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BBC Gaza Contributor Exposed: Calls to ‘Burn Jews Like Hitler Did’ Ignites Outrage Over Media Vetting Failures
By: Fern Sidman
In a deeply troubling revelation, a prominent freelance journalist for BBC Arabic has been exposed for expressing violent antisemitic views and openly celebrating terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, according to a report published by The Telegraph and extensively covered by The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).
The exposé centers on Samer Elzaenen, a 33-year-old freelance reporter, who has been featured repeatedly on BBC Arabic broadcasts, particularly during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that erupted on October 7, 2023. As JNS reported, Elzaenen’s appearances included high-profile coverage from sensitive areas such as the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, following an Israeli rescue operation in June 2024.
Yet behind his journalistic persona, Elzaenen’s social media history reveals a disturbing pattern of virulent antisemitism and glorification of violence, raising serious questions about the BBC’s editorial standards and its reliance on freelancers with extremist views.
As uncovered in the JNS report, Elzaenen’s past posts include a 2011 Facebook statement in which he directly threatened Jewish people, writing to “Zionist Jews”: “We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won’t have a single one of you left.”
In another post from 2022, Elzaenen wrote chillingly: “When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything.”
These grotesque endorsements of genocidal violence, as highlighted by JNS, are not isolated incidents but part of a consistent pattern stretching over a decade, during which Elzaenen has celebrated attacks on Jewish civilians and expressed support for Palestinian terrorism.
In its reporting, the report at JNS indicated that Elzaenen has publicly endorsed more than 30 terror attacks against Israeli civilians over the past ten years. Following a particularly heinous assault in Jerusalem in 2023—where two young boys and a 20-year-old man were murdered—Elzaenen commented with cruel satisfaction that the victims “will soon go to hell.”
He has also referred to the Hamas gunmen who massacred hundreds of civilians at the Nova music festival during the October 7 attacks as mere “resistance fighters,” further legitimizing brutal acts of terror in his public discourse.
The JNS report emphasized that such language is not merely a private opinion but reflects a deep-seated worldview entirely at odds with the journalistic ethics of impartiality and truth.
The scandal extends beyond Elzaenen. JNS also reported that another freelance contributor to BBC Arabic, Ahmed Qannan, has similarly praised Palestinian terrorists and expressed wishes for wounded Israeli civilians to die.
Though both men are classified as “freelancers” rather than direct employees of the BBC, watchdog groups and political figures alike have lambasted the corporation for allowing such individuals to act as credible sources or correspondents.
A spokesperson for CAMERA UK, a prominent media monitoring group cited by JNS, stated unequivocally: “Freelancers who support violence against Jewish civilians should not be covering Israeli affairs for the BBC.”
The revelations have prompted a wave of condemnation. According to the information contained in the JNS report, Kemi Badenoch, a leader in Britain’s Conservative Party, has demanded “wholesale reform” of BBC Arabic, warning that the broadcaster, funded by British taxpayers, risks fomenting extremism and undermining public trust.
In response, a BBC spokesperson issued a statement, reported by JNS, claiming: “We hear from a range of eyewitnesses from Gaza. These are not BBC staff. We were not aware of their social media activity before hearing from them on air. There is no place for antisemitism on our services.”
Yet critics, including those cited by JNS in their extensive report, argue that this response falls woefully short, highlighting a lack of proper vetting procedures and an apparent institutional blind spot toward antisemitism within BBC Arabic’s ranks.
The incident, as JNS noted, comes amid growing scrutiny of BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and wider allegations of systemic anti-Israel bias within the service. Critics argue that BBC Arabic has long presented a distorted view of the conflict, often echoing Hamas narratives and minimizing Israeli suffering.
The involvement of freelancers like Elzaenen and Qannan, who hold deeply hateful views, raises serious concerns about the objectivity and credibility of BBC Arabic’s reporting during one of the most consequential conflicts in recent Middle Eastern history.
The exposure of antisemitic rhetoric among BBC Arabic freelancers is not just a personnel scandal—it is a fundamental breach of journalistic integrity and a betrayal of public trust.
In an era where information warfare plays a crucial role in shaping global perceptions, the infiltration of mainstream media platforms by individuals who celebrate terrorism and advocate for the extermination of Jews must be treated with the utmost seriousness.
The BBC’s reputation—and its taxpayer-funded legitimacy—hangs in the balance. If the corporation is to rebuild trust, serious reforms, accountability, and a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism must become non-negotiable principles, as the shocking revelations brought to light in the JNS report so forcefully demonstrate.
