Less than 48 hours after HonestReporting revealed the violent and antisemitic posts written by prominent Palestinian reporter Shatha Hammad, the Thomson Reuters Foundation has stripped her of a prestigious journalism prize.
On Sunday, we revealed Hammad had a long history of making disturbing comments on her social media accounts, including repeatedly joking about Adolf Hitler, lavishing praise on Palestinian terrorists who have murdered innocent Jews, and denying that Israel has any right to exist.
We questioned why the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), the charitable arm of the global wire service, and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund (KSMF) had chosen Hammad as the recipient of the 2022 Local Reporter Award, which included a $5,000 cash prize and the chance for her work to be “spotlighted through a multi-media campaign on the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s social media channels.”
In addition, Hammad had been invited to take part in a discussion hosted by CNN pundit Christiane Amanpour at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference in London later this month.
On October 18, both organizations released a joint statement in which they confirmed Hammad has been stripped of her prize following our investigation:
The decision has been made following the discovery of a social media post on Hammad’s Facebook feed that appears to quote Hitler – which, in doing so, suggests an endorsement of his ideology. The comment appeared in 2014.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund stand opposed to hate speech of any description. We have therefore taken this unusual step in order to protect the integrity of the Kurt Schork Awards, established to recognise and celebrate the courageous and brilliant reporting of conflict, corruption and injustice from journalists around the world, who risk their lives daily to speak truth to power.
We are aware of a second Facebook post using extreme anti-Semitic language that purports to be drafted by Hammad, also dated 2014. However, Hammad strongly denies that this post is hers.”
“Me and Hitler are friends”
The posts that HonestReporting uncovered included dozens of violent and antisemitic clarion calls, such as one in which she eulogized the “martyrs” who killed five “settlers” during the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre where two Palestinian terrorists attacked worshipers with axes, knives and a gun.
In several posts in 2014, Hammad, who currently works for Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera, signed off her comments using the nickname “Hitler” and joked that she was “in agreement” with the Nazi leader who oversaw the mass extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust.
In another post — originally written in Arabic but translated into English by HonestReporting — she described herself as “friends” and “one” with Hitler, adding they have the “same mentality, like, for example, the extermination of the Jews” alongside a smiley face emoji.
The exact translation, which is more accurate than Google Translate’s version that automatically appears online, is:
“Me and Hitler are friends. We have influence over each other and share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews.”
In a 2016 Facebook comment, Hammad suggested Israel is not a legitimate country and questioned whether Jews have the right to self-determination.
🗞️ #KurtSchork Award winner @shathahammad4 has shown resilience in her reporting on the West Bank – giving a voice to Palestinian people.
Read about how Shatha’s team at @MiddleEastEye are celebrating her win in the Local Reporter category. ⬇️https://t.co/HLP4ZXQYb4
— Thomson Reuters Foundation (@TRF) October 14, 2022
Revealed: Antisemitic Palestinian Journalists
Sadly, she is the latest in a series of Palestinian journalists whose virulently antisemitic views HonestReporting has exposed during the course of our investigative work.
On August 11, we put a spotlight on the horrifying social media history of Fady Hanona, a freelance producer and fixer who was credited by The New York Times in multiple stories published during the September conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hanona had described Jews as the “sons of dogs” and called for killing every “Jew, Israeli or Zionist, or anyone else who speaks Hebrew.”
In response to our work, The New York Times, VICE News, the BBC, The Guardian, SBS Australia, and ABC News Australia all moved to cut ties with Hanona.
Last month we also revealed how two other freelancers working for the NYT, Soliman Hijjy and Hosam Salem, had also lauded Hitler and Palestinian terrorism in multiple chilling Facebook posts.
Last year, our revelations about reporter Tala Halawa, who had tweeted that “Hitler was right,” forced the BBC to cut ties with the journalist.
Basic Due Diligence
We commend both the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund for taking quick and decisive action to distance themselves from Hammad given the horrifying and threatening nature of her online outbursts.
However, we remain concerned that she was bestowed the award in the first place, specifically because it shows that neither organization did their basic due diligence in looking into Hammad’s publicly-available online profile.
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