The Board of Deputies of British Jews has accused a prominent Sky News journalist of exhibiting a “disgraceful lack of professionalism" after she claimed that Israel has a “lust for revenge” in an article published to the broadcaster’s website, The Jewish Chronicle reported on Tuesday.
Alex Crawford, a special correspondent based in Istanbul who covers foreign affairs, wrote on Monday that conflict between Hezbollah and Israel had entered a “dangerous stage” following the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 Druze civilians in Majdal Shams.
"The Lebanese authorities who're in direct contact with their Hezbollah partners are urging restraint whilst encouraging the Americans to leverage pressure on the Israelis to rein in their lust for revenge,” Crawford had said.
In response, a Board spokesperson told the JC, "This is a disgraceful lack of professionalism from a Sky News correspondent. We will be contacting Sky directly to ask exactly how such highly disturbing comments fit within their editorial guidelines."
The JC noted that earlier this year, Crawford was accused of taking “a side” in the war between Israel and Hamas after claiming the former had committed “war crimes”.
Writing on X, she said, “It is absolutely farcical to try to peddle the view that foreign journalists are not entering Gaza because it’s ‘dangerous’. International journalists have been delib blocked from entering Gaza by primarily Israel who doesn’t want them seeing the war crimes.”
Sky News came under fire in November, when then-Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy was asked by one of its presenters, Kay Burley, whether Israel agreeing to free 150 security prisoners in exchange for 50 hostages held by Hamas showed that Israel sees Hamas lives as worth less than Israeli lives.
Levy’s reaction, in which he was seen raising his eyebrows in astonishment over the question, went viral.
Burley later provided the following explanation for the ridiculous question in a post on X: "We often put one side of an argument to a guest so they can offer a counterclaim. Yesterday, I raised a controversial view from an earlier guest to allow another to respond. Each morning we’re dedicated to presenting fairly the news of this war."
Sky News again caused an uproar in January, when its host, Belle Donati, compared the idea of voluntary migration by Gazans to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust during an interview with Likud MK Danny Danon.
The network later apologized for the incident.