NBC Journalist Arrested by Israeli Police for Cheering on Hamas during Horrific Terror Attack

[Valin]

National Review

Brittany Bernstein

November 20, 2023

NBC Reporter’s Arrest Shows How Pervasive Pro-Hamas Support Can Be in Western Media

An East Jerusalem–based NBC journalist was arrested last week on suspicion of inciting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization in connection with several social-media posts she published on October 7, during the Hamas terror attacks.

Marwat Al-Azza, a freelance producer who started working with the network shortly before the war began, wrote in response to the kidnapping of an elderly woman, “It’s killing me, it’s a black comedy, the old woman looks happy, a bit of action before she dies,” Haaretz reported.

“Sirens all the time, the Jews are hiding and the Arabs are out drinking coffee on their balconies,” she wrote in another post.

(Snip)

Police told the Jerusalem Magistrate Court that the posts were “inciting and glorying the horrible acts committed against civilians,” the Jerusalem Post reported. Authorities said she cooperated fully with police and admitted to writing the posts. She “arrived ready for arrest,” according to the report.

“The woman in question is an ordinary woman, who works as a journalist and whose work is important to us all,” al-Azza’s attorney said, according to the report.

(Snip)

Her last story for the outlet, which said newborns at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City were dying amid a lack of resources, was published on November 12.

NBC said in a statement to National Review that Al-Azza “will not be contributing to our coverage going forward.”

“The investigation of Ms. Azza is unrelated to NBC News. It is based on her personal Facebook posts that predate her time with us as a freelancer. We were not aware of those posts before we engaged Ms. Azza four weeks ago,” the statement added.

(Snip)