The Lawfare Project has asked the U.S. State Department to revoke the visa of a British sports journalist covering the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, alleging that he has repeatedly expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
In a referral sent on Monday to the State Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, urged authorities to revoke any visa held by Ibrahim Khadra, a London-based journalist with beIN Sports, and initiate removal proceedings.
Filitti told JNS that Khadra called the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, “far more exciting than football” and “described the murder of Jews as heroic operations.” The referral alleges that Khadra has maintained a yearslong pattern of social media posts glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah.
In a separate letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Filitti wrote that Khadra had a “sustained, multi-year record of public statements glorifying the terrorist activities of Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Rubio said concerns about visitors from Iran ahead of international sporting events were not focused on athletes.
“The problem with Iran would not be their athletes,” he said. “What they can’t bring is a bunch of IRGC terrorists into our country and pretend that they’re journalists and athletic trainers.”
Filitti accused Khadra of using his media credentials to promote and glorify terrorist organizations.
“We’re talking about immigration law and a visa, which is what he presumably received in order to come to the United States,” Filitti said. “That’s a privilege that we extend. It’s not a right owed to anyone with a passport.”
“Endorsing terrorism is disqualifying for visa purposes,” he added. “We’re asking the government to apply the law that it already wrote.”
