Days after Israel ex-PM says ‘objective media serves Hamas’, envoy slams Frontline interview

Days after former Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid claimed that an “objective media” only “serves Hamas”, the Israeli ambassador to India has expressed his disappointment over the inclusion of the Hamas spokesperson’s interview in Frontline’s latest issue on the “genocide in Gaza”.

At the heart of such objections is news outlets quoting the views of Hamas, which Israel and many of its allies want to be deplatformed and fully delegitimised. Global opinion is divided on listing Hamas as a terrorist entity while Gaza remains under siege and Israel rejects calls for ceasefire in the recent flare-up in the region. More than 8,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far, amid a humanitarian crisis with the shortage of food, water and medical aid. Over 1,400 have been killed in Israel so far.

Frontline tried to spotlight these “untold horrors and cruelties” unfolding in the region, with the cover picture of its November 17 issue featuring a man holding a child, soiled in blood. 

It published articles by journalist Tariq Ali and former Indian ambassador to Saudi Talmiz Ahmad, with a string of interviews, including Israeli strategic affairs expert Dror Eydar, former Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi, former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, and Hamas spokesperson Moussa Abu Marzouk, to give a ringside view of the conflict.

Israeli ambassador to India Naor Gilon, however, was irked by the inclusion of the Hamas spokesperson’s interview and termed it “Frontline’s shameless attempt to justify giving stage to an arch-terrorist”. He took to X to state reasons to not do so. He said Hamas had a “jihadist agenda” and “did not represent the Palestinian people”. He further said that Hamas was seeking the “annihilation of Israel” and it was “not about territorial dispute”.  

Gilon also wrote a two-page letter to express his “dismay”.

But Frontline editor Vaishna Roy pointed out the magazine had also interviewed “pro-Israel” Eydar and Amidror. She also mentioned the headline of the latter’s interview: “To win the war we have to destroy Hamas”.

In an editor’s note published on Frontline, Roy wrote that people are “being harangued to condemn Hamas, but Hamas was not begotten in a vacuum”.  “The Zionists have taken their generational rage and turned it not against the powerful West, whose arms and support they need, but against the hapless people on whose lands they have settled,” she wrote.

Roy also pointed out on X that Gilon’s letter was not addressed to her but the editor-in-chief of The Hindu which is Frontline’s sister outlet – both operating under the Hindu Group.

Before this, Gilon was in the news for his interaction with actor Kangana Ranaut in which she spoke about a Hindu “genocide” and a “Bharat for Hindus”. Read about it here.