A group of prominent female broadcast journalists rescinded its "courage in journalism" award on Wednesday to Gaza-based freelance writer Maha Hussaini, following the Washington Free Beacon’s reporting on Hussaini’s support for Hamas and anti-Semitic statements.
The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) said it decided to revoke the award after learning about "comments made by Maha Hussaini in past years that contradict the values of our organization."
"Both the Courage Awards and the IWMF’s mission are based on integrity and opposition to intolerance. We do not, and will not, condone or support views or statements that do not adhere to those principles," said the organization in a statement.
The news comes after the Free Beacon reported that Hussaini, an opinion writer for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, has approvingly posted anti-Semitic cartoons that were drawn by the first- and second-place winners of Iran's 2006 International Holocaust Cartoon Contest.
She has also openly supported terrorism, writing "glory to the martyrs" after Palestinian terrorists launched a deadly attack at the Temple Mount in 2017, killing two Israeli officers. When the Israel Defense Forces demolished Hamas's intelligence headquarters inside the al-Jalaa building in 2021, Hussaini wrote that Gazans would "build ten [towers] so that our resistance can bomb the occupation again."
Hussaini stood by her comments in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after her award was revoked, saying she has "no regrets about any posts or reasons that led to the rescinding of this award."
She slammed the IWMF, writing that the group "succumbed to pressure and chose to act contrary to courage."
Hussaini also claimed that her case is part of a larger trend of the "Zionist lobby" targeting Palestinian journalists who speak out against Israel.
"[E]ach announcement of an award to a Palestinian journalist is systematically followed by extensive smearing campaigns and intense pressure on the awarding organizations from supporters of the Israeli occupation and the Zionist lobby," she wrote.
The IWMF "Courage in Journalism" award recognizes "some of the bravest women journalists in the world," according to the group. The organization’s board includes prominent female journalists, including former CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux, the ex-partner of White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, and CBS News's Norah O'Donnell.
Hussaini has an extensive history of pro-terrorist and anti-Semitic comments.
In one post, Hussaini objected to Egypt's January 2015 decision to designate Hamas's military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization, writing that "young people who arm themselves with stones and blow themselves up" are the "only adults in this nation." She included the hashtag #Qassam_Is_Not_Terrorism, a popular slogan for Hamas supporters.
Hussaini has also objected to the existence of the Jewish state, writing that Israel's "political and legal systems are all geared towards ensuring Jewish racial supremacy and domination."
She has also posted anti-Semitic cartoons drawn by Derkaoui Abdellah, the winner of Iran’s 2006 Holocaust cartoon contest, and by Carlos Latuff, the second-place runner-up.
On her Twitter feed, she often defends Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack as legitimate "resistance."
"In all of this, you can only blame the occupation, because after all, the armed resistance is a direct outcome of the longstanding military occupation and apartheid," she wrote in February.
In another post last December, she wrote that Israel's military response to the terrorist attacks "won't make Palestinians blame the resistance. Resisting the occupation is a basic human right guaranteed by international law."
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