At first glance, the dissemination of anti-Israel disinformation in news media outlets, college and university campuses and non-governmental organizations (NGO) seem disconnected. But they are deeply intertwined, with many of the same personalities in news media involved in academia, NGOs, and elsewhere, propagating hardline narratives.

Adrian Harewood is one such individual. An associate professor at Carleton University, he is a former CBC News anchor, he is also an outspoken anti-Israel activist, having signed a 2021 open letter which called for more anti-Israel content in the news media and having accused Israel of “daily massacres” and “terrorism” on social media.

He also serves on the editorial board for the University of Ottawa Press.

He recently launched a podcast entitled: ‘In Bed with the Elephant,’ which featured an extended interview with Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Click below to listen to the full interview:

Despite her august title, Albanese is not a credible voice on the Middle East, but a radical activist. She has spread conspiracy theories about Jewish control of government and the media, has participated in an official Hamas conference (where she encouraged Palestinian terrorists to “resist the occupation”), and has spread the lie of famine in Gaza repeatedly.

Albanese is a highly controversial figure who has been condemned by multiple governments, including France, Germany and the United States, for her antisemitism, but despite Harewood’s past as a journalist, the tone of the 30-minute interview was obsequious to the extent of near-fawning, describing her as a “a devoted volunteer who enthusiastically gives of her free labour.”

Though Harewood did note criticisms of Albanese during the segment, they are mentioned only briefly and without detail, making them not challenges but almost straw man arguments for they come nowhere close to articulating the opposition to Albanese.

Albanese repeatedly accused Israel of “genocide” during the interview, to which Harewood asked her to explain her reasoning, but which he failed to meaningfully challenge. Albanese stated that genocide means the “determination to destroy,” and cited supposed Israeli “dehumanization” of Palestinians as evidence, saying “the Palestinians have been dehumanized. They have been called dogs, animals, subhumans, rats, monsters, Amalek.”

This line of argumentation is so egregious that it called out for a meaningful pushback, but there was none forthcoming. The truth is dramatically different from the narrative peddled by Albanese on Harewood’s podcast.

The evidence marshalled by Albanese to suggest Israel’s supposed intentions – destruction in Gaza – makes absolutely no mention of Hamas’ extensive network of subterranean tunnels, the destruction of which has created damage in the coastal enclave. And despite both Albanese and Harewood mentioning Israeli airstrikes on Gazan civilian buildings, the fact that Hamas has used these spaces for its terrorism – effectively changing its status into a military target – was largely overlooked.

As for the supposed “dehumanization” cited by Albanese, here she deliberately misrepresented the facts while Harewood made no effort to set the record straight. Israeli leaders have at times made bellicose statements, but not only does this not demonstrate these words ever became policy in Gaza, moreover, these words clearly referred to Hamas terrorists, not Palestinians in general.

Much of Albanese’s narrative has been the near-total erasure of Hamas, claiming to Harewood that “there are no two armies in conflict here,” a statement that appears to be woefully ignorant that Hamas boasts tens of thousands of fighters, to say nothing of other groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Nuance was absent during their interview, as Albanese repeatedly misrepresented criticisms of her positions, claiming that supporters of Israel say “criticizing Israel is antisemitic,” and condemning the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition for holding this view, when even a cursory reading of that definition shows that it says exactly the opposite.

At one point in the discussion, Albanese challenged “my detractors to confront me on the facts,” as if they have not done so, when in fact, they have extensively, but given the overwhelmingly friendly tone with Harewood and in other echo chambers, it very well may be that Albanese has no real idea of how detached from her reality her pronouncements are.