Days after Israel commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day and the March of the Living took place in Auschwitz, a Palestinian journalist who has appeared on BBC Arabic multiple times since Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack has been found to have made violent antisemitic statements on social media, including calling for Jews to be burned "as Hitler did," according to The Telegraph.
Samer Elzaenen, 33, who reported live for BBC Arabic last month and provided dispatches from locations including the Nuseirat refugee camp following an Israeli hostage rescue operation, posted numerous antisemitic and violent messages on Facebook, The Telegraph reported. In a July 2022 post, he wrote: "When things go awry for us, shoot the Jews, it fixes everything," while a May 2011 post stated: "My message to the Zionist Jews: We are going to take our land back, we love death for Allah's sake the same way you love life. We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won't have a single one of you left."
Another BBC Arabic freelance contributor, Ahmed Qannan, also appears to have endorsed violence against Israelis, The Telegraph revealed. When responding to a Facebook comment hoping to "see some throats cut" after a Jerusalem synagogue attack that killed seven civilians on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2023, Qannan replied: "Don't give up on your ambition." Both journalists have made multiple appearances on BBC Arabic despite their social media history, which included Elzaenen describing Hamas terrorists who carried out the October 7 attack as "resistance fighters."
A journalist prominently featured by BBC Arabic has openly called for Jews to be burned "as Hitler did."
His name: Samer Elzaenen.
Here's the horrifying reality the BBC doesn't want to talk about…🧵 pic.twitter.com/hbN9by8Bnj
— Jonathan Sacerdoti (@jonsac) April 26, 2025
The BBC emphasized that Elzaenen and Qannan are not staff members but freelance contributors. A spokesperson told The Telegraph: "International journalists, including the BBC, are not allowed access into Gaza, so we hear from a range of eyewitness accounts from the strip. These are not BBC members of staff or part of the BBC's reporting team. We were not aware of the individuals' social media activity prior to hearing from them on air. We are absolutely clear that there is no place for antisemitism on our services."
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) criticized BBC Arabic for using contributors who "cannot be trusted to deliver objective and balanced broadcasting," The Telegraph noted. A CAMERA UK spokesperson said: "The BBC misleadingly frames freelance journalists used by the Arabic service as mere 'contributors' so it won't have to take responsibility for the hatred they regularly spew in social media."
This revelation comes after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called for "wholesale reform" of BBC Arabic following a CAMERA report accusing the service of "appalling antisemitism and anti-Israel bias." In a letter to BBC Director-General Tim Davie, Badenoch wrote: "BBC Arabic is intended to provide high-quality, trusted news for the hundreds of millions of people who speak Arabic. It should uphold the highest standards of public-service broadcasting. Instead, it seems that the World Service may be fomenting extremism and misleading audiences – while funded by the taxpayer and licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop."
The BBC previously investigated several BBC Arabic presenters and reporters who liked or shared social media posts appearing to celebrate the Oct. 7 attacks but took no further action against them, according to The Telegraph. Elzaenen and Qannan were approached for comment by the publication, but their responses were not included in the report.
