BBC journalist who gushed over Holocaust revisionist is nominated for British Council award

A BBC Arabic correspondent who has previously praised the ‘exquisite journalism’ of Holocaust revisionist has been nominated for the British Council’s Study UK Alumni Awards.

Layla Bashar Al-Kloub, a senior journalist at the public broadcaster, has also previously condemned the “Zionist entity” and labelled Israel as “terrorists”.

She is one of eight shortlisted finalists in the Jordan category for the prestigious award, which recognises “outstanding people” who made an impact in their homeland following a UK education.

In a series of articles by the JC over recent years, it was revealed that Al-Kloub has a history of expressing anti-Israel sentiment online.

In May 2021, she posted a gushing tribute to X for television journalist Muna Hawwa, a Palestinian activist suspended by Al Jazeera for producing a 2019 video that asked, “How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”

In her message hailing the Palestinian activist’s return to X, Al-Kloub wrote: “My dear Muna… there was a great victory for you, yourself specifically, the victory of the free word, and the victory of exquisite journalism, you have proved everybody you are capable of confronting large institutions by yourself, may Allah strengthen you.”

Hawwa has rejected the allegation that she denied the Holocaust.

In the 2019 documentary, Hawwa also said: “Israel is the biggest winner from the Holocaust, and it uses the same Nazi justifications as a launching pad for racial cleansing and annihilation of the Palestinians... The ideology behind ‘the State of Israel’ is based on religious, national, and geographic concepts that suckled from the Nazi spirit.”

Palestine activist Muna Hawwa produced and published a video in which she questioned the scale of the Holocaust[Missing Credit]

The British Council’s UK Alumna Awards recognise the achievements of “international leaders” who have leveraged their UK education to make “significant contributions” to their home countries.

Award categories include business and innovation, culture and creativity, science and sustainability, and social action.

This year, Jordan is one of the 23 countries hosting their own national version of the award.

The Jordan finalists, of which Al-Kloub is one, are also eligible for the global UK Alumna Award along with all the finalists from other countries.

Al-Kloub has also previously received criticism for a BBC Arabic article she wrote in October 2023 about journalists killed since October 7, in which she failed to mention that some of those referenced had praised or worked for Hamas.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) – a nonprofit devoted to fair media representation of Israel – reported that 55 out of 69 Gazans and Lebanese described as journalists in the article had either expressed support for the killing of Israelis or had worked for outlets which did.

Al-Kloub also mentioned Israeli journalists murdered on October 7 in the article. 

In a 2016 post on on X, Al-Kloub wrote: “The Zionist entity does not recognise any international law or agreement, their entire [legal] proceedings are infringements of human rights treaties. They are the terrorists, not us.”

One reporter was Muhammad Abu Hatab, who celebrated the atrocities of October 7 on Palestine TV while they were still being perpetrated, claiming Gaza had “landed a blow that the Occupation will long remember”.

Others listed included Mohammad Jarghoun and Assaad Shamlakh, who were each mourned by their friends on social media as “jihad fighters” and “members of the “resistance”.

At the time of her article, Lord Pickles, the UK special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, criticised the BBC for failing to carry out “due diligence”.

“This is a journalist who has expressed extreme views and has now put out a misleading report. I expect the Corporation to take appropriate action,” he said.

Former BBC governor Baroness Deech also hit out at the BBC following Al-Kloub’s controversial report.

“There has been a problem with BBC Arabic for years, but now of all times, the BBC should taking meticulous care to ensure that its Arabic audience receives accurate, unbiased information - and it seems it is not,” she said.

In the wake of the award nominations a spokesperson for Camera told the JC: “Given Layla al-Kloub's record of spreading hate on social media, and the fact that her list of ‘dead journalists’ was carefully manipulated to exclude details about their workplaces' affiliations with terrorist organisations, the BBC should clearly not have allowed her to cover Gaza or Lebanon.

"For the British Council to now celebrate her ‘creativity’ as a role model for journalists who cover the region is an indication that both institutions - the BBC and the British Council - are drifting further away from the core British values they are supposed to represent.”

Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told the JC that he was “appalled” by the nomination of Al-Kloub for a British Council award.

“She has made significant contributions to the BBC’s biased coverage of the recent war brought by Hamas against Israel. Her nomination will encourage the BBC to persist in its very damaging bias and will further undermine the confidence of Jewish people in British institutions,” he said.

A spokesperson for the British Council said: “As the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations, we work to support peace and prosperity between the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and English language teaching.

“The British Council operates in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and we are committed to ensuring that everyone we work with around the world feels respected and treated with dignity.

“We will be convening an independent panel to urgently investigate this matter.”

The JC has contacted Al-Kloub and the BBC for comment.