"This is a genocide," declared Lucy Aharish, the pioneering Arab Israeli news anchor, in an emotional address that has reverberated globally.
Speaking on One World CNN in the wake of Saturday's terror attack by Hamas, Aharish, the first Muslim Arab news presenter on mainstream Israeli television, shed light on the deep-seated pain and resilience within the country and the urgent need for accurate representation.
Fantastic interview with Arab Israeli Muslim journalist Lucy Aharish on CNN about how all of Israel's Arab and Jewish communities are united against Hamas terror. pic.twitter.com/JxDfwhBlt3
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) October 14, 2023
Aharish began her heartfelt dialogue by saying, "I'm sorry that I'm using my microphone to send a message to the world. As a journalist, this is my only weapon."
The impassioned journalist emphasized that the assailants were not representative of a government or leadership but a "brutal, barbaric, inhumane terror organization."
'It is unbelievable'
Drawing from a reservoir of personal trauma, Aharish recounted her brush with terror.
"In the last few days, since everything happened on Saturday morning, everything that I went through, because when I was five years old, on a Saturday morning, we went to the Gaza Strip," she recalled. The chilling experience of Molotov cocktails being thrown at their car remains indelibly etched in her memory.
Describing the magnitude of recent events, Aharish exclaimed, "Never in my life did I think I would live to experience and listen to these kinds of testimonies; it's unbelievable."
She further asserted that what's happening in Israel is an "awful truth. A brutal truth. Catastrophic truth."
With enthusiasm, Aharish called on her journalistic colleagues and the heads of social media platforms to counteract misinformation and propaganda. She emphasized, "This is another crime. So I'm asking you, as my colleagues, to stop the lies."
Towards the end, in a passionate declaration about her faith and the misrepresentation of it, Aharish asserted, "As a Muslim, this is not Islam. What Hamas is doing in the name of religion is not being a Muslim. This is being a monster."