APRIL 26, 2025 – The BBC is once again embroiled in scandal, after one of its Gaza-based contributors was exposed for calling for the extermination of Jews – echoing Hitler – in a series of violent, antisemitic social media posts. The case is being seen as further proof of a deep and ongoing culture of antisemitism within the publicly funded British broadcaster.
Samer Elzaenen, a 33-year-old journalist used extensively by BBC Arabic since the October 7 Hamas atrocities, has appeared live on air more than a dozen times, presenting himself as a neutral reporter. In reality, Elzaenen has spent over 10 years publicly celebrating terrorism against Jewish civilians and calling for their mass murder.
In a Facebook post from May 2011, Elzaenen wrote: “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.”
In 2022, he offered this advice: “When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything.”
Such language is not an aberration for Elzaenen. Over the past decade, his social media is littered with praise for violent attacks on Jewish civilians, labeling the killers “heroes” and “martyrs” and cheering the deaths of innocent victims. After a Palestinian terrorist murdered two young brothers, aged eight and six, and a 20-year-old man at a Jerusalem bus stop in 2023, Elzaenen commented that the dead would “soon go to hell.”
Despite this clear record of hatred, the BBC placed Elzaenen in front of millions of Arabic-speaking viewers, presenting him as an eyewitness and journalist worthy of trust. Worse, this scandal is not isolated: the BBC’s Arabic service has repeatedly been caught platforming individuals who glorify violence against Jews and deny Israel’s right to exist.
Another BBC Arabic contributor, Ahmed Qannan, publicly encouraged the cutting of Jewish civilians’ throats after a synagogue shooting in Jerusalem killed seven Israelis on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2023. When a friend posted “We want to see some throats cut,” Qannan replied: “Don’t give up on your ambition.” Qannan had earlier praised a terrorist who gunned down five civilians as a “hero.”
Rather than taking responsibility for placing such figures on air, the BBC is attempting to wash its hands by labeling them “freelancers” – a distinction critics say is utterly meaningless when they are used to represent BBC reporting in a conflict zone.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) condemned the BBC’s conduct. A spokesperson stated: “The BBC misleadingly frames freelance journalists used by the Arabic service as mere ‘contributors’ so it won’t have to take responsibility for the hatred they regularly spew in social media. Freelancers who divulge such egregious bias should not be covering Israeli and Jewish affairs for the BBC,” adding “Any individual whose social media activity indicates their support for violence targeting Israel’s Jewish civilians lacks the basic journalistic skill of distinguishing between combatants and uninvolved bystanders.”
This scandal is only the latest in a series of disturbing revelations about BBC Arabic. Another regular contributor, Ahmed Alagha, was recently exposed for describing Israelis as “less than human” and Jews as “devils” on his social media accounts.
Political pressure in the United Kingdom has intensified. Kemi Badenoch, a senior Conservative Party minister and the British Secretary of State for Business and Trade, demanded “wholesale reform” of BBC Arabic, accusing it of fomenting extremism and misleading audiences under the guise of public broadcasting. In a letter to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, Badenoch wrote: “It seems that the World Service may be fomenting extremism and misleading audiences — while funded by the taxpayer and licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop.”
Despite the mounting evidence of antisemitism among its Arabic service contributors — and even among some of its employees – the BBC has repeatedly chosen to look the other way, carrying out superficial investigations but taking no meaningful action.
Given the BBC’s repeated exposure of antisemitic reporting practices, critics argue that such excuses are no longer credible. Instead, they say the network’s consistent promotion of individuals who glorify Jewish death reveals an institutionally rotten culture – one where antisemitism is not an unfortunate oversight, but a systemic feature.
