Washington Post faces backlash after watering down pro-Hamas remarks as ‘criticism of Israel’

The Washington Post watered down comments from pro-Hamas supporters who’ve received intense backlash as mere “criticism of Israel” in a new report.

“The Israel-Gaza war is still in its first week, but some people in the United States and around the world have lost their jobs, or have faced discipline or backlash, for their criticism of Israel,” The Post reported Thursday.

Most of the people listed in The Post’s article went beyond offering “criticism of Israel” by either defending the terrorist group’s actions or placing blame on the Jewish State for the over 1,300 Israelis who were murdered, including 27 Americans. 

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Demonstrators attend an “emergency rally for Gaza” outside of the Israeli Consulate in New York City, New York on Monday, October 9, 2023. (Jennifer Mitchell for Fox News Digital)

The article included Ryna Workman, the NYU Law School Student Bar Association president who had a job offer rescinded after writing in its newsletter, “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life” and how “this regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary,” adding “I will not condemn Palestinian resistance.” 

Also mentioned was the doxxing of Harvard students associated with the organizations who signed an open letter insisting Israel was “entirely responsible” for the attacks, which they described as “colonial retaliation,” as well as Mostafa Ezzo, a pilot who was fired from Air Canada after sharing photos of himself at a pro-Palestinian rally holding a sign referring to Hitler and posting how Israel should “burn in hell.”

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Demonstrators march in support of the Palestinian people on October 8, 2023, in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)

But when reporting on Playboy’s firing of former porn star Mia Khalifa, The Post cited relatively mild social media comments from her, reading, “If you can look at the situation in Palestine and not be on the side of Palestinians, then you are on the wrong side of apartheid and history will show that in time.”

What wasn’t mentioned by The Post, however, was the comment that actually landed Khalifa in hot water. In the now-deleted X post from Saturday morning, she referred to Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters” and urged the ones who filmed their atrocities against Jews and shared on social media to “flip their phones and film horizontal.” 

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Mia Khalifa wrote “Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal” in a now-deleted post. (Screengrab/X)

Critics panned The Post’s framing of the pro-Hamas solidarity on social media. 

“Your lede disproves your piece. This person was not ‘criticizing Israel’, she was justifying a terrorist organization’s mass slaughter of Jews,” former New York Times opinion page editor Adam Rubenstein told The Post, referring to Workman’s comments. 

“Criticism of a country usually doesn’t include supporting the terrorists who decapitate and incinerate Jewish babies,” Jewish educator Joel Petlin wrote. “Would the Washington Post hire such job candidates? Never mind. I’m afraid I already know the answer to that question.”

Eylon Levy, former adviser to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, reacted “Not ‘criticism of Israel’. Support for genocidal crimes against humanity. What is wrong with you people?”

“I cancelled my Post subscription over their garbage coverage of Israel,” contributing columnist Alex Zeldin of the Jewish publication Forward. “Nobody lost their job or faced backlash for ‘criticism of Israel.’ They faced consequences for *celebrating the deliberate massacre of civilians.* I hope others deny you revenue for sanitizing slaughter.”

The Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.