The Guardian (“ICE detains British journalist after criticism of Israel on US tour“), Sky News (“Anger after British commentator held by ICE in US for criticising Israel”) and ITV News (“British commentator Sami Hamdi detained in US by ICE after criticising Israel”) all erased the pro-terror views of a British commentator detained by US authorities, falsely claiming he’s merely ‘critical of Israel’.
The individual, Sami Hamdi, was apprehended on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at a San Francisco airport. All three outlets parroted of statement by Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) – a pro–Hamas US organisation falsely described by the Guardian, Sky and ITV as a “civil rights organisation” – claiming that the action is retaliation for the Muslim commentator’s “criticism of Israel while touring the US”. During his tour, Hamdi spoke at the annual gala for Cair’s chapter in Sacramento.
All these outlets omitted information which would have taken their journalists a minute to gather if they engaged in any fact-checking: that Hamdi was detained because of his history of expressing enthusiastic support for Hamas’ Oct 7th massacre. Proof of his pro-Hamas views was posted on the US Dep’t of Homeland Security’s social media accounts on Oct. 27 (via a video captured by MEMRI of Hamdi speaking in a London mosque days after the massacre).
Further, as our colleague Hadar Sela noted in an earlier post on the BBC’s omission of Hamdi’s celebration of the worst and most barbaric massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, his 2023 comments weren’t a one-off.
Hamdi also celebrated Hamas’ “huge victory” on a podcast aired just 5 days after the October 7th massacre, while claiming that its “magnanimous” perpetrators showed “humanity” towards their “settler” victims. On another podcast aired on October 13th 2023, Hamdi also spoke of “euphoria” sparked by “this Palestinian resistance” which he claimed some were “trying to paint as terrorism”.
Further, here are some X posts by Hamdi from Oct. 7th and 8th, 2023:
You can read yesterday’s post by our co-editor, Hadar Sela, on the BBC’s omission of Hamdi’s pro-Oct. 7th massacre views, here.
