The Associated Press reporter tasked with covering Israel’s war on terrorists in the Gaza Strip has a long history of public anti-Israel activism that the wire service’s hiring department likely saw on his resume but ignored.
Mere weeks after Issam Adwan joined the AP newsroom as the outlet’s Gaza correspondent, Adwan became one of the outlet’s most prolific reporters on the chaos in the Middle East region. His coverage repeatedly buries or omits the atrocities committed against Israel last weekend in favor of elevating the plea of Gaza.
In an Oct. 8 article that other national outlets, including CBS, picked up, Adwan noted that “human rights groups have previously said that Israel’s pattern of deadly attacks on residential homes display a disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians and argued they may amount to war crimes.”
In an Oct.11 article, Adwan complained that an “Unprecedented Israeli bombardment lays waste to upscale Rimal, the beating heart of Gaza City.”
His sanitized version of events did not mention that the precedent for the Israeli strike lay in Hamas’ recent decision to launch the deadliest assault on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust until nine paragraphs into the article.
During the attack, more than 1,300 Israelis and more than two dozen Americans were murdered. Babies and young children were reportedly beheaded, butchered, and burned in their beds. Some survivors were kidnapped back to Gaza, where Hamas is headquartered.
Adwan is no stranger to anti-Israel activism. Sprinkled among the articles lining his X page are revealing posts about his disdain for the Jewish nation.
In 2021, Adwan suggested it was “ignorant” to draw attention to Hamas’ crimes “when we talk about Israeli war crimes/apartheid/enthnic cleansing.”
“Oppressing me, then invite me to talk to their media about ‘tensions’ and ‘clashes,’” Adwan wrote in a 2022 Twitter post.
An accompanying screenshot of the text exchange shows Adwan repeatedly referring to “colonialism” and the “apartheid practicing policies in Jerusalem.”
In a series of now-deleted 2022 posts captured by HonestReporting, Adwan accused the Jewish state of “building another racist regime that is so similar to the Nazis.”
Adwan’s commentary was attached to a repost from a photographer who was fired from covering Israel’s war with Gaza terrorists for The New York Times because he celebrated terrorist attacks on Jews.
“This disturbing comparison is explicitly defined as antisemitic according to the internationally recognized IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of antisemitism,” HonestReporting noted.
In addition to retweeting posts supporting the boycott Israel movement, Adwan also insinuated Israel is a “colonial system” and warned that “the Palestinian revolt against the Israeli oppression will be a triumph sooner rather than later.”
LinkedIn shows that, before his time at the AP, Adwan worked for an anti-Israel NGO called the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution. The PCDCR has a long history of bashing Israel’s actions as “state terrorism.” Press releases on its website refer to Israelis as the perpetrators of a “Gaza holocaust.”
Adwan also worked for the international media outlet Al Jazeera, which is often criticized for being “beholden to the Qatari government” and advancing “Qatar’s ideological and geopolitical objectives.” In 2020, during Adwan’s short tenure at the network, the Department of Justice began demanding Al Jazeera register as a foreign agent.
Around that same time, Adwan was also featured in a special video message for American Muslims for Palestine. In the wake of the Hamas attacks, AMP was one of many organizations that blamed Israel for the brutalism, planned a “pro-Palestine” rally, accused Israel of being a “racist apartheid regime” guilty of committing “genocide,” and called Israelis “violent settlers” who are “conducting their racist pogroms.”
As project manager of We Are Not Numbers from 2018-2021, another organization that refers to Israel as “an unjust oppressor” and an “inhumane and merciless state,” Adwan called for sanctions on Israel.
“This is an ongoing ethnic cleansing, brutality, bloodshed of Palestinians,” Adwan said in a 2021 interview with TRTWorld. “That is the proper word to be used. This is not a conflict. This is not a confrontation. This is not a symmetrical power war. This is only one-sided massacres committed by Israel.”
Adwan was also caught on a Facebook live calling for the explicit end of Israel as we know it.
“The regime of Israel should fall, and the land should return to its owners,” he said.
Fox News Digital reported after the publication of this article that the AP removed Adwan “from reporting duties while it investigates his past further.”
This article has been updated since publication.
