Richard Harlow and Mohammed Abdelbary, two CNN journalists, have a history of making anti-Israel remarks that at times veer into antisemitism, according to an HonestReporting article published Tuesday.
These two journalists made contributions to CNN’s reporting on the Middle East, including Israel, the outlet reported.
SCOOP: Meet the CNN producers saying “f**k Israel.” Again.
Reporting by: @rachelodonoghuehttps://t.co/2fJm8u0QP0
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 11, 2024
Harlow has appeared to post various anti-Israel pieces on his social media account. For instance, he denied Hamas has any presence in the West Bank and appeared to satirically comment that “the IDF are still killing there too!” Another Harlow post accused Israel of killing Palestinians and stealing their organs, according to HonestReporting.
Hamas has a recognized active presence in the West Bank, according to the Director of National Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism Manual. The claim that the State of Israel kills Palestinians for their organs is considered to be a modern blood libel that first appeared in a 2009 Aftonbladet article, Tablet Magazine noted.
The original blood libel largely goes back to the Middle Ages when Jews were falsely accused of killing Christian children and using their blood for ritual purposes, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia. (RELATED: BBC Issues Another Apology For Bad Reporting On Israel-Hamas War)
A Dec. 1 Facebook post, appearing to be Harlow’s, commented on how two children were “murdered by IOF” (Israel Occupation Forces), a derogatory name for Israel Defense Forces (IDF), after his team left Jenin, a West Bank city.
Abdelbary, an Associate Producer for CNN according to his LinkedIn page, accused Israel in 2021 of forcing Ethiopian Jews to take contraceptives and sterilizing them because of racial animus in a tweet he allegedly since deleted, HonestReporting reported. The Israeli government investigated such reports and found no evidence behind them of such a state policy, according to another HonestReporting article.
Abdelbary, in a series of tweets dating back to 2014, said “Fuck Israel, there is no way to put it really, just fuck them” and questioned how anyone could support Israel, the outlet reported.
Both Harlow and Abdelbary have written articles for CNN about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
A CNN spokesperson responded to HonestReporting’s accusation.
“We were not aware of these posts and take what has been reported very seriously. We are now investigating the matter,” the CNN spokesperson said.