Al Jazeera has suspended two journalists for producing a video questioning the Holocaust, saying it’s “different from how the Jews tell it.”
Yaser Bishr, executive director of Al Jazeera’s digital division, said the network “completely disowns the offensive content in question,” reported the outlet, which did not reveal the names of the journalists.
In an email to staff, Bishr said that employees would undergo a mandatory sensitivity and bias training program.
“Al Jazeera continues to adhere to the journalistic values of honesty, courage, fairness, balance, independence, credibility and diversity,” said the network in a statement. “In addition, the network recognises the diversity in societies with all races, cultures, beliefs and their values and intrinsic individualities.”
The seven-minute video, which was published on Friday on the network’s online channel, AJ+, stated that Israel was the “greatest beneficiary,” and that the Holocaust happened, but “it’s different from how the Jews tell it.”
The video reportedly gained 1.1 million Facebook and Twitter views.
2/2 Holocaust Denial on Al-Jazeera Network: Israel Is Biggest Winner from Holocaust; It Uses the Same Justification to Annihilate the Palestinians pic.twitter.com/BMb25DYFTY — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 19, 2019
“To a Western audience, Al Jazeera tries to appear more moderate, while in Arabic they show their true face and their actual motivations. In this case, they got caught and embarrassed, so they put on a show of being apologetic,” CAMERA associate director Alex Safian told JNS. “Does this mark a change in the tenor of their journalism, including in Arabic? Will they end or even restrain their anti-Israel propaganda and incitement to violence? Not likely on all counts, because doing so would betray their reason for being.”
“Al Jazeera and Qatar have proven once again that their hate for Israel and the Jewish people supersedes logic, and the network took action only after the video gained many views and received public condemnation,” Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told JNS. “The damage done to the Jewish people and Israel here through incitement of anti-Semitism is incalculable. All nations should evaluate Al Jazeera’s presence online and television.”
