ADL Letter to The Nation, re: Mohammed El-Kurd

D.D. Guttenplan
Editor
The Nation

Dear Don,

A few years ago, we were in touch concerning your decision to engage Mohammed El-Kurd as the Palestine correspondent for The Nation. I raised a series of concerns based on his public record of hateful rhetoric. At the time, you made the case that most of his offensive tweets and remarks, which we had shared with you in a fact sheet, were made prior to his onboarding at the Nation. You also noted that, while some of his remarks “were in questionable taste” and “intemperate,” you felt that they did not cross the line into hate speech.  We disagreed, emphatically, with that assessment.

We have just learned, however, that at an anti-Israel rally held last weekend in the U.K., Mr. El-Kurd made a series of incendiary and hateful statements about Israel, Zionists and even issued a call to “normalize massacres.” While he now claims he misspoke and has attempted to clarify that single remark, the full speech makes clear that Mr. El-Kurd is motivated by seething, anti-Israel animus that is indistinguishable from raw antisemitism. His ideas have no place in an American publication devoted to pursuit of truth and journalistic inquiry, especially in an environment of rising hate.

 In remarks captured on video, he stated that:

“The atrocities that the Israeli regime is committing in Gaza are some of the most horrific, brutal actions we will ever see in our lifetime. Genocide is not without a culprit. Zionism is the root cause of all that is happening in Palestine. Zionism is apartheid, it’s genocide, it’s murder. It’s a racist ideology, rooted in settler expansion and racist domination. We must root it out of the world (emphasis added). … I dare you to look into the eyes of a Gazan child and tell him you tried your best. Our day will come. But we must not be complacent. Our day will come, but we must normalize massacres as a status quo.”

While Mr. El-Kurd has since claimed he misspoke in calling to “normalize massacres,” his speech was still atrocious and could be considered incitement. Even if his “clarification” is taken at face value, his rhetoric echoes classic antisemitic myths.

Not only does Mr. El-Kurd blame “Zionists” (including me, I suppose, and roughly 16 million other Jewish people) broadly for every evil happening in Gaza, using some of the most loaded and anti-Israel terms available in the English lexicon, he does not once acknowledge that it was the hateful, violent, and horrific brutality of Hamas on 10/7 that prompted the current crisis in Gaza. In fact, since the massacre, he has refused to call out the terrorist attack or even condemn Hamas.  Frankly, this is unsurprising given his long history of incendiary speech, which I previously detailed for you. Moreover, the call to “normalize massacres” [against Israeli civilians] seems entirely consistent with his worldview. But we know from history that when someone says Zionists (i.e., Jews) are the root cause of all the evils in the world, it’s antisemitic, full stop.

This is critical to note because antisemitism has surged around the world in recent years, especially in America since 10/7. We tracked an explosion of 3,291 antisemitic incidents in the 90 days after the massacre, an increase of 361 percent for the same period of time in 2022. This included dozens of assaults, hundreds of incidents of vandalism, nearly 1350 acts of harassment, and more than 1300 rallies with overt antisemitic language and/or explicit calls for terror against Israelis and/or Jews. This is not about supporting Palestinian national aspirations; it is about raw acts of hate being committed against your subscribers, your readers, your public.

And there’s more. Mr. El-Kurd’s use of terms such “genocide” and “racist” with respect to Zionism and his description of Zionism as something that needs to be “rooted out” sound identical to the talking points of white supremacists. I know that The Nation prides itself in a commitment to fairness and integrity. These comments are not just unfair. They do not just lack integrity. They are the kind of hate that you would never publish if a different author had written them, say a self-professed racialist like David Duke or Richard Spencer.

Moreover, El Kurd’s apparently justification of violent terrorism sounds almost identical to the talking points of the Iranian regime or some of the most notorious non-state actors. Would The Nation publish a writer who wrote glowing appraisals of rape and violence committed by ISIS terrorists against Yazidi women? Would you publish columns by a person who rationalized the heinous atrocities committed against Nigerian women and girls by Boko Haram?

To be clear, this is not to dispute the pain of civilians in Gaza. We absolutely deplore the loss of all innocent lives, Israeli or Palestinian. While we might not have precise numbers, the scale of this disaster shocks the consciousness. We can argue about the cause of the suffering in Gaza, but it is deplorable and tragic that so many have been civilians have been killed in recent months. Every single casualty should be mourned.

So, I ask again – does The Nation condone language that suggests that Zionism should be “rooted out” around the world, or does it condemn such rhetoric? And do you maintain that it is reasonable to employ a “journalist” who not only denies Hamas atrocities but outright justifies terror? Or is it time to acknowledge that this Mr. El-Kurd is not an “unbiased observer” covering a story, but instead is a full-fledged anti-Israel zealot who is part of the story of hate that has wrought terrible consequences on the world.

In light of his track record and his latest remarks, I urge you to reconsider your publication’s decision to platform him.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt
CEO and National Director
ADL (Anti-Defamation League)