Outrage: BBC Employs Hamas Terrorist

Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 5:17:57 pm PDT

The Jerusalem Post casually reveals a bit of information that qualifies as one of the outrages of the year, in an article about a Hamas member who is supposedly trying to get BBC reporter Alan Johnston released: Israel lets Hamas member enter Gaza.

This particular Hamas member is employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Despite Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) opposition and per the request of the BBC, the coordinator of government activities allowed a Hamas member who works for the BBC to enter the Gaza Strip last week to assist in efforts to release kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston.

Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post that a week ago, a request came from the BBC asking that a Palestinian employee of the news company who is believed to be a close associate of senior Hamas officials be allowed to enter Gaza.

The employee, who lives in Gaza, had traveled to Egypt with his wife for medical reasons and the BBC told Israeli officials that they believed he could assist in negotiating Johnston’s release.

The Shin Bet objected to the BBC request, saying that the employee was actually a member of Hamas, and perhaps even a terrorist operative.

In the end, however, the Defense Ministry decided to allow him to to enter Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge and then to enter northern Gaza through the Erez crossing.

(Hat tip: Ben Hur.)

UPDATE at 6/26/07 5:23:55 pm:

Can anyone explain to me how this does not violate British law? Because Hamas is an officially proscribed terror group in the UK.