Key Takeaways:
- Mariam Elsayeh serves on the Ethics Council of one of the top unions for media workers in the United Kingdom.
- Instead of upholding journalistic standards and promoting best professional practices, her social media is awash with misinformation and extremism.
- Elsayeh’s influential position calls into question the standards to which British journalists are held, particularly when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians.
One of the main British organizations spearheading campaigns against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), one of the top trade unions representing media workers in the United Kingdom.
From demonstrations and memorial services to petitions and media appearances, the NUJ has been incredibly vocal about its opposition to Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip.
One of the individuals at the forefront of the NUJ’s anti-Israel campaign is Mariam Elsayeh, a freelance journalist for Al Jazeera, who has also contributed to BBC Arabic and the New Arab. Elsayeh also serves as a training officer for the freelance branch of the NUJ and sits on the NUJ’s Ethics Council.
As a member of the Ethics Council, Elsayeh is tasked with working to “improve standards of journalism,” “to educate the public about the role of journalists,” and to educate journalists and students “about better practice.”
However, Elsayeh’s social media activity calls into question her ability to serve as an authority on professional journalistic standards. Instead of exemplifying journalistic integrity, Elsayeh’s social media is full of misinformation, the whitewashing of terrorism, and the platforming of extremist voices.
Fake News: Mariam Elsayeh’s Misinformation
Since the October 7 Hamas massacre and subsequent war between Israel and the terror group, Mariam Elsayeh’s social media has been interspersed with misinformation about the Jewish state and its fight against Palestinian terror groups.
For example, at the beginning of the war, an explosion rocked Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. Hamas officials initially claimed that an Israeli strike on the hospital had killed 500 people. It was later determined that the explosion had been caused by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket, had occurred in the courtyard of the hospital, and that the number of casualties was lower than first reported.
Although many mainstream media organizations initially echoed Hamas’ unsubstantiated claims as fact, Elsayeh took it one step further, ludicrously tweeting that 1,000 people had been killed at the hospital, essentially doubling Hamas’ fake casualty count.
#Gaza 1000 killed by #Israel at Alahly church hospital in Gaza pic.twitter.com/VzIxN7KLzV
— Mariam Elsayeh (@mariam_elsayeh) October 17, 2023
In another instance in October 2023, Elsayeh tweeted about an Israeli counter-terror operation in the West Bank, claiming that there was “No Hamas in west bank [sic],” implying that Israel was going after normal Palestinians and not terrorists.
Any observer of the region (which Elsayeh appears to be) would know that this claim is completely false and that Hamas is one of several terror organizations embedded within Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
Along with her misinformation, Elsayeh has also used her social media presence to mischaracterize Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As far back as November 2023, Elsayeh referred in a post on X (formerly Twitter) to Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a “genocide,” a legal term that Israel’s counter-terror operation in the enclave does not qualify for.
Even more heinously, Elsayeh later referred to it as the “Gaza Holocaust” (which she even misspelled). Not only is this an example of ahistoric Holocaust inversion, it is a breach of the widely accepted IHRA definition of antisemitism.
My latest for the #journalist is Covering War Zones, from experienced Journalists Reporting #Gaza to War Zone Reporters. #GazaWar #GazaHoloucast pic.twitter.com/Qs2rQTPcIA
— Mariam Elsayeh (@mariam_elsayeh) December 14, 2023
See No Evil: Mariam Elsayeh’s Whitewashing of Terrorism
One of the most insidious aspects of Elsayeh’s social media presence is her whitewashing of terrorists, presenting them in a positive light or downplaying their terrorist activities.
For example, early in the war, Hamas released two elderly female Israeli hostages near the end of October 2023. In the video of her release, Yocheved Lifschitz shook hands with the Hamas terrorist who released her to the Red Cross.
Elsayeh tweeted twice about this handshake (here and here), in an attempt to create the impression that Hamas terrorists were on good terms with their hostages.
In the second tweet, Elsayeh shared a clip from an interview with Lifschitz where she said that she was “treated kindly” and provided for. Elsayeh misquoted Lifschitz (who she referred to as a “prisoner”) as saying that she was “treated with respect” but also conveniently omitted the negative comments that Lifschitz made about her abduction, referring to it as “hell” and suffering elements of physical abuse.
In another instance, Elsayeh valorized Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera journalist who is accused of being a member of Hamas’ elite Nukhba force.
A journalist asks the recently released Israeli prisoner, “Why did you shake hands with the Hamas officer?”
She responded decisively: They treated us well and with respect during the captivity #Gaza_Genocide #Gaza #Gazabombing #GazaWar #israel pic.twitter.com/EX4nZSrXNK— Mariam Elsayeh (@mariam_elsayeh) October 24, 2023
During the first ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in November 2023, Elsayeh profiled three female Palestinian prisoners who were released as part of the deal, referring to two as “holy prisoners” and portraying them as innocent victims of Israeli tyranny.
However, all three were convicted and served prison time on terror charges. Shorouk Dawyat, Aisha Afghani, and Fadwa Hamada had all committed stabbing attacks against Israelis.
In a particularly grotesque example, Elsayeh’s Instagram post about Dawyat shared an invented story where she was on her way home when a “settler pig” tried to remove her veil and shot her. In reality, Dawyat approached two Jewish men in the Old City of Jerusalem, stabbed one, and attempted to stab the other before she was shot.
For Elsayeh to acclaim a terrorist as a “holy prisoner” and to also spread a fantastical story that absolves the terrorist of all crimes is not only heinous but also the height of journalistic malpractice.
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Jackson Hinkle & Neturei Karta: Mariam Elsayeh’s Platforming of Extremists
Along with her misinformation and whitewashing of terrorism, Mariam Elsayeh has also platformed extremist voices on social media.
For example, Elsayeh has retweeted a couple of posts by Jackson Hinkle, an influencer who peddles in antisemitism, disinformation, and propaganda that supports authoritarians like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s now-deposed leader Bashar al-Assad.
Elsayeh has also retweeted Mohammed El-Kurd, a poet-activist who has shared antisemitic material and admitted to spreading libels about Israel, and Anastasia Maria Loupis, a conspiracy theorist known for spreading antisemitic messaging online.
Elsayeh also enjoys platforming the most extreme anti-Zionist voices within the Jewish community, including Neturei Karta and Jews for Palestine, in her writings and on social media.
By doing so, Elsayeh seeks to create the false impression that there is a strong anti-Israel voice within the Jewish community, when this is just wishful thinking detached from reality on her part.
My latest for Aljazeera, Jewish for Palestine interview reveals a lot about the actual anti-semitesm and how anti-semitesm started in the west by not accepting the Jews to live in their countries and encouraging them to immigrate and more in this link
— Mariam Elsayeh (@mariam_elsayeh) March 12, 2023
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How can Mariam Elsayeh fulfill her role on the Ethics Council of the National Union of Journalists when her social media presence exemplifies the antithesis of what that position is supposed to stand for?
Instead of upholding journalistic standards and serving as an authority on best journalistic practices, Elsayeh has stooped to the morally repugnant position of peddler of misinformation, promoter of extremism, and whitewasher of terrorism.
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