‘Why Don’t They Go to Hell?’: Al Jazeera Turns Away as Gaza Hospital Patient Slams Hamas

A reporter from the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera holds a microphone during an inte
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
John Hayward

A video clip that went viral on Tuesday showed an Al Jazeera reporter abruptly terminating an interview with a wounded Gaza resident at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital on November 5 when the injured man began criticizing Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post dated the video clip to a Tuesday broadcast on the Qatari network.

The interview began promisingly for Al Jazeera, as the elderly hospital patient was not a fan of Israel’s bombing campaign against the Hamas terrorists.

“It was not one house that was bombed. An entire compound was erased – over 15 or 20 houses. Is this a human act? No, this is a criminal act,” the man said, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“As for the ‘resistance,’ they come and hide among the people,” he continued, to the surprise of the Al Jazeera reporter. “Why are they hiding among the people? They can go to Hell, and hide there,” he said.

The Al Jazeera reporter appeared to panic and tried to close out the segment with a bit of droning narration, ignoring the irate Gaza resident’s attempts to get his attention. The erstwhile interviewee became frustrated enough to kick the reporter in the leg.

As the reporter rambled on about “Israeli bombing,” the man who criticized Hamas could be seen in the background, comically shrugging with a “what the hell?” expression on his face as the “journalist” put words in his mouth.

Al Jazeera – which, like the billionaire leaders of Hamas, is based in Qatar – apparently did not want to broadcast Gaza residents complaining about the terrorist organization using them as human shields.

The Jerusalem Post noted that Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has been trying to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel – initially, because the Qatari government-funded network was damaging Israel’s “national morale,” but later he accused Al Jazeera of “risking national security,” which would be a firmer basis under Israeli law for banning it.

“U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a group of Jewish-American leaders that during his meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdel-Rahman Al-Thani In Doha he asked him to moderate the broadcasts of the Al Jazeera network regarding the war in Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post recalled.

Blinken asked Al-Thani to “turn down the volume on Al Jazeera’s coverage because it is full of anti-Israel incitement” during a meeting on October 13. Judging by the clip above, Al Jazeera has not “moderated” its pro-Hamas bias very much.

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