A journalist who appeared on the BBC‘s Arabic Channel has reportedly described Jews as ‘devils’.
Ahmed Alagha has appeared on the broadcaster reporting on the Israeli conflict several times since January last year.
He appeared last Sunday reporting from close to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis just after Israeli forces killed a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Barhoum, in an air strike.
The bombing was caught on camera and Mr Alagha’s report appeared on BBC News.
However, the Telegraph has now reported that Mr Alagha, Palestinian journalist, appears to have described Israelis as worse than ‘beasts’ on his social media accounts.
Sharing the footage of a Gaza tower block being bombed by Israeli forces after Hamas’ attacks on October 7, 2023, Mr Alagha posted on X: ‘This is not a Hollywood film; this is what was done to these towers in Gaza City at the hands of the Israeli occupation, and it’s happening to us in Gaza.
‘It [the Israeli occupation] is the embodiment of filth, the unrivalled swamp of wickedness. As for the Jews, they are the devils of the hypocrites.’
Ahmed Alagha has appeared on the broadcaster reporting on the Israeli conflict several times since January last year
He appeared last Sunday reporting from close to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis just after Israeli forces killed a senior Hamas leader, Ismail Barhoum, in an air strike
The day after he also posted: ‘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.
‘That’s just one snapshot. What if we were to compile all their crimes across that entire dark/black history, from the moment of occupation up until now? It is the entity of filth, and the unrivalled swamp of wickedness.’
The day after the October 7 attacks in which 1,320 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Mr Alagha had written on X, in apparent reference to Hamas’s victims: ‘Rip your sympathy out, no matter what ugly condition you see them in. They are the corrupt side of this story, my friend. No spilled blood of theirs is honorable.’
He also responded to a shooting hear a Jerusalem synagogue which killed seven civilians on Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2023.
He shared a photo of the attack with the message: ‘This martyr stole my heart, he alone killed eight Zionists.’
In March last year he also said: ‘We often hear the phrase: ‘Palestine is Arab from the sea to the river’. But do we know what it means? In short, Palestine is entirely Arab, east and west.’
After the Telegraph approached Mr Alagha, some of his posts seem to have been deleted.
Sources have told the newspaper the journalist is not a member of staff at the broadcaster.
Last month the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch called for a ‘wholesale reform’ of BBC Arabic after a report by Camera UK accused the corporation of ‘appalling anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias’.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘International journalists including the BBC are not allowed access into Gaza so we hear from a range of contributors in the region.
‘Ahmed Alagha was a contributor, he is not a BBC member of staff or part of the BBC’s reporting team.
‘In this instance, we were unaware of the contributor’s social media activity prior to hearing from him.
‘His views were not expressed on a BBC platform, his posts do not reflect the BBC’s view and we are absolutely clear that there is no place for antisemitism on our services.’
