Andrew Neil has expressed his outrage at the “disgraceful” ITV decision to interview a woman who described the Hamas attack and atrocities against Israel as a “homecoming”.
During an interview with ITV News on Monday Latifa Abouchakra, who it said was a British Palestinian living in London, discussed the rising Islamophobia she claimed she had experienced in the aftermath of the war in the Middle East.
However, in a video that later emerged, Ms Abouchakra can be seen beaming from ear-to-ear barely able to stifle her joy as she discusses the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.
She proclaimed: “Nothing will ever be able to take back this moment, this moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise, this moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity, nothing.”
More than 1,400 Israelis, the majority civilians, were killed in the Hamas incursion and more than 200 people were taken hostage. Women, children and the elderly were shot without mercy, and some had their bodies mutilated and burned.
Slamming the video, Spectator chairman and veteran journalist Andrew Neil, took to X to express his outrage that ITV had ever invited Ms Abouchakra onto their show.
He wrote on X: “Her sheer delight at the Hamas Holocaust. Has anybody at ITV News been fired for this gross and disgraceful dereliction of duty? No? Thought not.”
But Ms Abouchakra was later revealed to have appeared as a journalist for the Iranian-backed anti-Israel site Press TV.
In a broadcast for the channel on October 14 under the headline “Gaza: ‘prison break’” Ms Abouchakra says: “As fragile as a spider’s web the Zionist entity is shaking with fear.”
Speaking to camera she goes on to speak about the Hamas attack, during which hundreds of civilians were murdered, saying “what ensued was the homecoming of at least 1,000 Palestinians from the resistance factions”.
Her report makes no mention of the innocent civilians slaughtered by Hamas, and she said “over 100 settlers had been taken as prisoners of war” before claiming “the vast majority are members of the occupation forces”.
A letter to ITV from the Board of Deputies of British Jews called the decision to invite on Ms Abouchakra onto the show an “astonishingly bad one”.
ITV has since apologised in a reply to the letter and said: “ITV News London will tighten up the procedures around booking interviewees.”
Express.co.uk has approached Ms Abouchakra for comment.
