Sky News apologizes over IDF ‘Nazi’ comparison

An anchor for the network accused an Israeli lawmaker of advocating “ethnic cleansing” for Palestinians in Gaza

Sky News has issued an apology after one of its presenters compared an Israeli politician’s proposal for Palestinian refugees to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, deeming her words “offensive” and inappropriate.

During a live interview on Friday with Israeli lawmaker and former United Nations envoy Danny Danon, Sky News anchor Belle Donati pressed the Knesset minister on his November 13 opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, which urged Western nations to take in Gazan families “who have expressed a desire to leave” the war-torn enclave.

While Donati described Danon’s proposal as a form of “ethnic cleansing,” the politician soon interrupted to insist that he had never used those words, stressing that his op-ed spoke only of “voluntary immigration” for willing refugees.

The host then shot back: “Yes, the sort of ‘voluntary relocation’ of many Jewish people during the Holocaust, I imagine, was not voluntary,” prompting an outraged reaction from Danon, who slammed the comment as a “shameful, anti-Semitic equation.”

This insolent interviewer from @SkyNews disgracefully drew comparisons between the situation in Gaza and the Holocaust. Shame on her pic.twitter.com/GyhkL2W1co

— Danny Danon