Husam Zomlot, the self-styled “Palestinian Ambassador” to the United Kingdom, never misses an opportunity to get in front of a television camera.
Any issue related to Israeli-Palestinian affairs will invariably see Zomlot interviewed by every broadcaster armed with softball questions from London to Timbuktu.
So when Israel launched Operation Arrow and Shield, which resulted in the successful elimination of more than a dozen terrorists and the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in Jenin, Zomlot was never far from our screens as he initiated something of a media blitz designed to saturate the airwaves with anti-Israel misinformation.
While Zomlot was given far too much free airtime this month to disseminate all manner of lies, including by mainstream organizations like the BBC and CNN, these were not even close to his worst interviews, which we have narrowed down into a top 5:
Challenged on Sky News – July 2023
Credit to Sky News anchor Kay Burley, who pushed back against most of Zomlot’s more outrageous and incendiary statements made during an interview about the recent surge in violence in the West Bank.
For example, when Zomlot attempted to justify the spate of violent attacks by suggesting younger Palestinians were disillusioned having grown up with stories of the so-called “Nakba,” Burley cut in with the only follow-up question required: “Is that why some of them grow up to be terrorists?”
Perhaps not familiar with such directness from interviewers, Zomlot seemed very much on the back foot, claiming the word “terrorist” should not be used to describe young Palestinians who commit attacks because they are “victims.”
Zomlot’s effort to whitewash terrorism was dealt a further blow when Burley asked him how he would characterize the actions of a group like the Jenin Brigades and when she pointed out that his claim that Palestinians only want “peace” is undermined by the fact they perpetrate terror attacks on Israelis.
Burley also managed to expose Zomlot as the terror apologist he is by simply asking him to condemn attacks on innocent Israelis and condemn violence on both sides — neither of which he was able to do.
Blustering on BBC News – August 2022
Last summer, Israel captured the head of Islamic Jihad’s operations in the West Bank, Bassem Saadi, which resulted in the proscribed terror group threatening to retaliate against Israel.
Acting on an imminent threat of an anti-tank missile attack, the IDF launched Operation Breaking Dawn, which was designed to take out terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and also targeted the head of Islamic Jihad’s Northern Gaza Division, Tayseer Jabari.
Over the course of 48 hours, Islamic Jihad fired more than 1,100 rockets at Israeli population centers. Of the 990 rockets that cleared the border (1 in 5 rockets landed in Gaza), 380 were intercepted by the Iron Dome and the other 610 landed in the sea and open spaces.
In an interview with BBC News last August, Zomlot was given free rein to totally reimagine the conflict catalysts, including his absurd claim that the conflagration began as a result of Israel arresting “political leaders” in the West Bank, which was an interesting way to describe a convicted terrorist.
The most outrageous moments of the six-minute segment included his dismissal of the threat posed by Islamic Jihad; ignoring how the terrorist group was actually responsible for the majority of civilian deaths; claiming Israeli settlers had stormed Al-Aqsa mosque; stating Israeli politicians use “Palestinian blood” to compete in internal Israeli politics, and suggesting the defense capabilities of the Iron Dome somehow nullifies the Islamic Jihad threat.
Falsehoods on CNN – April 2022
Zomlot was invited onto CNN last year to discuss an incident in which a Palestinian woman was shot dead after she ran at Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint in the West Bank.
Video footage of the incident was clear: IDF soldiers repeatedly called for her to stop before firing warning shots into the air and, when she carried on charging, she was shot in her lower body.
Despite the incident occurring during a period of heightened security tensions following a spate of deadly terror attacks throughout Israel, including those in Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva, Hadera and Bnei Brak, this critical context was totally glossed over.
CNN’s Becky Anderson also failed to challenge Zomlot’s more malicious claims, such as his assertion that Israel carries out daily “executions” of Palestinians and his ludicrous contention that Palestinians have “adopted non-violence.”
Anderson practically laid the groundwork for Zomlot’s lies with her own ridiculous takes, like her belief that there was no “guiding hand” behind the terror attacks, which is plainly untrue when one considers the financial incentives awarded to terrorists via the Palestinian Authority’s Pay-for-Slay policy.
Muddled on MSNBC – May 2021
MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough gave perhaps one of the softest-touch interviews imaginable when interviewing Zomlot in May 2021.
It was clear Zomlot would be treated with kid gloves from the first question when Scarborough asked whether he would “support a ceasefire,” as though anyone in their right mind would ever publicly say no when asked that.
Despite asking Zomlot about Hamas war crimes, Scarborough neglected to actually press him for an answer, instead allowing him to ramble on about unrelated issues.
Zomlot was given whole minutes to spread every kind of lie imaginable, from the wicked claim that Israel is perpetrating the “industrial scale mass murder of civilians” to the demonstrably-false assertion that the Hamas-Israel conflict began because Israelis are carrying out “ethnic cleansing.”
Easy Ride on Channel 4 News – May 2021
Prominent British news anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy did an admirable job getting Zomlot on the spot during a 10-minute segment during the Israel-Hamas war in 2021 — specifically by asking him whether he “supports the firing of rockets” at Israel and pointing out that Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Even as Zomlot tried to weasel out of answering the question with his usual tactic of blaming Israel, Guru-Murthy cut across him to insist that he speak only about Palestinian actions.
Unfortunately, Zomlot went unchallenged during several other critical moments, including when he said the two-state solution is impossible because of Israel and that Palestinians accepted it.
However, Guru-Murthy should be commended for going into more detail than the majority of journalists do, such as by noting that Yasser Arafat turned down a proposal that would have seen the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
