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BBC Ignored Complaints About Journalists’ Anti-Israel ‘Terrorist’ Posts for Over a Year
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA.
The BBC ignored complaints about several journalists, including one who called Israel a “terrorist apartheid state,” for more than a year, and even allowed them to report on the current Israel-Hamas war.
In 2022, HonestReporting uncovered social media posts written by journalist Marie-José Azzi, who is based in Lebanon and has worked for the corporation since 2019. She said Israel was a “terrorist” and “apartheid” state in tweets that were supportive of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
We also revealed a number of posts from an account belonging to Jordan-based BBC television and radio producer Layla Bashar Kloub, which described all Israelis as “terrorists,” and suggested that only Arabs have any right to be in Israel.
Meanwhile, UK-based BBC video curator Hala Hindawi labeled Israeli Jews “settlers,” and accused the country of “targeting children” in remarks posted to her Twitter account (now X). The latter remark is reminiscent of ancient blood libels in which Jews were accused of killing children for their blood to be used in religious rituals.
We complained to the BBC in August 2022 that the posts breached the corporation’s impartiality and social media usage guidelines.
In response, the BBC said that while it could not comment on individual staff matters, such cases would be “dealt with appropriately” where the BBC’s rules had been breached.
However, it appears that the BBC failed to take action against any of the journalists named, and — even more disturbingly — allowed them to work on the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
In 2022, HonestReporting exposed Marie-José Azzi (& several other BBC journalists), who described Israel as a “terrorist state” & an “apartheid” country in tweets supporting the BDS campaign against Israel.
We contacted @BBCNews at the time. They knew. They chose to do nothing. https://t.co/n6lSzgS75g
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 17, 2024
Marie-José Azzi was credited alongside fellow BBC Arabic journalist Soha Ibrahim in a BBC Verify piece published this month that alleged Israeli soldiers beat and humiliated Gazan medics after a raid on Nasser Hospital.
According to the Daily Mail, Ibrahim, who is based in London and has worked for the BBC for 12 years, “liked” videos of people in Lebanon and Tunisia celebrating the October 7 Hamas attacks, and Egyptian football fans chanting, “we sacrifice our souls, our blood for Palestine.”
She also “liked” another post that praised “the first of the martyrs of the operation.”
The BBC is under pressure to suspend the BBC Arabic journalists until an investigation has been completed following criticism from UK Conservative Party Member of Parliament Nicola Richards.
However, questions remain as to why no action was taken sooner: why did the BBC seemingly fail to discipline any of the staff when their social media posts were initially revealed, and why has the BBC allowed them to report on the current Israel-Hamas war?
The broadcaster claims it is fully committed to impartiality and upholding editorial standards — outlined in its strict code of conduct for staff members — but has repeatedly ignored breaches of these rules.
The BBC’s credibility as it relates to Israel reportage is already at an all-time low. Further inaction from the corporation will destroy its floundering reputation.
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 BBC Ignored Complaints About Journalists’ Anti-Israel ‘Terrorist’ Posts for Over a Year first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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