The Nation, a publication with over 1.2 million followers on Twitter alone, prides itself on speaking “truth to power to build a more just society.” According to the magazine’s mission statement, The Nation’s writers “value facts and transparency,” while seeking to provide their readers with a “deeper understanding of the world as it is — and as it could be.”
Except, apparently, when it comes to its reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict. On Saturday, as a 35-year-old Israeli jogger was injured in a stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s First Station, a popular entertainment area that includes restaurants and shops. Video footage taken by witnesses shows how the runner fought off his attacker even while sustaining light injuries.
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The Arab assailant — identified as a resident of the adjacent neighborhood of Abu Tor — was eventually shot by security forces, who responded only after he had refused to back down. Both the attacker and his victim were taken by medics to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Israel Police released a picture shortly after the incident, reportedly showing the knife used in the attack.
These facts are undisputed. Yet Mohammed El-Kurd, The Nation’s “Palestine” correspondent since September 2021, turned the truth on its head, writing on Twitter that “Israeli occupation forces shot a Palestinian man in occupied Jerusalem.” He added: “According to eyewitnesses he was jogging when they shot him.”
El-Kurd’s lie, which painted the violent attacker as the victim, received at least 578 retweets and 784 likes before public pressure (see for example here, here and here) forced him to delete the post. However, The Nation’s “journalist” did not issue a correction or apology for — once again — spreading disinformation.
Alert 🚨
ENOUGH WITH THE FAKE NEWS ALREADY! @thenation @ddguttenplan @rosedamora not sure @m7mdkurd understands that reporting the news means reporting what actually happened and not whatever he feels like making up! #stopfakenews #Israelinthemedia #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/T48QDT0NVN— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 20, 2022
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Indeed, Saturday’s Twitter post fits a pattern for El-Kurd. Some three months ago, he accused Israeli security forces of shooting a “Palestinian young man” while concealing the fact that this individual was a terrorist who had just stabbed a Jew near the Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate.
Previously, El-Kurd had posted a video to Twitter that he claimed proved Israelis were “readying themselves” to “invade” the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In reality, the clip showed Jews praying at the Western Wall. El-Kurd also disseminated a fake story about a stabbing attack by Israeli “settlers.”
Just two days before The Nation announced his hiring, El-Kurd had praised six Palestinians who broke out of Israel’s maximum-security Gilboa Prison: “I am going to bed with a smile on my face and dreaming of the day all prisons are abolished,” he tweeted, calling the incident “excellent.” He thereafter described the recapture of four of them as a “heartbreaking development.” To be clear, all six escapees were members of US-designated terror groups, and most were serving life sentences for their roles in attacks on innocent Israeli civilians.
Moreover, Mohammed El-Kurd regularly downplays war crimes by Hamas, another US-designated terrorist organization. At one point, he even lauded Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member and two-time airplane hijacker Leila Khaled.
El-Kurd’s support for Palestinian terrorists dovetails with his long history of making inflammatory remarks. He has called the Israel Defense Forces “sadistic & bloodthirsty,” a charge that invokes medieval blood libels. Similarly, he shared an Instagram post that promoted claims that the Jewish state deliberately kills Palestinians to harvest their organs. He has also said that Israel “kills,” “blows up,” “burns” and “tortures” Palestinian children in order to “instill terror” in them (see here, here, here and here).
And it has become evident that El-Kurd’s bias has seeped into his reporting for The Nation, as HonestReporting detailed in a recent expose.
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We have taken up the issue with The Nation’s editor Don David Guttenplan (email) and managing editor Rose D’Amora (email). We encourage our followers to take action by — politely but firmly — requesting that they explain how El-Kurd’s “reporting” can be reconciled with The Nation’s ostensible commitment to facts and transparency.
