Thank you to CAMERA Arabic for helping flag social media posts and for help with translations.
Since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist organization orchestrated an invasion of Israel’s borders to carry out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Hamas supporters have been pushing a narrative aimed at turning the Western world against Israel. With pressure on Israel to cease its battle against the terrorist group, Hamas would be free to achieve its declared goal of annihilating the Jewish state.
NPR’s contribution is to platform pro-Hamas and anti-Israel partisans, presented as objective authorities and witnesses, to echo and lend credence to Hamas’ false, self-preserving narrative, as shown in Part I of this series of two articles.
As if platforming partisan guests introduced as neutral authorities was not bad enough, NPR has been increasingly relying on photojournalists and fixers from Gaza – who are given authority as NPR producers – to deliver stories about the war. They are presumably instrumental in selecting stories and interviewees to highlight in Gaza.
Unlike the claims and accounts attributed to Israeli authorities and military officials that are treated skeptically (see Part I), NPR’s Gazan producers are granted an NPR imprimatur.
One such Gazan contributor is Omar el Qattaa, first cited as a “local photojournalist” in Gaza, then credited as an “NPR photographer,” “NPR producer,” and contributing reporter. Aside from the broadcasts to which he contributed, his name also bylines several articles on NPR’s website.
How Objective is El Qattaa?
Long before he became a contributor to NPR, el Qatta publicly revealed his antisemitism, as well as his support and admiration for Hamas and affiliated terrorist groups on social media.
In his social media posts, he curses Jews and encourages violence against them. For example:
Translation: “Awaken a war, light a fire and let it be a curse upon the Jews and their supporters.”
He has damned Jews and referred to them as “pigs.”
He repeatedly cheers on Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre of the masked spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades responsible for Hamas’ organized terror attacks. He hails him as “Oh Abu Obeida,” “Oh masked one who wears a kaffiyeh,,” “Oh Terror of the Jews.”
Below is one of many examples of el Qattaa deferentially retweeting Abu Obeida’s anti-Israel/anti-Jewish threats:
Translation: “Oh masked man who wears the kaffiyeh, oh terror of the Jews, may Abu Obaida have strong resolve/determination. Your statement is like an explosive. These are the right words, a clear threat.”
That el Qattaa is a longtime supporter of terrorism and of Hamas is similarly evidenced by dozens of posts justifying and legitimizing the murder of Jews, using Hamas terminology.
In el Qattaa’s posts:
Murderous attacks on Jews in Israel are “operations.”
Perpetrators of the deadly attacks are “heroes” and “martyrs” and “resistance fighters.’
Victims of such terrorist attacks are “Zionists” or “settlers.”
For example, this is what el Qattaa posted about the gruesome 2014 massacre of Jewish worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue:
Translation: “Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal were martyred after carrying out an operation in a Jewish synagogue built on the lands of the village of Deir Yassin in the city of Jerusalem. The operation resulted in the martyrdom of the heroes Ghassan and Uday, the death of five Zionists, and the injury of a number of others.”
And here is what he posted about a deadly terror attack in 2015 on a Jewish family strolling in the Old City of Jerusalem and on a nearby Jewish resident who was murdered trying to save the family that was stabbed.
Translation: “#Urgent Initial news reports about the killing of two settlers in a stabbing that occurred in the city of #Jerusalem a short while ago, as well as news about the martyrdom of the perpetrator.”
This is how el Qattaa celebrated a Palestinian terrorist attack on an Israeli family travelling to their daughter’s wedding festivities that left the father and a teenage son dead and the mother and another son wounded.
Translation: “El-Qataa (Your Excellency) blesses the heroic #Hebron operation, and demands more. #Hebron_Sniper #Jerusalem_Intifada”
So it is no surprise that el Qattaa employed Hamas terminology to describe the October 7th invasion, massacre and kidnappings in Israel in multiple postings on social media, using the hashtag #Al Aqsa Flood, the Hamas moniker for the attack. For example:
Translation: “Preliminary reports about the infiltration of resistance fighters into the settlements surrounding #Gaza.
Translation: “Occupation army – the resistance took full control of “Be’eri”, killing those in it and capturing a few. #Al Aqsa Flood”
Translation: “Destruction in Tel Aviv is due to the missiles of the resistance #Al Aqsa Flood.”
Translation: “Palestinian resistance forces take control of a settler’s car, kill and capture the occupants at the Mekaim junction. #Al Aqsa Flood
Translation: “Video of an exchange of fire with Palestinian resistance fighters near occupied Ashkelon. #Al Aqsa Flood.”
El Qattaa celebrated Hamas’ success killing so many in Israel, comparing it favorably to the Al Aqsa Intifada, which achieved fewer Jewish deaths in a longer period of time:
Translation: “At the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada, there were martyrdom operations, the largest of which killed 30 settlers. Imagine, may God protect you, that in a single day 600 settlers were killed, and the number could increase. #Al-Aqsa Flood”
Within a day of his triumphant tweets about Hamas’ successes, while Israel was still in the process of driving back the Hamas terrorists and weeks before it invaded Gaza, el Qattaa was already publicly calling on the world to stop Israel’s battle against Hamas by accusing Israel of waging a genocidal war against the Palestinians.
Translation: “Where is the world, where is the United Nations, where is the European Union??
We are exposed to a genocidal war in #Gaza.
Serving as a propagandist for Hamas and its affiliated terror groups, el Qattaa disseminated falsehoods in multiple posts about the October 17th explosion near the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. Although the blast was caused by an Islamic Jihad missile, el Qatta announced that Israeli “occupation warplanes” had “targeted” the hospital in Gaza and caused a “massacre” of Palestinian “martyrs.” (See here and here.)
Yet NPR granted authority to this Hamas supporter as a new contributing journalist and producer, without seeming to check out his credentials or partisanship.
If it seemed too overwhelming to find out more by checking out el Qattaa’s Arabic-language social media posts, NPR editors could have easily discerned his extreme, anti-Israel proclivities by reading an English-language column he wrote for Newsweek long before he became a regular contributor on NPR. In that article, published soon after the Hamas massacre and weeks before Israel entered Gaza, the soon-to-be NPR journalist publicly called on “the world” to “take action” and stop Israel from any military campaign against Hamas, which he labelled a “genocide.”
Then again, perhaps NPR editors sought out el Qattaa precisely because of his pro-Hamas, anti-Israel leanings to produce the type of news stories they wanted.
For first article of set, see “NPR’s Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel Narrative Part I: Citations and Interviewees“.