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Shocking But Expected: Journalist Arrested in Jerusalem for Inciting Terror Works for Reuters, ABC News
Palestinians walk at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City May 21, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A journalist arrested by Israeli police on suspicion of inciting and supporting terror works for Western media outlets, HonestReporting revealed on Sunday, calling into question her objectivity and her outlets’ journalistic standards.
Latifeh Abdellatif, a Jerusalem photojournalist who, according to her social media, freelances for Reuters, ABC News, and the BBC, shared a post calling for “martyrdom” along with a video of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, as well as other posts glorifying terrorists, police said in a statement.
The statement did not disclose Abdellatif’s name, which HonestReporting later revealed based on Palestinian media reports.
According to her Facebook page, Abdellatif works also for the United Nations Population Fund, and has shared a post declaring that “Al-Aqsa has always been and will always remain for Muslims alone,” deliberately denying Jewish history surrounding the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
But none of this prevented the world’s leading news organizations from letting her report on the region.
Meet journalist Latifa Abdel-Latif. She’s just been arrested by Israeli police on suspicion of inciting and supporting terror.
According to her Instagram bio, she’s worked for major media outlets, including @Reuters, @ABC & @BBCNews.
https://t.co/cxDg0LXJyT pic.twitter.com/Im6QpGgEzP
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 17, 2025
Police said that Abdellatif’s suspected post about Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, showed the arch-terrorist speaking “about the greatest gift that the enemy could give him: to die and ascend to heaven before God as a martyr,” with a caption that reads in Arabic, “wants to die as a martyr.”
It should obviously ring alarm bells that Abdellatif was among the contributors to a profile piece about Sinwar for ABC News.
Another of Abdellatif’s posts, according to police, included a photo of the body of terrorist Hassan Qatani wrapped in a Hamas flag, with the caption: “Raise the camera on your shoulders and document the situation. You are leaving with burdens that you can no longer carry.”
Qatani was one of two terrorists who killed British national Lucy Dee and two of her daughters in a 2023 drive-by shooting.
In other posts by Abdellatif, police said, videos were found featuring terrorists from the Jenin Brigades with the caption “Only God can make them drop their weapons,” and terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praising all factions fighting against the “occupier.”
But it seems her bosses in Western media either didn’t know or didn’t want to know about these posts.
Reuters’ database contains over 150 multimedia items shot by Abdellatif, including many from eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa compound.
But a search of her Facebook profile reveals dozens of biased videos from Al-Aqsa. One of them, from 2017, shows a group of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount whom she labels as “settlers” who should not be allowed entry:
I remember exactly a year ago, the settlers could barely walk around Al-Aqsa… Now, not only are they walking, but they are also praying and even prostrating on the ground!
But the one thing we are all certain of is that no matter what they do or try, Al-Aqsa has always been and will always remain for Muslims alone, by the command of Allah, the Almighty!
#AlAqsaMosque
Can a person with such views report objectively on one of the most sensitive sites in the world? The answer should be clear to any news outlet that respects its consumers.
It’s now up to the Israeli justice system to judge whether Abdellatif’s posts amount to incitement or not under Israeli law. Irrespective of the result of any investigation and subsequent trial, the posts demonstrate bias that compromises her ability to call herself a journalist.
She did not need to get arrested for her news outlets to notice that.
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.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
The post Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
The post Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
The post Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg first appeared on Algemeiner.com.