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‘The Washington Post’ Trusts Terrorists (Again) — and Treats Murderers as Victims
Hamas terrorists appear to shoot civilians who are lying on the ground in a video posted by Gaza Now, a Hamas-aligned news outlet based in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot
“Journalism,” George Orwell allegedly said, “is printing what someone else does not wanted printed: everything else is public relations.”
By this standard, The Washington Post’s coverage of the latest war between Israel and Iranian proxies is little more than PR. It can hardly be called journalism.
A recent article by the newspaper purported to provide readers with details about negotiations between Israel and Hamas. But instead of offering facts, the Post reprinted a litany of lies.
The paper struck a false equivalency between hostages being held by Hamas, and Palestinian prisoners locked up by Israel for crimes including murder and terrorism.
But terrorists are not the same as their victims. Nor are they credible sources.
It took no fewer than four reporters to author the Jan. 26, 2025 story, “Who are the Palestinians released by Israel in exchange for hostages?” And not a single one saw a problem with treating a designated terror organization as a credible source.
The Post uncritically quoted claims by Samidoun, which the newspaper identified as merely “an activist network supporting Palestinian prisoners.”
This would be akin to referring to Al-Qaeda as “campaigners for an archaic version of Islam,” or describing the founder of ISIS as an “austere, religious scholar.”
A basic tenet of journalism is to identify the “who, what, when, where, and why” relating to a story. Another tenet is to fully vet your sources. And still another is to be as specific as possible. The Post failed at all three.
In fact, the newspaper’s trusted source is a designated terrorist group. Samidoun has been identified as such by the United States, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, among others.
On Oct. 15, 2024, the US Treasury Department noted that Samidoun was a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” Treasury noted that Canda had listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity on October 11. The Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, observed that “organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much needed assistance to terrorist groups.”
Yet a mere three months after these public designations, The Washington Post, whose masthead proclaims that “democracy dies in darkness,” cited Samidoun as a credible source. But the group’s history of trafficking in hate and supporting terror has long been a matter of public record.
Organizations like NGO Monitor, among others, have highlighted the PFLP’s extensive disinformation network in numerous reports. These too are open source and readily available. But they don’t serve the anti-Israel narrative that The Washington Post prefers — a narrative that groups like Samidoun pitch to their willing interlocutors in the legacy media. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has observed, a whole host of nonprofits exists for the sole purpose of pitching and placing anti-Israel articles, providing self-styled journalists with ready-made stories and ensuring that they don’t have to work too hard to file their reports.
The Post’s decision to trust a terrorist group sparked condemnation. CAMERA, Fox News reporter Joseph Wulfsohn, the Washington Free Beacon’s Lexi Boccuzzi, and others highlighted the Post’s transgression. In a widely quoted thread on X, the Middle East analyst Eitan Fischberger called it “one of the most egregious examples of journalistic malpractice I’ve seen in a while.”
After the outcry, the Post belatedly amended the story to include what it called a “clarification note,” which still managed to whitewash Samidoun. The newspaper meekly admitted that it had “failed to note that the United States says the group is an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Washington has placed under sanctions.” Suffice to say: this is not the behavior of an honest and truth-telling publication. Good journalism exposes coverups — it doesn’t execute them.
Indeed, as Fischberger pointed out, one of the “reporters” behind the Post article, Niha Masih, was accusing Israel of perpetrating a “genocide” more than a decade ago. In an Aug. 5, 2014 tweet, she claimed that the Jewish state was guilty of “genocide” — a libelous claim that meets the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Masih’s clear bias, including her penchant for regurgitating claims made by the Hamas, should have disqualified her from writing on Israel.
But The Washington Post is the nexus where sloppy journalism and lapse ethics meet. In fact, trusting terrorist groups is part of the newspaper’s modus operandi.
As CAMERA has documented, the Post takes Hamas claims at face value. The newspaper regurgitates casualty statistics supplied by the Gaza-based terrorist group. What is more, they’ve ignored top U.S. officials, journalists, and recent studies — all of which have warned that the figures supplied by Hamas are unreliable. Curiously, the Postdoesn’t uncritically parrot claims made by terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda — only those whose preeminent target is Israel seem to merit the distinction. The newspaper is so committed to trusting Hamas that it has published “fact checks” meant to show that its figures are dependable — “fact checks” that relied on data that the United Nations later revised and which also came from Hamas.
“Political language,” Orwell famously said, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to the wind.” Orwell’s writings were influenced by the rise of totalitarianism, including Nazism and communism, that he witnessed. Both ideologies were underpinned by the sort of murderous antisemitism that The Washington Post enables.
Were he alive today, Orwell would have a field day with the Post, with all its pretensions and propaganda.
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis
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Hamas Leader Calls Trump’s Gaza Plan ‘Bulls—,’ Vows Palestinians Will Not Depart ‘Homeland’
Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Members of the Hamas terrorist group lambasted US President Donald Trump’s recent proposal to remove Palestinian civilians from the Gaza strip as a “bull— plan.”
The remarks were made during what appears to be a rally in the Khan Yunis town of southern Gaza celebrating the transfer of the bodies of four hostages—Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz—back to Israel after they had been murdered by Hamas. In the video, a large crowd was circled around a dirt pit, attentively listening to a leader of the terrorist group both criticized Trump as an “unleashed bull” and promise that future generations of Palestinians would continue fighting against Israel.
Hamas erected a large banner depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a blood-drenched vampire superimposed on pictures of the Bibas family and Lifshitz. Thousands of Palestinian civilians assembled to partake in the event, shouting chants of victory.
“Do you really think that boy that attacked a tank barefooted with his bayonet and IED will leave his homeland because of fear?” the terrorist member said, “What do you think might frighten us? We’ve made very good friends with death lately.”
The Hamas member warned Trump to “think twice” about his proposal to vacate Gaza civilians from the war-torn strip, arguing that the terrorist group is capable of “delivering” death to its opponents.
“The war criminal Netanyahu & his Nazi Army killed them with missiles from Zionist warplanes,” the banner read.
Earlier this month, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the White House, held a press conference following their private meeting in the Oval Office. Trump asserted that the US would assume control of Gaza and develop it economically into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
Trump has also referred to Gaza as a “demolition site” and said its residents have “no alternative” but to leave, suggesting Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states as possible relocation sites.
Trump has called for Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states in the region to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Thus far, every state in the region has refused to absorb Palestinian migrants from Gaza.
The post Hamas Leader Calls Trump’s Gaza Plan ‘Bulls—,’ Vows Palestinians Will Not Depart ‘Homeland’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Chaos’: Students for Justice in Palestine Forced to Abandon Building Occupation at Swarthmore College
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members during its illegal occupation of Parrish Hall on February 19, 2025. Photo: Screenshot/X
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania led a failed takeover of an administrative building that it was forced to abandon after just 11 hours, according to a recent report by The Phoenix, the school’s campus daily.
“Chaos and uncertainty ruled campus yesterday,” wrote staff writers Daniel Perrin and Ella Walker on Thursday, describing the welter of events which saw SJP occupy the Parrish Hall administrative building and security officials launch a frenetic operation to boot them out.
While SJP had announced an “emergency rally” scheduled for noon that day, there was little indication that it planned on commandeering the building and remaining inside of it indefinitely, according to the report in The Phoenix.
“Swarthmore students hold sit-in to demand accountability for political repression and complicity in genocide,” SJP said in a statement after revealing its intentions. “We will not rest until Swarthmore College divests from the genocidal Zionist entity and drops all charges against our peers. Free Palestine and long live the student intifada.”
Inside, the students dressed like Hamas fighters, wrapping their faces with keffiyeh in a style coined by the group’s members to avoid being identified as terrorists.
SJP members left the building before the 11pm deadline set by the College. Administrators told The Phoenix that they “do not expect to issue interim suspensions.”
Occupying campus property to protest Israel and Zionism is now an old phenomenon. Thousands of students did so during the conclusion of the 2023-2024 academic year, precipitating an epidemic of antisemitic hate crime assaults, property destruction, and hate speech which cost several university presidents their jobs. So-called “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” which sprung in campuses across the United States last year caught university administrators off guard, and they hesitated to discipline protesters who openly violated school rules, creating an impression that rule-breaking was acceptable so long as the students doing it were promoting left-wing viewpoints.
Swarthmore resolved on Wednesday not to make a similar mistake, The Phoenix reported. No sooner had the students captured the building than security officials moved to lock it down to prevent both SJP’s being joined by more students and receiving supplies such as food and water that would sustain and ultimately prolong the demonstration. But it was many hours before Swarthmore’s vice president of student affairs Stephanie Ives sent SJP a letter warning the group that its members were risking being placed on interim suspensions that would carry a ban from campus, as well as their losing “all academic privileges.”
By that time, the students had unleashed a barrage of misconduct, shouting slogans through bullhorns, attempting to break into offices that had been locked to keep them out, and pounding the doors of others that refused to admit them access. Meanwhile, SJP collaborators circumvented security’s lockdown of the building to smuggle food inside. Several students then grew impatient and attempted to end the lockdown themselves by raiding the building, and in doing so caused a physical altercation with security, whom they proceeded to pelt with expletives and other imprecations spoken in the style of inner-city vernacular.
“What the f— is your problem!?” a female student, captured in video shared by The Phoenix, can be heard screaming at an official who used his body to block a protester from forcing his way inside. “B—ch! F—ck you! Stop f—ing touching people bruh!”
In a letter to Swarthmore SJP, Ives said that the group’s activities, which it heavily promoted on social media, had drawn the attention of the local Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office.
“Your actions, and the promotion of them on social media, have triggered a range of responses from within and beyond the community, including local and federal law enforcement agencies,” she wrote. “We have already identified several individuals involved in today’s actions. Those individuals, along with others we identify moving forward, will face interim suspension if the occupation does not end by 11 p.m. tonight.”
In a statement later issued to The Phoenix, Swarthmore College said, “The FBI contacted us based on the nature and volume of social media posts by Swarthmore SJP, along with other regional and national SJP and other accounts, calling for people from outside the campus community to come to Swarthmore and participate in the occupation.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Jewish Man Violently Attacked in England, Assailant Reportedly Said He Was ‘Responsible for Gaza War’
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
A visibly Jewish man in England was brutally attacked after attending a prayer service, leaving him fearing for his eyesight, in what local police are investigating as a hate crime.
The attack took place on Feb. 3 in Manchester City Center around 1:30 om. As the victim was walking home, he was approached from behind and struck in the face with a hard glass object, shattering his glasses and leaving him covered in blood.
“I thought I could have been blinded in my right eye,” the victim told the Manchester Evening News.
“In the split second before, I gripped my phone tightly in case someone tried to grab it and did not have a chance to protect myself,” he recalled. “I was then hit extremely forcefully with what felt like a bottle around the right side of my face, instantly shattering my glasses and knocking me off balance.”
After being examined by paramedics, the victim said he suffered bruising around his eye and cuts to his upper cheek and side of his face, adding that he still experiences black dots in his vision.
A bystander who witnessed the attack said he heard the attacker shout “murderer” at the victim and accuse him of being “responsible for the war in Gaza.”
“I’m apprehensive walking around and now get nervous anyone could attack me at any time,” the victim said. “I remain very traumatized by what happened.”
Greater Manchester Police confirmed that an investigation was ongoing, but two weeks after the attack, no arrests had been made. Meanwhile, the British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has offered a £5,000 (around $6,300 US dollars) reward for information about the suspect leading to a conviction.
“This victim’s testimony is horrific. At a time of surging antisemitism, incidents like these are becoming far too common, and those responsible must be held to account,” a spokesperson for CAA said in a statement.
The incident came amid an ongoing surge in antisemitic crimes across the United Kingdom since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
Last week, the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, released data showing the UK experienced its second worst year for antisemitism in 2024, despite recording an 18 percent drop in antisemitic incidents from the previous year’s all-time high
Specifically, CST 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, a drop from the 4,296 in 2023. These numbers compare to 1,662 antisemitic incidents in 2022, 2,261 in 2021, and 1,684 in 2020.
In Greater Manchester, home to the largest Jewish community outside London, 480 cases were reported last year.
In a joint statement addressing the rise in antisemitic incidents, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police and CST said, “Everyone should feel safe and welcome when visiting our city-region.”
“Hate crimes in Greater Manchester will not be tolerated, and we will always endeavor to take action against those responsible for this type of offence to keep our communities safe,” they added.
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
Last month, both sides reached a ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar. Under phase one, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, in exchange for Israel freeing over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are serving multiple life sentences for terrorism-related offenses.
Talks for a second phase are set to begin in the coming days, focusing on the release of around 60 remaining hostages, about half of whom are believed to be dead, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
The post Jewish Man Violently Attacked in England, Assailant Reportedly Said He Was ‘Responsible for Gaza War’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.