In October 2023, HonestReporting Canada shared news of the dismissal of Global News reporter Zahraa Al-Akhrass. While she claimed she was fired for “speaking up about Palestine on my social media accounts,” her clear and unapologetic anti-Israel animus was clear on her social media account.
In 2021, Al-Akhrass was one of over 1,000 Canadian journalists that signed a petition that advocated for media outlets to produce more anti-Israel news coverage Only days later, it was discovered that she had shared on social media what can reasonably be called a blood libel against Israel.
Al-Akhrass: A History Of Radical Anti-Israel Views
Al-Akhrass has a history, and even after she was terminated, she has solidified her reputation as an anti-Israel voice.
The disgraced reporter was the keynote speaker at the New Brunswick (NB) Media Co-op’s 15th Annual General Meeting on September 26, 2024.
Watch full remarks below:
At this address, Al-Akhrass explained that for her, this “is not some far away conflict and a complicated political dispute. This is personal to me, the people affected by this are my own family.”
As she described it during this address, she was “targeted” by HonestReporting Canada because she “identified myself as a Palestinian Canadian.” Of course, she made no mention of the rampant anti-Israel misinformation parroted on her social media.
When the war began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’ terrorist attack, Al-Akhrass took it as a sign to share “what it is like to live through the Nakba, the genocide of 1948, and to live through it again today 76 years later” on her social media, as she explained during her remarks.
Al-Akhrass explained in her remarks that Global News characterized her posts as “unfair and unbalanced,” just by the hashtags alone (#GazaGenocide, for one).
Her perspective on this incident and her eventual termination was elucidated in an article in Briarpatch Magazine, an outlet that has been exposed by HonestReporting Canada for producing content that praises Palestinian terrorism. In an article entitled: “Fighting for fair coverage of Palestine,” published in April 2024, she expressed dismay at what she called the “deep ignorance” and “pro-Israel bias” in Canadian newsrooms, particularly criticizing the media’s refusal to call Israel’s military actions “genocide” against Palestinians — this was during the first few weeks of the Israel-Hamas war.
But according to this article, Al-Akhrass noticed the so-called taboo of criticism of Israel in the newsroom a few years prior, particularly with incidents surrounding reporting of previous conflicts.
In the Briarpatch article, Al-Akhrass expressed her frustration with being told not to “editorialize” reporting, but complained about the very same thing — she criticized outlets for referring to the Gaza Health Ministry as being Hamas-run, for example. It seems as though the only editorializing that is acceptable to Al-Akhrass is one that suits her particular anti-Israel narrative.
Al-Akhrass Is An Anti-Israel Activist Masquerading As A Journalist
Perhaps what is actually taboo is editorializing to turn journalistic reporting into advocacy for a cause — and perhaps if one cannot report on something without consistent bias, then they should not be reporting on it, at all.
Al-Akhrass claimed that “Global News fired me while Israel was committing a genocide against Palestinians.” This was on October 17, 2023. There has not been any genocide against Palestinians, on or since that day. This was in response to posts that she herself linked in the Briarpatch article, like one that denies Hamas is a terrorist group and refers to them as resistance. The facts and evidence are laid out quite clearly.
Al-Akhrass’ advocacy against Israel has clearly not abated since her termination at Global News, and future employers should be aware of her inability to separate radical views from her work.
