BBC Arabic presenter says guest should apologise over sympathy for Israel

A BBC Arabic show whose producer was investigated over “biased” social media posts suggested a guest should apologise for showing sympathy towards Israel.

Egypt MeanTime’s presenter appeared to criticise one of its interviewees for saying he understood Israel’s “outrage” over the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

She also appeared to mock Egyptian parliamentarian Muhammad Anwar Esmat Sadat, the nephew of assassinated president Anwar Sadat, for acceding to Western demands that the Oct 7 attacks should be condemned.

Egypt MeanTime’s executive producer Mahmoud Sheleib was subject to complaints about bias over his social media posts following Oct 7.

Shortly after the attacks, he took part in a Twitter conversation in which he appeared to joke about a woman whose grandmother was abducted by Hamas receiving an “inheritance”.

He also suggested in a tweet that all young Israelis were combatants and should not be regarded as civilians in a conflict.

Mr Sheleib is one of a number of BBC Arabic journalists subject to an investigation for bias in the wake of the attacks who are once more reporting on the Israel-Gaza conflict, with no further disciplinary action taken against them.

His programme, which frequently interviews guests who take an anti-Israel stance, hosted Mr Sadat on Jan 29, when he was asked by presenter Nesma Elsaied to justify comments he made to an Israeli newspaper.

Mr Sadat had told Ynetnews: “I certainly understand the Israeli outrage of each and every one of you over the terrible murder committed by Hamas in the southern towns and the kidnapping of the Israelis to Gaza on Oct 7”, but that while he “recognises the fact that Israel has the right to defend itself,” against Hamas, the Israelis “took it to the extremes, without considering Egypt”.

During the discussion, Ms Elsaied asked Mr Sadat: “You said, ‘I understand their outrage’... And [it is] this expression, which Western media have been attempting lately to fish out of any Arab politician, but everybody refused while you took [the bait].”

Apology demand

She also asked him: “Some demanded of you an apology to Egyptian society, for normalising [relations with Israel]. Is it possible that you do that?”

Egypt MeanTime has been criticised for hosting guests who repeatedly take an anti-Israel or an anti-Semitic stance and critics have contrasted the sympathetic treatment they receive with that given to Mr Sadat.

A spokesperson for Camera Arabic, a US-based NGO that campaigns for “accurate and balanced” coverage of Israel, said: “There is an Arabic media echo chamber of fake experts and mock intellectuals feeding off each other’s bigotry towards Israel and Jews. Regrettably, it seems that BBC Arabic employees are more focused on gatekeeping and maintaining this echo chamber than they are on challenging it so that an open and informed dialogue could emerge instead.”

Camera added: “This phenomenon is particularly evident in the case of Egypt MeanTime, the programme produced by Mahmoud Sheleib, which continues to invite anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists to talk about Israel and in one instance even sought a participant’s apology for expressing empathy over 7/10 in an interview with the Israeli press.

“Rather than taking an impartial approach towards the issue of Egyptians engaging with Israelis, Elsaied – and presumably, the entire programme’s staff – was mostly bothered by her interviewee’s refusal to apologise for not falling in line.”

The BBC defended its Arabic channel, stating: “We will of course consider any complaint from Camera, once we have received it, and reply to them directly when we have looked into the matter raised although, as audiences expect, our journalists routinely challenge the views of contributors.”