According to a recent report in the Jerusalem Post, Ahmed Alagha, a freelance journalist repeatedly used by the BBC, has made a number of controversial antisemitic and anti-Israel social media posts.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report in the Jerusalem Post, Ahmed Alagha, a freelance journalist repeatedly used by the BBC, has made a number of controversial antisemitic and anti-Israel social media posts. The Daily Mail reported that this journalist has appeared on BBC Arabic several times since last January and this includes last Sunday, when he appeared reporting from close to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis just after Israeli forces eliminated Ismail Barhoum, a senior Hamas terror leader, in an air strike. According to the report, the bombing was caught on camera and Alagha’s report appeared on BBC News.
But now, it has been reported that the Palestinian journalist appears to have described Israelis as worse than ‘beasts’ on his social media accounts. The posts, which were first exposed by The Telegraph, include comments such as “It [the Israeli occupation] is the embodiment of filth, the unrivalled swamp of wickedness. As for the Jews, they are the devils of the hypocrites” and “And as we know, the ‘Israelis’ are not human beings to begin with, rather they are not even beasts. Perhaps they belong to a race for which no description can capture the extent of their lust and sadism.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, the journalist’s post on Jews and Israel pre-date the commencement of the war against Hamas. In January 2023, following a terrorist attack near a Jerusalem synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day, Alagha wrote, “This martyr stole my heart, he alone killed eight Zionists.” According to the report, the youngest victim of that terror attack was Asher Natan, age 14.
On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terror groups from Gaza invaded 22 points in Southern Israel, massacring, raping, burning and mutilating 1,200 innocent men, women and children, and abducting over 250 others as hostages, Alagha posted, “Remove your emotions, no matter how hideous their situation is. May God continue to strengthen the occupation, nor raise their status, nor grant them justice, nor guide their aim. They are the corrupt party in this case, my friend. No honorable blood is being shed for them, nor are they right. The truth is clear. The truth never dies. #AlAqsa_Flood”
The day after the October 7th massacre, the Daily Mail reported that he stated: “’Rip your sympathy out, no matter what ugly condition you see them in. They are the corrupt side of this story, my friend. No spilled blood of theirs is honorable.’”
Alagha has also utilized social media in order to promote antisemitic stereotypes. In one post, he stated: ““God, deal with the Jews. Those who break covenants and promises. They do not enjoy what is right…They claimed that they killed Jesus, peace be upon him, took the calf, transgressed the Sabbath, killed the prophets, concealed the testimony of God Almighty, followed their desires, and exchanged God’s blessing for disbelief. They loved money more than God…”
The Daily Mail also reported that in March last year, he also said: “’We often hear the phrase: ‘Palestine is Arab from the sea to the river’. But do we know what it means? In short, Palestine is entirely Arab, east and west.’”
A BBC spokesman told the Jerusalem Post in response to the recent revelations: “International journalists, including the BBC, are not allowed access to Gaza, so we hear from a range of contributors in the region. Ahmed Alagha was a contributor. He is not a BBC member of staff or part of the BBC’s reporting team. In this instance, we were unaware of the contributor’s social media activity prior to hearing from him. His views were not expressed on a BBC platform, his posts do not reflect the BBC’s view and we are absolutely clear that there is no place for antisemitism on our services.”
Photo from Insight 360 News USA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARjxboMQghs
