ZOA to MSNBC: Fire Ayman Mohyeldin for Using Coronavirus to Falsely Malign Israel
News Press Release
March 23, 2020

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:

Throughout the United States and the world, we desperately need to work together, “all hands on deck,” to contain and halt the Coronavirus pandemic.  Jews have answered the call: Israeli scientists are at the forefront of vaccine development work.  Jewish physicians and nurses are at the front lines in American hospitals, and Jewish aid groups are struggling to bring food to poor and quarantined persons.  But despicably, certain parties are using the Coronavirus pandemic to foment hatred against Jews and Israel.  MSNBC news anchor and co-host Ayman Mohyeldin engaged in this odious, inexcusable behavior – and should be fired.     

On March 13, 2020, Mohyeldin tweeted a picture of some half-empty shelves in an American grocery store, with the deceptive anti-Israel caption: “The last time I saw a supermarket this empty was in #Gaza (and it wasn’t because of the #Coronavirus) Maybe Americans will now be able to relate to what life under a blockade is like when you can’t find some of the most basic necessities for you family.”  

Mohyeldin’s tweet incited numerous hateful anti-Israel comments.   

ZOA President Morton Klein stated: “In this era when we all need to work together; MSNBC must fire Mohyeldin for using the Coronavirus to continue purveying antisemitic anti-Israel propaganda.”

Mohyeldin falsifies the facts. Food and medicines are not blockaded to Gaza by Israel! Thousands of Hamas and PIJ rockets targeting and wounding Israeli civilians necessitate the weapons blockade on Gaza. Moreover, Israel ships truckloads of food, medical items and equipment into Gaza.  See, e.g., “Aid trucks roll into Gaza from Israel” (AP – YouTube).  As this video showed, 360 trucks from Israel delivered food and medicine into Gaza in just 5 days – despite continuing Hamas rocket attacks.  The video also explained that the Gazan food warehouses were full.  

In response to Mohyeldin’s false tweet, @Imshin posted recent videos of Gazan youngsters’ 2019 shopping sprees throughout Gaza City’s “Meat City” supermarket and unnamed Gazan supermarkets.  See, e.g., here and here and here and here. The Gazan supermarkets are obviously brimming with food and other goods on every shelf and in every corner.  As @Imshin pointed out, Mohyeldin is lying.   

Also see YouTube video of Gaza Meat City shopping spree here, other YouTube videos of the overflowing food and goods in Gaza’s supermarkets, small food stores, and outdoor markets (e.g., “Best Ramadan Food in Gaza”); Gaza’s luxury gold market; the 2010 opening of Gaza’s luxury mall; and the 2016 promo for the beautiful Islamic University of Gaza

Mohyeldin’s recent despicable use of the Coronavirus also continues his longstanding pattern of falsely maligning Israel.     

In 2015, Mohyeldin asserted that an Arab terrorist was not armed with a knife, and that there was no evidence that the Arab terrorist had stabbed a police officer.  In fact, video showed the Arab terrorist clenching a knife with at least a 5-inch blade in his upraised fist.  (See “Diaz-Balart Corrects Erroneous Reporting from NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin Regarding Jerusalem Stabbing,” Oct. 15, 2015.)

And in 2014, Mohyeldin repeatedly maligned Israel regarding an Israeli airstrike that accidentally killed four Gazan youngsters.  Mohyeldin stated that the youngsters were merely playing on the beach, and were near foreign hotels minutes before the strike –falsely implying that Israel was targeting youngsters in civilian areas.  

In fact, video footage and a thorough investigation demonstrated that the youngsters were tragically mistaken for Hamas operatives, because they were running into a shed in “an area that had long been known as a compound belonging to Hamas’s Naval Police and Naval Force (including naval commandos), and which was utilized exclusively by militants. The compound [was] . . . closed off by a fence and clearly separated from the beach serving the civilian population.” Moreover, “a container located inside the compound [] was used to store military supplies,” and “Shortly before the incident, an intelligence assessment . . . indicated that operatives from Hamas’s Naval Forces would gather in the military compound in order to prepare for military activity against the IDF.”  

ZOA President Morton Klein stated: “In this era when we all need to work together; MSNBC must fire Mohyeldin for using the Coronavirus to continue purveying antisemitic anti-Israel propaganda.” 

Our Mission
ZOA STATEMENT
The ZOA speaks out for Israel – in reports, newsletters, and other publications. In speeches in synagogues, churches, and community events, in high schools and colleges from coast to coast. In e-mail action alerts. In op-eds and letters to the editor. In radio and television appearances by ZOA leaders. Always on the front lines of pro-Israel activism, ZOA has made its mark.
Center for Law & Justice
We work to educate the American public and Congress about legal issues in order to advance the interests of Israel and the Jewish people.
We assist American victims of terrorism in vindicating their rights under the law, and seek to hold terrorists and sponsors of terrorism accountable for their actions.
We fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses.
We strive to enforce existing law and also to create new law in order to safeguard the rights of the Jewish people in the United States and Israel.