BBC unable to confirm its Arabic channel will stop hosting antisemitic terror supporter

The BBC has been unable to confirm whether its Arabic language channel will stop hosting a proudly antisemitic contributor who has talked about “the fear and cowardice of the Jews”, is an unabashed supporter of a proscribed terrorist group and publicly supports attempts to murder British author Salman Rushdie.

Ali Mattar, a Lebanese academic, has been a recurring contributor to BBC Arabic, with his latest appearance in December. However, Jewish News has seen a series of tweets by Mattar in which he glorified terror attacks against Israeli civilians, celebrated the former heads of both Hamas and Hezbollah, and said, of “Jews”, that “the day will come when they are dragged out of their holes.”

Mattar was one of the subjects of a Telegraph piece last month, which mentioned a series of his highly inflammatory tweets. These included him tweeting a video on 9 October 2023 of his young son dressed in military fatigues, writing “Greetings to the Palestinian mujahideen who have proven that repelling Israel doesn’t require the world’s largest armies.”

In June 2025, as Iran fired missiles at Israel resulting in the deaths of 11 civilians, Mattar wrote that “our most beautiful mornings are when Israel is ablaze”, subsequently saying that “In the Israeli entity, there are no civilians, for all of them are fighters carrying weapons to kill us with.” In September, after a Palestinian terror attack, he wrote: “The most beautiful morning. Four Zionist settlers killed and 15 wounded in shooting target [sic] settlers north of Jerusalem.” Back in 2021, when 45 civilians were killed due to severe crowding at the Jewish pilgrimage site of Meron on the Lag Ba’Omer holiday, Mattar wrote: “Because they are occupiers, because they seized the land and the holy sites, because they are the occupying enemy  – #WeRejoiceInTheKillingOfTheIsraelis.”

However, Jewish News, via the CAMERA UK media watchdog, has seen further social media posts from Mattar. In response to the alleged death of a boy in Lebanon by an Israeli strike, Mattar said: “Historical events reveal the fear and cowardice of the Jews and that they used to fight from their fortresses or in secret, that is, disguised by hiding behind certain groups. This is what is happening today, and this fear drives them to fight in secret. But a day will come when they are dragged out of their holes. These people are afraid of this boy, so how about a mighty army that will fight them and humiliate them.”

In October 2024, Mattar shared a Hezbollah propaganda video, featuring the terror group’s weaponry and flag, along with the words: “”This is part of our capabilities; the Israeli must know that we shall retake Khaybar”.

Khaybar is an infamous reference to a seventh century battle in which forces under Mohammed slaughtered Jewish Arabian tribes. That month, Hezbollah had launched what it described as “Khaybar operations” against Israel.

Mattar has regularly praised terror attacks against Israelis. In July 2023, after a Palestinian drove a pickup truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tel Aviv that day, Matar responded saying: “The operation in Tel Aviv is a stunning response because it defies what the enemy expected—that an operation would come in Tel Aviv”. In October 2024, he shared video footage of a ramming attack against Israelis which showed elderly civilians trapped under the lorry used in the attack. Matar captioned the video: “One of the most beautiful mornings”

Furthermore, on his social media Mattar endorsed and supported the 12 August 2022 murder attempt on Salman Rushdie, in which the author was stabbed 15 times. Rushdie has required constant protection since the late 1980s after the former Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, Ayatollah Khomeini, instituted a fatwa – a religious decree – against him calling for his death. On 13 August, 2022 – the day after the attempted murder, Mattar tweeted: “Any true-believing Muslim, if they were able and the matter made easy for them, would not have delayed in carrying out Imam Khomeini’s verdict on that devil Salman Rushdie.”

Other tweets by Mattar glorified both Hassan Nasrallah, the now deceased leader of Hezbollah, as well as Yahya Sinwar, the now deceased leader of Hamas. In October 2024, Mattar described Sinwar as “a legend in his life.” In September 2025, Mattar said of Nasrallah: “”You are the role model in every age and place, and you are the light in the shadow of this dark world; you were a hope for the downtrodden in your life, and you became an inspiration for them to rise up against the oppressor after your ascension.”

In January, Jonathan Munro, the interim chief executive of news and current affairs, told a Parliamentary committee earlier this month that the BBC has introduced new rules intended to improve due diligence of those welcomed as contributors on the Corporation’s media channels. As reported by the Telegraph, Munro described the case of Samer Elzaenen, who revealed by the paper to have called for Jews to be burned “as Hitler did”, as “one person who’s got through the net, so to speak, in the time since that new vetting process was introduced.”

While Jewish News understands that Mattar has not appeared on BBC Arabic since early December, in response to a Jewish News query, the BBC appeared to be unable to rule out future appearances by Mattar.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Late last year we introduced a new process for conducting additional journalistic due diligence on contributors. This is being used extensively by BBC News Arabic teams covering the Middle East to strengthen our offer for audiences. The last time this contributor was interviewed, his opinion was challenged on air.”

Danny Cohen, former director of BBC Television and controller of BBC One, said: “‘The BBC has claimed that it has cleaned up its act and that terrorist-sympathising antisemites no longer appear on its channels. Yet only a few weeks ago this man was given a platform on BBC Arabic. Many in the Jewish community have lost faith in the BBC’s ability to uphold standards and ensure that anti-Jewish racists do not appear on its services. This latest evidence of the views of a man given prominence by the BBC will be sickening to many British Jews.’

A spokesperson for CAMERA UK said: “What Jonathan Munro described in parliament as the ‘very sophisticated tools’ regularly used by BBC Arabic and BBC monitoring, failed to identify an entire X account showing that one of BBC Arabic’s frequent interviewees is a Hezbollah mouthpiece and an unabashed antisemite.”

When contacted for comment by the Telegraph in January, Mattar said: “I am honoured to condemn Israel and to expose its true nature and crimes against Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and others. The BBC knows this very well, and I have the right to express my opinion with complete clarity and courage.”