamas terrorists and Israelis defending their lives.

Case in point: One of their reporters, Abeer Ayyoub, was caught spreading terrorist propaganda on social media. On October 7, Ayyoub posted a violent Hamas propaganda video. It showed terrorists lynching and executing Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border.

Ayyoub’s anti-Israeli sentiment is often hidden behind the facade of the Arabic language, making it easier to conceal from her bosses and colleagues in Western media.

But this is no excuse.

However, despite Ayyoub’s rampant hate-mongering, The Wall Street Journal apparently believes that she can report on Israel and Gaza objectively, without letting her views contaminate her coverage.

Aber Ayyoub

Perpetuation of 2,000-Year-Old Blood Libel Prize: Sky News

Sky News reached a journalistic low in July with a report by special correspondent Alex Crawford, detailing the aftermath of the Hezbollah rocket attack on the Golan Heights that killed 12 children playing soccer in the Druze town of Majdal Shams.

Crawford prominently highlighted Hezbollah’s vehement denials of involvement in the attack, yet omitted the fact that the group had earlier that day boasted about launching at least 100 rockets at Israel.

But the most disturbing part of the piece wasn’t Crawford’s almost sympathetic portrayal of the terror group as unflinching in the face of “threats and accusations from their Israeli neighbors.” Below, is a direct quote from the piece:

The war has entered a very dangerous stage and the Lebanese authorities who’re in direct contact with their Hezbollah partners are urging restraint whilst encouraging the Americans to leverage pressure on the Israelis to reign [sic] in their lust for revenge. 

The People’s Choice: BBC News

Last year’s Dishonest Reporter Award winner has had a stellar year for anti-Israel bias and that was reflected in a vote held on X (formerly Twitter) that demonstrated just how poorly BBC News is thought of around the globe. Despite coming up against The New York Times in the final round of voting, the BBC delivered a knockout blow to take the people’s choice for the worst coverage of Israel this year.

A damning report exposed the full extent of the BBC’s anti-Israel bias during the Israel-Hamas war. The analysis, spanning four months of the broadcaster’s coverage starting on October 7, uncovered a staggering 1,500 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines and highlighted systemic failures to maintain its commitment to impartiality and accuracy during a conflict that has fueled a troubling rise of antisemitic bigotry worldwide.

The Asserson Report reveals not just isolated errors, but a consistent pattern of bias that undermines the BBC’s journalistic integrity. But how can the BBC begin to address its failings when it refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem?

The BBC has recently come under fire from The Guardian’s Owen Jones and Al Jazeera for being “pro-Israel.”

We’ll respectfully disagree.

2024 Dishonest Reporter of the Year: The New York Times

In a disturbingly crowded field, The New York Times stood out in 2024. One of America’s leading publications, the Gray Lady repeatedly played fast and loose with news about the Israel-Hamas conflict. While there were notable instances where the newspaper of record for the United States distinguished itself with compelling fact-driven articles and investigations, even earning a Pulitzer Prize for its Israel-Hamas war coverage, such examples of journalistic excellence, unfortunately, proved to be the exception.

Instead, people around the world looking for clear and sober reporting and reasoned analysis about Israel were generally treated to a steady diet of advocacy journalism that put a premium on pushing a certain narrative.

Below, are but a few of the ways the NYT’s readership was thoroughly misled:

Doctors Plot

In October, The New York Times opinion essay “65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza” blew up, as weapons and forensic ballistic experts debunked and questioned X-ray images featured in the piece claiming to be 5.56 caliber bullets inside the skulls of Gazan children.

Despite The New York Times’ vigorous defense of the essay, the mounting evidence that discredited both the accounts and the purported evidence within the piece raises serious questions about how thoroughly The Times vetted the doctors involved.

Another doozy also occurred in October, when The New York Times published an investigation alleging that IDF soldiers were using Gazans as human shields during operations in the Gaza Strip. NYT’s investigation relied heavily on highly problematic sources, including the organization Breaking the Silence.

In doing so, The New York Times turned on its head the substantiated fact that Hamas deliberately embeds itself within civilian infrastructure as a means of protecting its terrorists and their weaponry from Israel. Not only are the accusations against the IDF baseless, but they are also a distraction from the very real human rights violations Hamas perpetrates when it uses Gazans as human shields.

Apartheid Roads

The New York Times failed mightily when it published an interactive feature titled “Roadblocked.”

The piece implied strongly that Israel’s road network exists solely to “restrict Palestinian movement.” The truth is that these barriers and security measures were put in place to protect Israelis from terrorism. And, crucially, they likely would not exist if there were a Palestinian leadership committed to peace with Israel.

Apartheid Roads New York Times

No Campus Antisemitism Here

The Times posted a piece in July that failed to portray the full and accurate picture of events surrounding the outburst of antisemitism on U.S. college campuses. In an entire discussion of the campus protest arrests, the article does not make a single mention of the extreme nature of these demonstrations.

Effectively, the NYT uncritically ran with the narrative that student protesters were simply exercising their right to free speech. Such fact-free reporting trivializes the incitement perpetrated by those present and enforces the idea that they do not deserve any consequences for their violent behavior.

Lancet Libel

The Lancet medical journal published a piece in July that claimed it wasn’t “implausible” that the overall number of deaths in Gaza could be higher than 186,000 — a figure the authors concocted by comparing Gaza to other conflicts with no substantial basis.

To her credit, New York Times Opinion Editor Meher Ahmad was one of the few journalists to correctly describe the piece as a “letter,” not a peer-reviewed study or anything remotely rigorous. However, she still attempted to contextualize the authors’ “staggering” number, describing the contents of the missive as “more a call for open documentation of casualties than anything else.”

Legitimized By Pulitzer Prize

The awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to the Times for “its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas’ lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel’s intelligence failures, and the Israeli military’s sweeping, deadly response in Gaza” gave the ultimate seal of approval for all of the paper’s Israel-Hamas war coverage — including all of those times that the Gray Lady has not lived up to appropriate standards.

To fulfill its mission to cover “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” one can forgive The New York Times for the occasional case of sloppy journalism, inevitable in a 24/7 news cycle. However, the publication’s biased reporting on the Israel-Hamas war was part of a pattern. On a topic as complex and impactful as the Israel-Hamas war, the paper has a major responsibility to get the facts right. Instead, the publication sacrificed its journalistic standards on the altar of a narrative that aligns neatly with that of Israel’s most vociferous detractors.

“Congratulations” to a worthy winner of this year’s Dishonest Reporter Award.

Gidon Ben-Zvi, former Jerusalem Correspondent for The Algemeiner newspaper, is an accomplished writer who left Hollywood for Jerusalem in 2009. He and his wife are raising their four children to speak fluent English – with an Israeli accent. Ben-Zvi’s work has appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, The Algemeiner, American Thinker, The Jewish Journal, Israel Hayom, and United with Israel. Ben-Zvi blogs at Jerusalem State of Mind (jsmstateofmind.com). 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 2024 Dishonest Reporter of the Year Awards first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Military Expert: Doha Strike Was Backed by US and Qatar Coup, Will Bring Hostage Deal Closer

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Israel’s unprecedented strike on Hamas leaders in Doha this week was not a rogue act of military aggression, but rather the outcome of quiet coordination between Qatar and the US that could bring a hostage deal closer, Israeli intelligence expert Eyal Pinko said on Wednesday.

The strike, which officials have said was planned months ago, came a day after 10 Israelis were killed by Hamas in Gaza and Jerusalem. Four were soldiers who died in an attack on an Israeli tank in northern Gaza. The separate shooting attack in Jerusalem, in which six Israelis were killed and several more wounded, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” Pinko, a national security expert who served in Israeli intelligence for more than three decades, said in a press briefing.

Pinko contended that while Qatar publicly condemned the attacks, it also enabled them. “I am sure they were involved and the attack was coordinated with the [Qataris],” Pinko later told The Algemeiner. 

The most recent round of negotiations to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal were nothing more than a “deception” by the US and Israel designed to gather Hamas leaders in one place “in order to set the timing to eliminate them,” he said. 

Pinko said the strike should also be seen in light of US President Donald Trump’s impatience with the stalled hostage talks, arguing it showed Trump was on board with assassinations of Hamas leaders despite public declarations that he was “very unhappy” with the attack. He also pointed to Trump’s comments from last month, in which the US president predicted the Gaza conflict would reach a “conclusive ending” within two or three weeks.

Qatar, which has long hosted Hamas’s exiled leadership, benefits strategically from replacing the terrorist group’s leaders loyal to Iran with figures it can trust, Pinko maintained. Doha holds billions of dollars belonging to Hamas officials and has no interest in letting Ankara or Tehran displace it as the group’s patron. The timing of the attack is also significant, Pinko said, coming in the wake of Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program over the summer. “Iran is in a very bad situation. Qatar can easily overcome Iran,” he said.

Pinko further argued that the strike may serve to bring forward the release of the Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza since Hamas itself was no longer a coherent negotiating partner. The terrorist group operating in Gaza had become fragmented, “divided into five families that are fighting each other” and sometimes giving the impression that “they hate each other more than they hate Israel,” Pinko said. Recent talks proved “there was no longer a decisionmaker in Hamas,” and this disarray had allowed Hamas leaders to drag out the process with unrealistic demands. Removing those figures, he argued, would leave room for Qatar to install leaders who could cut a deal. “This will make the negotiation process much faster,” he said.

Pinko’s assessment stands in stark contrast to the fears of some of the families of the remaining 48 hostages held in Gaza, who said in a statement they had “grave fear” the Doha strike could sabotage the chances of bringing their loved ones home. 

He placed the operation in a wider context, linking it to the revival of the Abraham Accords and US efforts to build a trade corridor from India through the Gulf to Israel and Europe as a counterweight to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, ending with Gaza as a key trade hub. “Trump is very serious in making the northern part of the Gaza Strip as [having] US autonomy. That will be the end of the American belt and road initiative to compete with the Chinese,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on Qatar, which “gives safe haven [and] harbors terrorists,” to expel them or bring them to justice, adding that if they don’t, “we will.”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his part said his country would retaliate over the strike, and accused Netanyahu of “wasting” Qatar’s time in negotiations and “leading the Middle East to chaos.”

Pinko called out Doha for its “duplicity” in pretending to be a peacemaker on the one hand, while “fueling Hamas and hatred” in the US and Europe, on the other. 

“They are against Israel in their DNA. They don’t want Israel to exist,” he said. “So Gaza and Hamas are a very important asset for them.”

Some critics have denounced the Doha strike as a violation of international law, but international law experts note that Article 51 of the UN Charter recognizes a state’s inherent right to self-defense and that this right is not confined by geography if attacks are directed from outside its borders. The so-called “unwilling or unable” doctrine holds that if a host country does not act against militants on its soil, the victim state may use proportionate force.

The US relied on this doctrine when it killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in a 2011 operation that was widely hailed by Western governments and the UN, whose then secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said at the time that he was “very much relieved by news that justice has been done” and called it “a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism.”

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Germany Presses Main Mosque Network to Distance Itself From Erdogan Ally Over Antisemitism

Ali Erbas, president of Diyanet, speaks at a press conference following an August 2025 gathering in Istanbul, where 150 Islamic scholars called for armed resistance and a boycott against Israel. Photo: Screenshot

Amid a rising wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes, the German government is pressing the country’s main mosque association over its close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging it to publicly distance itself from his antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric.

According to local reports, German authorities have told the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) — the country’s largest mosque network — to formally break with Erdogan’s hateful statements or risk losing government support and cooperation.

“We expect the federal government’s cooperation partners to clearly distance themselves from organizations and individuals who spread antisemitic messages or promote Islamist agendas,” a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Ministry of Interior said in a statement to German media.

For years, the German government has supported DITIB in training imams, as well as helping to foster community programs and religious initiatives.

In 2023, then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser signed an agreement with the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and DITIB for a new imam training program.

By sending imams from Turkey and paying their salaries, the Diyanet oversees DITIB and its hundreds of communities across Germany, shaping the ideological direction of more than 900 mosques and influencing the training of their imams.

Under a new program, however, the Diyanet no longer sends imams directly from Turkey. Instead, Turkish students are trained in Germany in cooperation with the German Islam Conference (IKD).

Since March 1 of this year, the Interior Ministry has designated €465,000 in support for the program, according to the German newspaper Die Welt.

With this new agreement, imams live permanently in German communities and have no formal ties to the Turkish government. Still, experts doubt that this alone would curb the Diyanet’s political influence.

In the past, DITIB has faced multiple controversies, with some members making antisemitic remarks and spreading hateful messages.

“The continuation of measures adopted for this purpose, such as the training initiative, will largely depend on DITIB’s conduct and the success of the process,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

The German government’s latest warning came after a conference in Istanbul last month, where 150 Islamic scholars called for armed resistance against Israel, a boycott against the country, and “global jihad.”

Among those attending was Ali Erbas, president of Diyanet, with whom the German government signed the new agreement in 2023.

Erbas has repeatedly made public antisemitic statements, defended the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct.7, 2023, and called for the mobilization of “all forms of jihad.”

“The Zionist regime is committing outright genocide in Gaza. We believe it is haram, or forbidden, to remain silent in the face of oppression. Therefore, everyone can take action. The boycott of Zionist occupiers’ goods must continue,” Erbas reportedly said during the conference.

“We firmly affirm that the Palestinian people have all legitimate forms of resistance against the Zionist occupation, including armed resistance. We also consider it necessary to mobilize the Ummah [Islamic community] for all forms of jihad in the way of Allah,” he continued.

The German government strongly condemned Erbas’s comments, questioning DITIB’s relationship with a public figure whose statements and antisemitic ideology contradict their cooperation agreement.

“These events underscore, once again, the problematic structural and personal links between DITIB and the Turkish religious authority,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

“Cooperation with DITIB requires a clear commitment to the values of the Basic Law, to international understanding, to Israel’s right to exist, and to a firm opposition to both Islamism and antisemitism,” the statement read.

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EU Targets Israel With Sanctions and Partial Trade Suspension, Von der Leyen Calls for Ceasefire Amid Gaza War

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers the State of the European Union address to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

The executive body of the European Union will propose sanctions against certain Israeli ministers and partially suspend the EU’s association agreement with Israel, in one of its latest efforts to pressure Jerusalem over the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled new measures targeting the 25-year-old pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with Israel, in one of the latest attempts to curb the Jewish state’s defensive campaign against Hamas.

“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” von der Leyen said in a State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in France.

“People killed while begging for food. Mothers holding lifeless babies,” she continued. “Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop.”

This latest move is part of an increasingly hostile campaign by some European countries against the Jewish state, building on previous efforts to undermine Israel internationally.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denounced von der Leyen’s comments as “regrettable,” adding that some of her remarks were “tainted by echoing the false propaganda of Hamas and its partners.”

“Israel, the world’s only Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East, is fighting a war of existence against extremist enemies working to eliminate it. The international community must back Israel in this struggle,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“Once again, Europe conveys the wrong message that strengthens Hamas and the radical axis in the Middle East,” he continued. “Anyone who seeks an end to the war knows very well how to end it: the release of the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas, a new future for Gaza.”

Saar added, “Hurting Israel will not bring this about; on the contrary, it entrenches Hamas and Israel’s enemies in their refusal.”

Von der Leyen’s announcement came just a day after Jerusalem carried out strikes against Hamas’s political leadership in Qatar, which has supported the Palestinian terrorist group for years.

In her speech, von der Leyen denounced Israel’s actions, accusing the country of causing starvation in the war-torn enclave of Gaza and undermining ceasefire negotiations.

She also condemned the expansion of settlements in parts of the West Bank and denounced comments from some government ministers that she said incite violence.

“All of this points to a clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution, to undermine the vision of a viable Palestinian state. And we must not let this happen,” von der Leyen said.

Israel has vehemently denied any accusations of causing starvation in Gaza, noting that it has provided and facilitated significant humanitarian aid into the enclave throughout much of the war.

Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians. According to UN data, the vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients.

Jerusalem has also argued it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas’s widely acknowledged military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Under the new proposed measures, the EU would partially suspend its trade pact with Israel, removing preferential treatment for Israeli goods that make up nearly a third of the country’s total international trade.

Von der Leyen also announced that the EU will suspend its bilateral support for Israel, while maintaining engagement with Israeli civil society and Yad Vashem, the country’s main Holocaust memorial center.

In addition, the European Commission “will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers” and plans to set up a “Palestine donor group” next month, with a dedicated mechanism to support Gaza’s reconstruction following the war.

At the end of her speech, von der Leyen called for the release of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas, the “unrestrained” entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and “an immediate ceasefire.”

“There can never be any place for Hamas, neither now nor in future because they are terrorists who want to destroy Israel,” the European Commission head said.

“They are also inflicting terror on their own people, keeping their future hostage.”

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