ABC parts ways with anti-Israel producer
The national broadcaster has severed ties with Fouad Abu Gosh months after his anti-Israel tweets.
THE ABC’s managing director David Anderson has confirmed that the national broadcaster has severed ties with Fouad Abu Gosh and that the controversial producer no longer works for the ABC.
Abu Gosh caused a furore last year when he tweeted that there are parallels between Israel’s military actions and the Nazis. Earlier, the Jerusalem-based news producer, who had worked for the ABC for eight years, posted an image of Israeli police detaining a civilian, adding online, “This is how the Nazis treated the Jews, maybe it’s time for….!!!!”
In 2021, Abu Gosh had posted, “There is a great Zionist project to dominate and control all Arabs in the region!!”
Abu Gosh had specified in his Twitter bio that “opinions are mine and ABC’s”. He later deleted his Twitter account.
Questioned in Senate Estimates by Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes on Tuesday, Anderson said Abu Gosh’s employment by the ABC ended, to the best of his belief, around January 6, but that he would confirm the exact date.
However, Anderson told Hughes that “one issue is investigating his personal use of social media. That’s one issue. With regard to the rest of his work, there was no issue with his work or journalism with regard to him taking an impartial view with his reporting.”
But describing Abu Gosh’s tweets as representing “pretty horrific views”, Hughes countered, “I mean, wouldn’t it have sent a signal to those of the Jewish faith who are Australian taxpayers and contribute to the funding of the ABC, that someone who had called for a second Holocaust to be automatically and immediately suspended to show, to demonstrate that the ABC does not share or hold or endorse those views?”
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein stated this week, “We welcome the decision as entirely justified and the only course of action open to the ABC if it wanted to demonstrate that its news and current affairs content is above suspicion of bias.
“The outcome also shows that the ABC understands there are red lines that its journalists must not cross if they want to continue working for the public broadcaster.”
At the time of last year’s incidents, the Zionist Federation of Australia’s public affairs director, Bren Carlill, stated, “Time and again, the ABC produces biased content when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is thus no surprise that an ABC contractor with such abhorrent personal views has been exposed.”
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