BBC’s new Arabic chief called Israeli city ‘occupied’ and rocket victims ‘settlers’

Her hiring has prompted renewed concerns about impartiality at the corporation’s Arabic-language service, which has been dogged by allegations of anti-Israel bias over a sustained period.

BBC Arabic has recently undergone a significant restructuring, following earlier exposés about editorial failings in its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

During the November 2012 hostilities between Israel and Hamas, Ms Nassar referred to Beersheba as the “occupied city of Beersheba” on social media.

The following day, she reported that 28 “settlers” had been hurt after 100 rockets struck southern Israel.

Both Beersheba and Metula have formed part of Israel since 1948, sitting within its pre-1967 borders rather than in West Bank settlements.

On 21 November 2012, she characterised a projectile launched from Lebanon as targeting “Israeli settlements,” before describing Metula as lying “inside the occupied territories”.

Ms Nassar also attracted scrutiny during her tenure as deputy editor-in-chief of France 24 over a 2016 segment featuring the wife of Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, a Palestinian prisoner.

She introduced the report without disclosing that Abu Ghoulmeh was serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

Ms Nassar’s appointment follows the emergence of a damning internal memo by Michael Prescott, a former BBC editorial standards adviser, which documented serious shortcomings in the Arabic service’s reporting on Israel and Gaza.

His analysis found that 19 stories about hostages seized by Hamas appeared on the BBC’s English-language website but were absent from BBC Arabic.

During the first five months of the Gaza war, BBC Arabic was compelled to issue 34 corrections after erroneously describing Israeli towns as “settlements” or their inhabitants as “settlers” — including references to Metula.

Camera, a pro-Israel media watchdog, said on Friday that it had “no confidence” in Nassar’s capacity “to finally bring BBC Arabic under control.”

The organisation characterised her social media language as “false and delegitimising,” noting it mirrored precisely the kind of terminology the service had previously been obliged to retract.

Ms Nassar succeeded Edgard Jallad, who had been serving as acting editorial head while the corporation sought a permanent appointment.

The BBC declined to address whether Ms Nassar’s social media posts had been examined ahead of her appointment.

The broadcaster also did not say whether her descriptions of Israeli towns aligned with the corporation’s editorial guidelines.

A BBC spokesman instead stated: “Mayssaloun Nassar was recently appointed editor of BBC News Arabic and was the outstanding candidate for the role.

“She brings a wealth of experience in journalism and a strong record of leadership.”