Community Security Trust has asked for an Arabic-language UK TV channel to be investigated due to reported Hamas support and antisemitism.
The London-based channel, Al-Hiwar, is licensed by OFCOM (the British regulator) and has 1.85 million subscribers on YouTube. It professes to be a "voice for Arabs abroad, a bridge of communication between Arabs and other peoples and cultures, and a platform for promoting the values of tolerance, democracy, and respect for freedoms and human rights”. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is British Palestinian academic and activist Azzam al-Tamimi who has formally claimed “he would blow himself up in a strike against Israel, were he allowed back in the country”
After analysing 120 videos since February 2024, CST concluded that Al-Hiwar repeatedly broadcast support for Hamas, which is a proscribed terror group in the UK.
For example, the channel referred to Hamas's attacks as "a historic turning point, a qualitative development," adding "even the most pessimistic in the Occupying Entity could not have imagined that the Resistance would kill and capture dozens… Today’s scenes of the Resistance may increase the pride and honour of this nation because it can defend its borders, its lands, and its holy sites.”
"Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas's name for the massacres] is the strongest and greatest period of time that the nation is going through," one broadcast stated.
Al-Hiwar denies Hamas's crimes
Al-Hiwar also denied Hamas atrocities, including rape and sexual violence. For example, in a 13 October 2023 broadcast, Khaled al-Tarani, said “In my opinion the Israeli occupation is an expert in the media and propaganda, they wanted at the beginning of the war to put in place some stories that were refuted in a clear way about raping women and beheading children, in my opinion, this demonisation was a prelude to commit crimes, war crimes against the Palestinian people.”
It also referred to slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as "our martyr mujahid brother," after he was killed by the IDF.
Additionally, CST found repeated examples of antisemitic views and expressions of hostility towards Jews, especially by viewers via phone-in shows.
For example, Ahmed from Spain called in on 7 October 2024 to say, “For the first time in history, the Israeli narrative that was built on the Holocaust has changed. For the first time in history, the entire world, except for the tyrants, criminals, and normalisers, is now pointing its finger at the Zionists, saying that they are the evil in this universe, they are committing genocide and injustice… Yes, this blessed Flood has restored the nation’s glory. We hope for complete victory for the Palestinians.”
Then on 20 October 2024, Abdullah from Libya said, “The Jews are the cause of the problems; this is the enemy.” Neither of these were challenged by the channel. On 14 October 2024, Sami from Tunisia called in to say "don’t tell me there is a nice Jew, the Jews are malicious from the old history."
Al-Hiwar has also hosted individuals with ties to Hamas or other terrorist organizations, including Mohammad Sawalha, a former senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, Tayseer Suleiman, a founder of the al Qassam Brigades, and Sami al-Arian, who was deported from the United States in February 2014 after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
CST argued that some of the content broadcasted by Al-Hiwar may therefore breach the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, specifically Section 2, relating to Harm and offence; Section 3, covering Crime, disorder, hatred and abuse; and Section 5, which deals with Due impartiality and due accuracy.
Ofcom has twice before ruled that Al-Hiwar breached the Broadcasting Code in relation to its output: once in 2009 and again in 2018.
In 2009, Ofcom ruled that Al-Hiwar breached the Broadcasting Code by appearing to endorse comments made on one of its shows by Tunisian politician Rachid Ghannouchi when he stated: "I quite like the Qassam rockets. During the war [referring to the Israeli incursion into Gaza] they did not kill anyone on the other side, they scared them only. It is a civilised weapon as it serves the purpose, it creates balance in power… Allah says not to exaggerate killing.” Ofcom found that “Given the programme essentially permitted a guest in a discussion to praise the use of bombs, without challenge, Ofcom believed that there was insufficient justification for including the comments. As a consequence, the broadcaster failed to comply with generally accepted standards in breach of Rule 2.3 of the Code.”
Then, in October 2009, Al-Hiwar was found guilty of another breach involving comments made by two people phoning into the show “Free Speech” which was discussing issues around the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The first caller claimed on air that “we need to depend on the people, on armed resistance within Palestine and abroad”, while the second caller stated that: “We want the media and [inaudible] to show Muslims, that if they have weapons, they have to put them to use for the right cause, which is jihad."
"This report is not the first time that Al-Hiwar’s role in broadcasting such views has been highlighted," said CST. "The fact that it has been allowed to carry on doing so with relative impunity is a matter of grave concern."
CST encouraged the police to investigate whether any terrorism offences have been committed by the channel, its producers, presenters and guests, and also urged OFCOM to launch an investigation to assess whether Al-Hiwar remains a suitable licence holder for broadcast in the UK.