BBC Arabic celebrates Hamas murders, calls hostages ‘arrestees’

British outlet’s Arabic channel downplays Hamas atrocities, suggests that those kidnapped from their home are not victims.

By World Israel News Staff

Journalists from the BBC’s Arabic language channel have celebrated Hamas’ deadly terror attack on Israeli civilians, seemingly reveling in the mass slaughter of Jews and framing the kidnapping of babies, children, and the elderly as justified.

“Every member of the Zionist entity served in the army at some point in his life, whether men or women, and they all had victims of explicit violations,” read a tweet liked by BBC Arabic journalist Aya Hossam, which claimed that kidnapping Israeli civilians is essentially fair game.

The tweet implied that the hostages had been “arrested,” rather than taken as captives.

“This term ‘civilians’ applies to the animals and pets that live there, and they are not seriously at fault,” the tweet added, insinuating that it’s acceptable for terror groups to kidnap anyone simply living in Israel.

An additional tweet reposted by Hossam stated that “the Zionist must know that he will live as a thief and a usurper.”

Sally Nabil, a BBC Arabic correspondent, liked multiple tweets celebrating the slaughter of Israelis.

She endorsed a tweet which described the Hamas terror attacks, which left some 1,400 people dead, as “the Palestinian resistance taking an initiative and surprises the Israeli occupier with an operation of quality.”

Notably, the BBC has refused to refer to Hamas as a terror group, instead using the term “militants” to describe the organization. The station has claimed that it will not use the word terrorist to describe those who carried out mass murder against civilians because the term is not “impartial.”

“These revelations about BBC Arabic employees go hand in hand with the outlet’s ongoing conduct during the war. The BBC has repeatedly whitewashed the practice of targeting Jewish civilians in Israel even before the current escalation,” said watchdog group CAMERA, which advocates for fair coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in a statement.

“They constantly claim that they apply the same editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality to their services in all languages, including those with which BBC management is not familiar and can’t oversee properly, such as Arabic.

“But these lapses do not occur anywhere near as frequently in their English language content, so that can’t be taken seriously.”