Former Israeli envoy calls for Sky News to sack presenter who compared Gaza to the Holocaust

Sky News has remained tight-lipped after making an on-air apology after a presenter compared the Gaza conflict to the Holocaust.

On Friday, during an ill-tempered interview between Danon and Sky News anchor Belle Donati, the presenter referred the politician to an article he had written for the Wall Street Journal in November, in which he suggests that “countries around the world should offer a haven for Gaza residents who seek relocation”.

Challenged on his views by Donati, Ambassador Danon said: “I think anyone in the world who voluntarily wants to move to another country should be eligible to do that.”

Donati responded: “Yes, the sort of voluntary relocation of many Jewish people during the Holocaust, I imagine. It is not a voluntary relocation.”

A furious Danon accused Donati of a “shameful, antisemitic equation”, telling her: “This is pure antisemitism what you just said, comparing the Holocaust to what’s happening today in Gaza. Shame on you for this behaviour.”

Later in the afternoon, another Sky presenter, Jonathan Samuels, read out a statement, saying: “Sky News recognises the complete inappropriateness of this comparison and the offensive nature of those comments. Sky News would like to apologise unreservedly for the comparison and to Mr Danon personally for making the comparison.”

According to the Times, an internal email to Sky staff was also circulated. It said: “This afternoon, Belle Donati made an inappropriate, unnecessary, and offensive on-air comparison to the Holocaust when interviewing Danny Danon, a former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations.

“Sky News has apologised on air for the comparison made during Belle’s interview and will be apologising personally and directly to Mr Danon for the comments.”

The email continued: “It does not need to be restated that this is a significant and sensitive story”. Staff were reminded “that it is essential that our coverage is impartial, balanced, and fact-based.

“The story, and our coverage of it, generates significant emotion and passion. It intersects with community relations here in the UK and around the world. Our questioning should always be calm, interrogative, and considered.”

But on Sunday a still furious Danny Danon wrote to Sky’s executive chairman, David Rhodes, calling for Belle Donati to be fired. Noting that Donati herself had not apologised, he said: “In 2024, there should be no tolerance for news anchors who propagate antisemitism and draw inappropriate parallels between the democratic state of Israel and the Nazis”.

Her comments had not only been “profoundly offensive” to him personally, but also to “the entire global Jewish community”, Danon said, calling for Donati’s “immediate termination”.

But a spokesperson for Sky News refused to add to the statement made on Friday, and would not comment as to whether Belle Donati had been disciplined or asked to make a personal apology to the Israeli politician.

Mr Danon told Jewish News that he had not yet received a response from Sky but observed: “I’m used to very heated debates since the beginning of the war, I’ve participated in hundreds of interviews but I’ve never heard anyone make such a horrible comparison between Gaza and the Holocaust.

“If she [Belle Donati] doesn’t apologise there’s no place for her anywhere in the media, because that’s not journalism”. He said he still hoped that Sky would “do the right thing” in respect of the presenter’s employment. “I’m not running Sky News, but I think the minimum should be an apology from her. I wasn’t familiar with her, but after she said what she said, we looked at her Twitter/X account and found views very hostile to Israel. So it wasn’t a mistake: she has a very clear agenda, and as a journalist she should not take advantage of the platform she has to promote hate like she did in that interview.”