The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis slammed Politico for neglecting to mention in a March 19 article that a Georgetown University professor, whom the Trump administration is seeking to deport, has ties to the Hamas terror organization.
“In their rush to frame this as a story about political persecution, Politico completely ignored the facts,” stated David Litman, a senior analyst at CAMERA who probed the matter.
CAMERA research “left no doubt” that Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at the university’s Alwaleed Center for Christian and Muslim Understanding, and his wife Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, a Georgetown graduate student, have ties to Hamas, per Litman.
“She herself admitted her role in Hamas in her own articles,” Litman wrote. “This isn’t merely a question of political views. It’s about providing material support to a terrorist organization that has American blood on its hands. Saleh believes that ‘America is the plague.’ Those are her words.”
The Politico article, titled “Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, the lawsuit says,” depicted the couple as victims of political persecution.
In a Feb. 13 National Review article, Litman noted that Saleh’s father was a senior Hamas official and that she has worked directly for Hamas, celebrated the Oct. 7 terror attacks and mocked the hostages kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
Litman’s article on the CAMERA website includes a photo from the couple’s wedding, in which they hold a photograph of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat kissing the head of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.
“Politico omitted these details and actively misled their readers,” Litman stated. “They allowed Suri’s lawyer to claim he was being punished because of his wife’s ‘suspected views.’ But these aren’t ‘suspected’ views. Saleh and Suri’s support for Hamas and their ties to its leadership are well-documented and public.”
The Politico article further claimed that Suri and Saleh were being targeted for their “support for Palestinian rights,” a characterization CAMERA has denounced as false and misleading.
“Glorifying Hamas’s slaughter of civilians or celebrating the abduction of innocent people is not ‘supporting Palestinian rights,’” Litman stated. “It’s endorsing terrorism. Politico’s conflation of the two is disgraceful and dangerous.”
“When mainstream media platforms like Politico act as PR agents for extremists, they undermine the public’s trust and fuel misinformation,” Litman added.
