BBC Arabic journalist Samer Elzaenen has called for Jews to be burned “as Hitler did,” The Telegraph quoted him as saying in a Saturday report.
Elzaenen, 33, who has been reporting from Gaza, has been posting a series of statements on social media that condemns Jewish people, and has also called for violence against them, the Telegraph added, noting that his social media activity in the past 10 years has endorsed and celebrated more than 30 attacks on Israeli Jewish civilians.
He has appeared on the Arabic-language branch of the UK public broadcaster more than a dozen times since Hamas's terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. He called the Hamas terrorists who entered Israel that day "resistance fighters."
Elzaenen had also made similar statements in May 2011 on Facebook, the report added, quoting him saying: "My message to the Zionist Jews: We are going to take our land back, we love death for Allah’s sake the same way you love life. We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won’t have a single one of you left.” 11 years later, he wrote on the social media source, "When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything.”
The Telegraph noted a post the BBC reporter made over two years ago on a car ramming in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of two boys aged eight and six and a 20-year-old man, saying that the victims "will soon go to hell."
Additional BBC Arabic reporter endorsing terrorist attacks
The report also quoted another BBC Arabic reporter, freelance contributor Ahmed Qannan, who expressed his hope, in response to a terror attack in January 2023 at a Jerusalem synagogue, that Israelis would die. Before the October 7 massacre, the terror attack at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of the Israeli capital claimed seven lives. The 21-year-old terrorist – a resident of east Jerusalem – arrived outside the Ateret Avraham synagogue at around 8 p.m. and opened fire at people walking nearby.
The BBC said that Elzaenen and Qannan were not working as members of staff for the UK public broadcaster, The Telegraph added.
The Telegraph also reported earlier this month that yet another of its journalists made antisemitic comments, with writer Ahmed Alagha comparing Jewish people to devils.
“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,” Alagha wrote.
BBC Arabic has launched an investigation into several of its journalists after it came to light that they supported Hamas, according to a report from Jewish News, just over a week after the Hamas terrorist attacks occurred.
Gadi Zaig and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.
