Status of AP journalist in Gaza still in doubt after he was benched when anti-Israel postings came to light

The Associated Press sidelined one of its reporters last week after his social media history of attacking Israel, including likening it to the Nazi regime, came to light, and his future with the outlet is still unknown. But one expert says the issue is indicative of the challenges of reporting within an area dominated by Hamas. 

Issam Adwan is a Gaza native with a background in Palestinian activism who joined the AP, one of the world's most renowned media wire services, in August. HonestReporting, a media watchdog that focuses on anti-Israel bias, uncovered numerous examples of past vitriolic social media postings by Adwan last week.

The AP later told Fox News Digital that Adwan, who had until that point filed several dispatches from Gaza about the war with Israel, had been removed from his reporting duties while it investigated his past work. He has not posted from his X profile since Oct. 10 and not responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the AP told Fox News Digital on Sunday that there was no update on the investigation.

"I don't know what there is to investigate," Noah Pollak told Fox News Digital. "You have screenshots of numerous posts over the course of many years of this guy openly cheering for terrorism. There's nothing really to investigate."

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Pollak, a Washington Free Beacon contributor who previously lived in Israel as a journalist, insisted that Hamas has such a stranglehold over the flow of information that is released from Gaza that "you are only allowed to work for Western media organizations if you are promoting Hamas' interests."

Issam Adwan is a Gaza native and activist who joined the Associated Press in August. (Issam Adwan/Instagram)

"That means you never report critically or publicly criticize anything Hamas does. It means you never ask questions or ask for accountability on anything Hamas does. That means you never talk about how brutal and terrible Hamas is to its own people, to Palestinians who live in Gaza," Pollak said. "It's scandalous that Western media outlets employ people in Gaza and call them journalists or reporters or stringers or anything like that."

"AP journalists in Gaza are providing crucial eyewitness reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, and continue to do so despite incredibly challenging conditions," an AP spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

The outlet has reported on the "savagery" of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and published a piece last week on the "grisly montage" cut together by the Israeli military of the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians. It has also noted Hamas is committed to the "destruction of Israel."

HonestReporting laid out Adwan's extensive past of shredding Israel last week, including calling it an "apartheid" regime, saying it would be a triumph if it was "overthrown," and comparing the Jewish state to the Nazis.

In one now-deleted post on X last year, he wrote, the "Palestinian revolt against the Israeli oppression will be a triumph" and "every colonial system will be overthrown. Meanwhile, you should reflect on what you did to contribute to it."

In another, he stated, "It's simple to identify which side you take… Supporting colonialism and apartheid is never ok to the human common sense."

A view of the surroundings of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after it was hit in Gaza City, Gaza on October 18, 2023. (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He also told an Israeli in 2019, "Don't listen to the lies they told you about us. They're spreading lies and fear to continue with the apartheid system which [separates] us of different races and religions."

In 2021, he wrote, "To all ignorants playing ‘Hamas/Khamas’ card when we talk about Israeli war crimes/apartheid//ethnic cleansing, Hamas has been established in 1987 while this ongoing genocide happens in 1948. How many massacres and killings Israel did before that? Educate yourselves." In 2019, he referred to "resistance parties and movements," in a reply to a then-Twitter post criticizing Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group active in the Gaza Strip.

At another point last year, he compared Israel to Nazis, calling it a "racist regime that is so similar to the Nazis."

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HonestReporting also shared a screenshot of him resharing a post by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, accusing Israeli forces of being "involved in a systematic campaign to poison water wells of indigenous Palestinians as part of 1948 ethnic cleansing." The BDS movement is a Palestinian-led campaign to economically destroy Israel and has been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League as rooted in antisemitism.

Adwan joined the AP in August after prior stints with Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera English. He also served as project manager for "We Are Not Numbers," a Palestinian storytelling project, and the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution. He has been an advocate throughout his life for Palestinians and what he views as unfair treatment against his people by the Israelis and their allies.

The AP has had its share of issues intertwined with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2021, it hired and then fired a recent Stanford graduate as a news associate, after her history of anti-Israel social media posts emerged.

That same year, the office building that housed the AP's bureau in Gaza was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. Israel said it destroyed the building because it contained Hamas military intelligence; the AP denied any knowledge of sharing the same building space as the terrorist group.

Press freedom watchdogs cried foul, and an AP story at the time said the destruction of the building "marked a new chapter in the already rocky relationship between the Israeli military and the international media."

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