Picture includes BBC ex-journalist Nada Abdelsamad and MP Paula Yaacoubian at Parliament, May 9, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
Lebanese Change MP Paula Yaacoubian said on Thursday that Parliament "put its hands" on the file of the suspension of BBC journalist Nada Abdel Samad over a post on social media about Hamas's Oct. 7 "Al-Aqsa Flood" attack after they testified today before Parliament's Media and Technology Committee.
Nada Abdelsamad, who worked for BBC Arabic for 27 years and wrote a book about Beirut’s lost Jewish quarter, said she was suspended unfairly.
Abdelsamad was suspended from her job in October due to a tweet about the attack on Israel.
On Oct. 7, during Hamas's unprecedented assault on Israel, Abdelsamad shared a retweet featuring a video of Israeli citizens hiding. Originally posted by Jaber al-Harmi, editor-in-chief of Al-Sharq, the post apparently labeled Hamas fighters as "the resistance" and Israeli citizens as "settlers." Abdelsamad explained to L'Orient Today that she retweeted the video to shed light on the scale of the Hamas operation. As a result, she and six other journalists from BBC Arabic were suspended for allegedly violating BBC's guidelines.
"The case of Nada Abdelsamad with the BBC is important and Parliament put its hands on it," Yaacoubian said in a press conference after Abdel Samad's hearing.
The committee discussed this matter in the presence of caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari.
"This case will not die so that things don't get belittled in a way that journalists would be suspended from work because of a tweet," Yaacoubian also said.
She also added that the committee will follow up on the matter.
It was not immediately clear what actions the committee intended to take.
For her part, Abdelsamad said that she was suspended from her work because of an Israeli complaint. "I considered what happened to me is a defamation to my job.
On Nov. 27, Abdelsamad filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), an American watchdog known for its pro-Israel stance, revealed on Oct. 16 that its Arabic researchers alerted the BBC about the social media posts made by the journalists. According to CAMERA, these posts included justifications for Hamas's killing of Israeli civilians, described the Oct. 7 attack as a "morning of hope," allegedly mocked the relatives of an Israeli grandmother kidnapped by Hamas, and stated that "Israel's prestige is crying in the corner."
Abdelsamad had worked for the BBC for 27 years and is also known for her book “Wadi Abu Jamil,” in which she paints a rare portrait of the people who once lived in Beirut’s now-destroyed Jewish quarter.
