Guardian journalist who retweets pro-Hamas social media account
EXCLUSIVE: Newspaper's pop culture columnist and podcast host Chanté Joseph shared posts casting doubt on scale of Hamas' 7 October atrocities and promoted conspiracies about Jewish power
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
A Guardian journalist has been sharing messages on social media from an account openly promoting Hamas atrocities against Israel, and which also features an image of paragliders on its profile.
Chanté Joseph, the Guardian’s pop culture columnist, also wrote, and prolifically shared posts casting doubts on the scale of the massacre committed by Hamas terrorists in Israel on 7 October that saw more than 1,400 women, children and men murdered, many tortured.
The journalist, whose profile is used to promote the Guardian brand in an advert screened in the reception of the media outlet’s London office, also posted and shared several conspiratorial claims about Jewish power and control.
Joseph, 27, who made and presented a documentary for Channel 4 entitled How Not To Be Racist, also repeatedly shared false claims about Israel and Zionism made by the notorious conspiracy theorist rapper Lowkey and promoted posts from far-left activists linked to the Novara Media website.
Jewish News was alerted to her social media posts one day after we published an explosive whistleblower account from a Jewish employee, who has family in Israel, who said they did not feel safe at work on the national newspaper due to the hostile response of some colleagues to her response to the Hamas terrorist atrocities.
In response to the whistleblower’s account, OPINION: The Guardian’s coverage and my colleagues’ comments mean I don’t feel safe at work a Guardian spokesperson said they did “not believe this article bears any resemblance to the workplace culture” at the national newspaper’s offices.
The online account shared by Joseph @WitsEnd48 makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is supportive of Hamas actions inside Israel on October 7th, using three images of paragliders, which were used to mount the terror attacks, on its profile on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
Paragliders were infamously used by Hamas terrorists to enter southern Israel as they mounted their now infamous and appalling attacks last month.
A pinned tweet at the top of the account openly praised last month’s Hamas operation, and states: “Beyond the Envelope: Towards Al-Quds: Under the cover and support of rocket fire, the resistance began a new and large incursion by land, air, and sea into occupied Palestine about three hours ago.”
Further recent posts made by @WitsEnd48 include videos of alleged attacks made by the Hamas the Al-Qassam Brigades on Israeli soldiers in Gaza, along with a post that appears to take delight in the death of one IDF man.
It features the words, “Should’ve gone to film school” written above a tribute to posted to the fallen IDF man online.
Despite this clear sign of pro-Hamas support, Joseph shared a post put online by the @WitsEnd48 account on Wednesday 1 November, which read: “It’s funny how the Zionist reaction to literally everything is ‘give me part of your house’.”
The post was written in response to a message put online by a Jewish person fearful about rising antisemitism across the globe, in the aftermath of Israel’s response to Hamas in Gaza.
But Jewish News has also analysed the Guardian journalist’s own @ChantayyJayy CEO of Yelling FRSA account on X, which has 67,900 followers, and discovered it was littered with inflammatory posts about Israel, Zionism and Jews.
Alerted to our interest in her platform on X, Joseph switched the previously publicly accessible account onto private mode on Thursday.
In one retweet, Joseph shared claims made by @queerssocialism that “well-off white jews in the west have managed to monopolize (sic) claims to antisemitism, grief and victimhood while black and other nonwhite (incl Palestinian) jewish persons are rendered entirely invisible from public memory.”
Joseph’s @ChantayyJayy account also shared numerous posts attempting to downplay the severity of the massacre committed by Hamas in southern Israel, and also circulated false reports that Israel was responsible for the bombing of a Gaza hospital, a claim now proven to be false by British and American intelligence experts.
In her own post, put online earlier this week Joseph writes: “People have been scared to speak out for too long but it’s enough. You can’t commit war crimes and bully people into silence by claiming that any sort of condemnation of Israel is antisemitic.We know that’s not true and we won’t be silent.”
She also reported a claim made by @thatotherrai that Israel was “using Hamas as an excuse to kill” Palestinians. The same post continued: “Israel is a murderous state. They have blood on their hands.”
Last week, after images of the elderly Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz freed by Hamas were shown on television news, the Guardian journalist shared a tweet online from the @EyesUndercover account which suggested the “Hamas seemingly care about the comfort and well-being of Israeli hostages more than the Israeli government officials themselves.”
In response to the poster campaign highlighting the plight of around 240 men, women and children still kidnapped by Hamas, Jospeh also retweeted a post claiming the exercise was “nothing but propaganda”.
She also retweeted a post saying: “I’m Caribbean, I literally only exist today because my ancestors used violence to get their freedom.”
In another retweet, the 27-year-old writer appeared to show her support for claims made by the @dancohen3000 account that the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades are offering “stiff resistance” to the IDF. The same post adds: “The region’s ‘strongest’ military, supported by a superpower, is being matched by concentration camp inmates.”
Joseph’s social media conduct also shows her repeatedly siding with far-left activists associated with the Novara Media website, including Barnaby Raine, Rivkah Brown, and sharing posts from Lowkey.
She is also supportive of online attacks made on Keir Starmer, and also appears to approve of the activist who ran on the stage at the party’s conference in Liverpool and man-handled the Labour leader as he delivered his speech.
Joseph also tweets of her desire to launch a “Somalis against Starmer” organisation.
Joseph’s own personal website describes herself as “a skilled public speaker and regularly gives keynote speeches and hosts panel discussions.”
It says she has “collaborated with brands such as Bumble, Adidas, Spotify and YouTube as a content producer”.
A former chair of Bristol University’s Student Union council, she has also written for British Vogue, the Huffington Post and hosts the Guardian’s Pop Culture podcast.
Asked to comment on Joseph’s social media account a Guardian spokesperson said: “These are completely unacceptable social media posts by a freelance contributor. Senior managers are taking this very seriously and have spoken to the person concerned, who is deeply regretful at their lapse in judgment and has immediately deleted the posts.
“They have also been reminded of the social media guidelines that all staff and contributors are expected to follow.”
Joseph said: “I repost a huge amount on social media in the spur of the moment and I now realise I have badly misjudged some recent posts.
“I did not fully understand the content or implications at the time. I have now deleted the posts and I sincerely apologise for the upset I have caused.”
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