The Association and Club of Foreign Press Correspondents USA honored several individuals later identified as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror operatives at its Dec. 4 gala in Washington, according to media watchdog HonestReporting.
The ceremony included a moment of silence for 10 Al Jazeera reporters killed in Gaza, with their photos displayed at a memorial table. The organization also awarded Al Jazeera a “press freedom grant.”
An elite American press organization is honoring Hamas terrorists. That’s according to an astonishing scoop by @HonestReporting’s @Gil_Hoffman on a December 4 gala held by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the U.S., the self-described “leading independent… pic.twitter.com/itH7gxX4W9
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) December 8, 2025
Israeli intelligence documents identified several of those honored as active terrorists, including Anas al-Sharif, described as head of a Hamas cell responsible for rocket attacks, and Ismail al-Ghoul, identified as a member of Hamas’s Nukhba forces.
“The Association and Club of Foreign Press Correspondents USA did a disservice to journalism by honoring terrorists who attacked Israeli civilians at their dinner,” Gil Hoffman, HonestReporting‘s executive director, told JNS on Tuesday. “They transformed what should have been a celebration of journalistic integrity into a moral failure.”
The event also honored veteran NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell and featured Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, who praised Palestinian journalists in Gaza during his acceptance speech.