HonestReporting earlier this month published a critique in response to The Nation’s hiring of Mohammed El-Kurd as the outlet’s first-ever “Palestine Correspondent.”
From Terror Supporter to ‘Palestine Correspondent’: Meet Mohammed El-Kurd, The Nation’s Latest Hire detailed the long history of his anti-Israel “activism.”
Just two days before The Nation’s announcement, El-Kurd rejoiced as six Palestinian terrorists 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 [Israeli] prisons are abolished,” he tweeted, calling the incident “excellent.”
6 Palestinian political prisoners managed to escape a high-security Israeli jail this morning. I am going to bed with a smile on my face and dreaming of the day all prisons are abolished. ❤️
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) September 6, 2021
El-Kurd has incited violence and glorified terrorism, stating that he mourns “all of our [Palestinian] martyrs.” He previously lauded Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member and two-time airplane hijacker Leila Khaled:
Another post in which Mohammed El Kurd praises Leila Khaled, a Palestinian terrorist responsible for two hijackings of civilian planes. Can someone explain to me why @MSNBC and others are giving explicit terror supporter El-Kurd as a platform to lie?
H/t @Israellycool pic.twitter.com/U0axYcQIcC— Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) June 9, 2021
And since being included in TIME Magazine’s annual list of 100 most-influential people, El-Kurd has seemingly lifted any reins there may have been on his antisemitic, terrorist-backing vitriol:
“Today marks 21 years since the start of the Second Intifada. Glory to those who resisted and sacrificed. Glory to the martyrs, the women and men whose makeshift weapons confronted artilleries, the children whose stones intimidated tanks. The struggle continues, until liberation.”
Today marks 21 years since the start of the Second Intifada. Glory to those who resisted and sacrificed. Glory to the martyrs, the women and men whose makeshift weapons confronted artilleries, the children whose stones intimidated tanks. The struggle continues, until liberation. pic.twitter.com/A4eHwypued
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) September 28, 2021
The Nation’s newly-minted “Palestine Correspondent” is evidently pleased that Palestinian terrorists between 2000 and 2005 launched a gruesome wave of suicide bombings and other horrific attacks that murdered more than 1,000 Israelis and injured over 8,000 others.
For El-Kurd, praise is due to the 466 members of Hamas, 408 from Fatah’s Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and 205 from Islamic Jihad that Israeli forces in response to the terrorism were forced to kill in battle.
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Nor can El-Kurd even get basic facts right:
“Palestinians in ’48 & ’67 were already facing excruciating circumstances at the hands of the Zionist regime before the Intifada broke out. However, Ariel Sharon’s raid of Al-Aqsa under the protection of 1,000+ Israeli soldiers sparked the beginning of this popular revolution.”
Palestinians in ’48 & ’67 were already facing excruciating circumstances at the hands of the Zionist regime before the Intifada broke out. However, Ariel Sharon’s raid of Al-Aqsa under the protection of 1,000+ Israeli soldiers sparked the beginning of this popular revolution. pic.twitter.com/ZFPYgBGUm2
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) September 28, 2021
Perhaps El-Kurd was too busy spewing Jew-hatred when former Palestinian Authority communications minister Imad Al-Faluji attested:
Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is wrong.… This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since president [Yasser] Arafat’s return from the [2000] Camp David [peace] negotiations, where he turned the table upside down on [then-US] president Clinton.”
And what better time to revisit another media libel about Israel than on September 28, the 21st anniversary of the Second Intifada:
“But no matter what the Zionists do, we will continue resisting. One does not simply give up their land and their dignity, or forget about Mohammad Durra and the thousands of Palestinians who were killed. Those images will forever haunt us, until liberation and victory.”
But no matter what the Zionists do, we will continue resisting. One does not simply give up their land and their dignity, or forget about Mohammad Durra and the thousands of Palestinians who were killed. Those images will forever haunt us, until liberation and victory.
— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) September 28, 2021
In what became known as the Mohammed Al-Dura affair, France 2 television aired heavily edited footage that seemingly implicated the IDF in the death of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in 2000. After two decades of in-depth investigations and court cases, it is probable that al-Dura was not killed by an Israeli soldier.
An Israeli government committee even concluded that Al-Dura might very well still be alive.
Is The Nation trafficking in antisemitism?
The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, has veered immeasurably far from the abolitionist principles upon which it was founded in 1865. Indeed, El-Kurd will likely find the publication to be a hospitable home.
Here are just a few examples of articles The Nation has published specifically tarring Israel, and, more broadly, Jews.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism has been adopted by governments worldwide, but it was lambasted by The Nation author Brian Klug. Perhaps this is because the definition includes, among others, as examples of antisemitism “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination;” “claiming that the existence of Israel is a racist endeavor;” or “applying double standards [to Israel] by requiring of it behavior not expected or demanded by any other democratic nation.”
Penned by Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel, the piece claims that: “Today, more than ever, Palestinians are telling the world that true solidarity with our struggle for freedom, justice, and equality spells BDS.” In reality, Barghouti himself described the purpose of his initiative as nothing less than annihilation: to “oppose a Jewish state in any part of [what was formerly British Mandatory] Palestine.”
“No Palestinian, a rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine,” Barghouti asserted.
In May 2021, Mitchell Plitnick cited rabidly anti-Israel B’Tselem’s “position paper” to reinforce the notion that “the area comprising Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip is an apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy.” By uncritically portraying this NGO as a leading proponent of human rights, The Nation effectively facilitated the hijacking of the word ‘apartheid’ by those whose goal is to foster doubt about the legitimacy of the Jewish state. Apartheid is a clearly defined crime against humanity under international law. By subjecting Israel to a double standard, B’Tselem and, in turn, The Nation blurred the fine line between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and antisemitism.
As noted above, Palestinian leaders openly bragged about planning massive, violent riots throughout the West Bank before then-Israeli minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount took place. According to former top US peace negotiator Dennis Ross, Washington pressured Arafat to “…dampen the violence.” However, Arafat “did not lift a finger to stop the demonstrations, which produced the second Intifada.”
Holding The Nation to account
El-Kurd has already helped The Nation turn reality even further on its head by writing A Night With Palestine’s Defenders of the Mountain, which whitewashed the fact that Palestinians from the West Bank village of Beita had on several occasions, as part of months of violence targeting Jews, burned a makeshift swastika etched into a Star of David.
Indeed, The Nation is failing its readership despite its stated purpose of speaking “…truth to power to build a more just society.” By contrast, the blatant antisemitism and incitement to violence espoused and encouraged by the magazine’s “Palestine Correspondent” are, according to the United Nations, a “…menace to the democratic values, social stability and peace” in the few places they exist in the world: Israel.
HonestReporting is urging its readers to contact The Nation to demand that it reconsider its decision to employ a supporter of US-designated terror groups. Rose D’Amora, The Nation’s managing editor, can be reached by emailing [email protected] or tweeting to @rosedamora.
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Featured Image: Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images
