Fury as ITV airs interview with British Palestinian woman on Islamophobia in the UK just days after she described the murder of Jews as a ‘homecoming’ on Iranian state TV and called Hamas attacks a ‘moment of triumph’
ITV News aired an interview with a British Palestinian woman on Islamophobia in the UK just days after she described the the murder of Jews as a ‘homecoming’ on Iranian state TV and called Hamas terror attacks a ‘moment of triumph’.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews slammed ITV for its ‘staggering failures of due diligence’ for giving a platform to Latifa Abouchakra, who has been accused of being a propagandist for Tehran.
Ms Abouchakra, a reporter for Iranian state news channel Press TV, was interviewed about her experiences of Islamophobia in England.
During the broadcast Ms Abouchakra, who was described as a ‘British Palestinian woman living in London’, said that she had been ‘called a terrorist’ by strangers in the street.
But critics are urging ITV’s chief executive Dame Carolyn Julia McCall to issue a ‘public apology’ for giving ‘airtime to a literal propagandist for the Iranian regime’.
Latifa Abouchakra, a reporter for Iranian state news channel Press TV, was interviewed on ITV News about her experiences of Islamophobia in England
Last week, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Israel that left 1,400 people dead and hundreds taken hostage, Ms Abouchakra produced a report describing the assault as a ‘homecoming’ of ‘Palestinian resistance factions’.
READ MORE – Kidnapped Israeli woman, 85, freed by Hamas reveals she was transported through the terror group’s infamous tunnels
She also described the hostages, around 20 of whom are children, as ‘prisoners of war’.
In a video shared on her Instagram shortly after the terror attacks on October 7, a smiling Ms Abouchakra said: ‘Nothing will ever be able to take back this moment.
‘This moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise. This moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity. Nothing, ever.’
A letter signed by Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: ‘ITV’s decision to invite on Ms Abouchakra […] out of millions of British Muslims, was an astonishingly bad one.
‘As a 20-second internet search could have informed your channel’s researchers, Ms Abouchakra is a reporter for Palestine Declassified, a show produced by Press TV, the state channel of the Iranian regime.’
During the broadcast Ms Abouchakra, who was described as a ‘British Palestinian woman living in London ‘, said that she had been ‘called a terrorist’ by strangers in the street
‘This was a catastrophic breach of your channel’s journalistic standards.
‘I sincerely hope that your channel will be issuing a public apology for this egregiously incompetent decision.’
A spokesman for ITV said: ‘ITV News London broadcast a report on the rise in hate crime following recent events in the Middle East.
‘We are investigating concerns that were raised about one contributor following the broadcast.’
Source: Read Full Article