Her work has been published in, among other outlets, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Newsweek. She has been interviewed by CNN and, seemingly, the BBC. She also appears to have been quoted in the LA Times, Huff Post, Business Insider and many other publications. She has been described by outlets variously as a Palestinian “journalist,” “writer,” “analyst” and “researcher.”
Mariam Barghouti is, then, a relatively well-known “go-to” voice on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. Hailing from Ramallah, her pieces have offered what one might consider an insider’s account of life in the West Bank that provide withering narratives about the “colonialist” project otherwise known as the State of Israel.
Barghouti is also an antisemite.
Israel has been beating Hitler at his own game since 1948. #EthnicCleansing #Occupation #Palestine
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) November 9, 2011
#Netanyahu supports racism and prejudice and the ethnic cleansing of a people. He is nothing more than a war criminal and a Nazi.
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) November 8, 2011
(In the event these tweets are deleted, they can be viewed here and here.)
Using a ‘verified’ Twitter account with over 74,000 followers, she has spread vicious Jew-hatred on the social media platform, including describing Israel as “beating Hitler at his own game since 1948,” and calling the Jewish state “racist Zionist-Nazi’s [sic].”
In other comments she asserted that “Zionism did nothing but exploit the tragedy of the Holocaust,” and claimed that former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a “Nazi.” Perhaps Barghouti is unaware that Netanyahu’s wife Sara lost family members in Hitler’s WWII genocide against the Jewish people.
Even so, Barghouti has still appeared in the pages and on the websites of some of the most high-profile publications in the world. Her absurd pronouncements about how the Israeli army, police and settlers are “working together in tandem” to carry out “ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians and her declaration that the Israeli city of Tel Aviv is a “settlement” have therefore likely been internalized by swaths of people.
But readers in the first place should never have been exposed to the thoughts and opinions of someone who has harbored such deeply antisemitic sentiments.
Zionism did nothing but exploit the tragedy of the Holocaust, now Palestinians want to adopt that narrative? http://t.co/5E1LZoG8Cc
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) March 29, 2014
Israel’s narcissism is what’s going to end it. Every moment they are being exposed for the racist Zionist-Nazi’s that they are.
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) November 8, 2011
(In the event these tweets are deleted, they can be viewed here and here.)
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
In this respect, HonestReporting recently made global waves by exposing Tala Halawa, a BBC journalist who during the 2014 war against Hamas tweeted that Israel is “more #Nazi than #Hitler,” adding, “#HitlerWasRight.” In response to our work, the BBC opened an investigation that ultimately led to Halawa being fired.
Returning to Barghouti, there is a certain irony that in one of her most recent opinion pieces in The Washington Post she condemned those who supposedly use accusations of antisemitism to curtail debate about Palestinian issues. The May 10 article, written jointly with human rights attorney and Rutgers University Professor Noura Erakat and titled, Sheikh Jarrah highlights the violent brazenness of Israel’s colonialist project, states:
The apparent censorship of Palestinian protest on social media is another chapter in the months-long campaign urging Facebook not to flag anti-Zionism critique as anti-Semitic hate speech. Many pro-Israel groups are trying to use the empty charges of anti-Semitism to shut down debate about Palestine.”
As is clear from Barghouti’s own Twitter posts, at least some of thes alleged “charges of antisemitism” have a very truthful foundation to them.
Equally curious is that Barghouti actually had her Twitter use restricted in May, when the social media giant temporarily suspended her account while she was reporting from the West Bank. Twitter, however, quickly u-turned on the decision, claiming it was an “error.”
Does Twitter believe that equating Israel with Nazi Germany does not violate its hate speech policy?
In any event, the real mystery is why media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post et al chose to work with a blatantly antisemitic journalist to report on, of all things, the Jewish state.
In fact, it is unfathomable that these same publications would, for example, ever have offered a platform to someone with a history of supporting white supremacists to discuss issues related to race in the United States.
Accordingly, HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz is “calling on all media outlets to treat Israel and the Jewish people with the same professionalism and ethics that they would apply to any other people, country or news topic, including in their selection of journalists and hiring practices.”
(In the event some media outlets remove Barghouti’s content, HonestReporting has included pdf links to several examples: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC)
