As wonderful as it would be if proclamations ending the war were true, the terrorists who emerged from a tunnel and killed Maj. Yaniv Kula and St.-Sgt. Itay Yavetz by firing rocket-propelled grenades at their excavation vehicle proved otherwise.
And as wonderful as it would be if it were true that Al Jazeera was moderating itself and becoming more objective as part of a deal to end the war, the Qatari propaganda channel’s recent reports have proven otherwise as well.
After two years of active involvement in the war’s military and media battlefields, Al Jazeera was reported to be making serious changes.
Veteran Channel 12 Arab affairs analyst Ehud Yaari reported live on October 2 that the Qataris were firing one Al Jazeera editor after another. He said the personnel changes were part of an understanding with the US to decrease Al Jazeera’s incitement.
The most prominent change was the appointment of new Al Jazeera director-general Sheikh Nasser bin Faisal Al Thani, who is, of course, part of Qatar’s royal family, replacing Algerian journalist Mustafa Souag. Another member of the royal family, Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, was appointed deputy director of Al Jazeera English. Former BBC journalist Ibrahim Helal will replace Salah Negm as Al Jazeera English’s news director.
US government-funded Alhurra reported that the changes were intended to neutralize the Muslim Brotherhood’s more hardline influence on Al Jazeera’s editorial line. They were made to improve ties with the Trump administration, which has successfully brought about changes in American media outlets, social media platforms, and even late-night TV talk shows.
In further positive signs, Al Jazeera covered Tel Aviv protests calling for the release of hostages, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met members of hostage families and even hugged Israeli negotiator Nitzan Alon when an agreement with Israel was reached.
Why Al Jazeera still cannot be trusted
BUT THE coverage of last week’s hostage releases on Al Jazeera – in English and Arabic – indicated that it is still the same old Al Jazeera, which cannot be trusted as a credible and reliable source of information. This is especially worrisome as more and more people receive information from ChatGPT, which uses Al Jazeera as a primary source, and from Wikipedia, whose editors used Al Jazeera as their third most cited source, according to a recent Anti-Defamation League report.
Al Jazeera’s hostage release coverage consistently presented moral equivalence between the convicted murderers Israel released from prison and the Israeli hostages who were dragged by Hamas infiltrators from their homes or from a dance festival to underground terror dungeons in Gaza.
The headline on screen at 8 a.m., as the first hostages were about to be released, read: “Final preparations underway in Israel, Palestine for exchange of captives.”
Five minutes later, the headline on screen shifted to “Hamas to release Israeli captives in exchange for 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.” The headline implied that Israel incarcerated 2,000 people for the crime of being Palestinian.
By 8:15, Al Jazeera was already parroting Hamas claims that Israeli airstrikes killed the hostages who were not being returned alive. And by the end of the day, the network was interviewing Gazan doctors who accused Israel of torturing Palestinian prisoners and lamenting that Raed Sheikh, who lynched IDF reservists Vadim Norzich and Yossi Avrahami in Ramallah 25 years ago, would be separated from his family because he was deported to Egypt.
Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security researcher Ariel Admoni, who focuses on Qatari media, found numerous other problematic reports on Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English networks since its purported changes which indicated that its incitement continues against the West and especially Israel.
He posted on X/Twitter that due to its ties with Hamas, the network was given exclusive coverage of hostage bodies being delivered to the Red Cross. The network broadcast the names of “collaborators with Israel” in Gaza to delegitimize them as they were being executed by Hamas. Even after Hamas propagandist Saleh al-Jafarawi, better known as Mr. FAFO, was killed in clashes between clans, Al Jazeera used his pictures of Gazans to paint Israel as cruel.
The pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting got al-Jafarawi kicked off Instagram twice after he pocketed a huge amount of money he raised on the platform for Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital.
A spokesman for Hamas’s “Gaza civil defense” told Al Jazeera that the bodies of Israel’s hostages could not be returned because heavy operational equipment was needed in Gaza to find dead bodies amid ruins. He was not questioned about Hamas’s engineering prowess in building 350 miles of terror tunnels.
Another Hamas spokesman told the network on October 9, as ceasefire talks were ongoing, that “weapons for resistance are legitimate.” Two days earlier, Admoni watched Hamas terrorists referred to as “fighters against the occupation.”
Admoni also mocked an October 6 report on Israel spending millions on Google and YouTube that did not question how much Qatar spent on such platforms.
A FORMER Al Jazeera staffer called the changes “cosmetic” and “too late.”
“Qatar always does this after their relations with their neighbors worsen due to the incitement on Al Jazeera,” she said. “I don’t trust them, and from what I see on their Instagram, I don’t think there is a substantial change.”
She pointed out that on Monday night, the network aired a show anchored by a host with close ties to Hamas, who revealed the names of soldiers involved in the death of Hind Rajab, a Gazan girl killed during the war.
News anchor Mhamed Krichen, who has half a million followers, suggested on X that Jews cannot be trusted because they violate agreements, using terminology from the Quran.
And Al Jazeera English’s main political analyst, Marwan Bishara, posted on X that “the focus on the few Israeli captives and deliberately ignoring the millions [of Palestinians] suffering is beyond hypocritical. It’s inhumane.” He later also called it “sickening.”
Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior adviser Toby Dershowitz wrote an article questioning whether “the shake-up at Al Jazeera is mere motion or does it entail real movement away from the media network’s role as a vehicle for pro-Hamas propaganda?” Her answer was “Time will tell.”
“If Al Jazeera is to be a force for good, it needs to rethink its promotion of Hamas’s brand of terrorism not only in its English and Arabic channels but also in its broadcasts and digital products in French, Spanish, Chinese, and other languages,” she wrote. “It also needs to telegraph to its 3,000 employees in 60 countries throughout its news and non-news platforms that this moment in history calls for new policies.”
Dershowitz said her sources close to Al Jazeera say there is still no clear direction or vivid editorial change underway and that many of those driving day-to-day coverage remain emotionally or ideologically tied to the Hamas narrative.
Israel Hayom diplomatic analyst Danny Zaken, who monitors the network in English and Arabic, said, “I didn’t notice any change in their reports.”
A new report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed this week how Hamas has given Al Jazeera detailed instruction on media coverage, even setting up a secure phone line for real-time coordination. Based on documents found in Gaza, the report explained how Al Jazeera was central to Hamas’s efforts at psychological warfare.
It does not make what Al Jazeera has done any better, but even CNN’s most well-known journalist has also given a hand to Hamas propaganda.
HonestReporting revealed exclusively that CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, minimized the suffering of Israeli hostages on Monday, saying that they were “probably being treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns and chips that Hamas had.”
Amanpour has now had to apologize three times in five years directly due to misstatements revealed exclusively by HonestReporting.
So just like with the end of the war, we will have to be patient when it comes to waiting for coverage of Israel to improve.
The writer is the executive director of the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting. He served as chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post for 24 years.