Journalists from the BBC, responsible for a scathing report accusing Israeli soldiers’ of abusing medics at a Gaza hospital, have been found to have ‘liked’ videos applauding Hamas terror attacks and anti-Israel content on social media. The Mail on Sunday has more.
The story last week led to worldwide condemnation of Israel, and was called “very disturbing” by Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron who called for “answers”.
Now the Mail on Sunday can reveal concerns about the views of two BBC Arabic reporters, Soha Ibrahim and Marie-Jose Al Azzi, who were credited with working on the story.
Earlier this month, Ms. Ibrahim liked a video on X of Palestine Action activists slashing an oil painting of former British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, who helped pave the way for the creation of Israel. On the day of the Hamas attacks on October 7th, she liked videos of people in Lebanon and Tunisia chanting, dancing and waving Palestinian flags in the street in apparent celebration.
London-based Ms. Ibrahim, who has worked for the BBC for 12 years, also liked another post on X on October 7th which celebrated “the first of the martyrs of the operation”. The tweet featured a picture of an Egyptian man who was killed after shooting dead three Israeli soldiers last June.
Ms. Ibrahim also liked a video of Egyptian football fans chanting “we sacrifice our souls, our blood for Palestine” following the attacks.
Meanwhile Ms. Al Azzi, who has worked at the BBC since 2019 and is based in Lebanon, described Israel as a “terrorist apartheid state” in a post from 2018 that has since been deleted, according to antisemitism researchers. …
Jewish Tory MP Andrew Percy called the BBC “institutionally Israel-phobic”, saying: “The fact they are using reporters who appear to be openly hostile to Israel and potentially openly hostile to Jews, again demonstrates the issues the BBC has here on reporting this conflict fairly.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Mail reports that during a recent Whitehall training session, Foreign Office staff were told there was “no future without Hamas”, instructed not to refer to Hamas as terrorists and Israel was portrayed as a “white, settler colonialist nation”.
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