Huckabee claims media is contributing to antisemitism by reporting misinformation about Israel

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Monday slammed legacy media for slanted news coverage of the war in Israel, claiming the outlets have contributed to the increasingly antisemitic climate seen in the country. 

The U.S. has recently seen an uptick in serious antisemitic attacks, which continued last month when two Israeli embassy staffers were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. 

The most recent attack occurred Sunday when an anti-Israel protester allegedly threw homemade Molotov cocktails at participants at an outdoor vigil in Boulder, Colo., for Israeli hostages in Gaza.

"Reckless and irresponsible reporting by major U.S. news outlets are contributing to the antisemitic climate that has resulted in the murder of two young people at an Israeli Embassy event in Washington last month and the attempted murder and terror attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado on Sunday," Huckabee said in a statement.

The escalation in antisemitic attacks comes after outlets reported that the Israeli Defense Forces shot or killed citizens who were trying to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which Huckabee claimed is false. 

The ambassador claimed the reports from outlets like the New York Times, the Associated Press, and CNN, were made without verification from sources outside of Hamas. 

"It is Hamas that continues to terrorize and intimidate those who seek food aid," he insisted. "The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States."

Huckabee demanded that the outlets "recant their fake news stories, apologize, and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact," claiming the reports were libelous and were "inciting violence against innocent people in the United States."

"We are demanding an immediate retraction of the lies and are appealing to all media sources to act with objective professionalism to cover actual events instead of being a partner of terrorism by blindly following Hamas news releases," he concluded.

An Associated Press spokesperson told Just The News in a statement Tuesday that the outlet stands by its reporting, which was based on accounts from multiple people and organizations, and claimed the video released by Israel was of a different incident than the one the outlet was reporting on.

"That video was shot in daylight from the city of Khan Younis, miles from the incident in Rafah that witnesses described," the spokesperson said. "The Rafah incident occurred in an Israeli military zone that international journalists have been barred from entering except on approved military embeds. 

"AP and other news organizations have repeatedly called for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to report on the war," they added.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.