It is being widely reported that Sky News has ended its contract with presenter Belle Donati eight months after she compared Israeli actions in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Donati has not been seen on Sky News since January when she challenged Israeli politician Danny Danon over his desire to see the “voluntarily migration” of Palestinians from Gaza.
The presenter compared this to “ethnic cleaning” and the “voluntary relocation of many Jewish people during the Holocaust.”
Dannon replied: “Shame on you for that comparison” before labelling her words antisemitic and demanding an apology,
The ex Israeli UN ambassador later wrote to Sky News demanding that Donati be fired.
Sky issued an on-air apology the same day as the interview which read: “In an interview earlier today with Israeli politician Danny Danon, a Sky News presenter made a comparison between Mr Danon’s comments on Israel’s war with Hamas and the treatment of Jewish people in the Holocaust.
“Sky News recognises the complete inappropriateness of this comparison and the offensive nature of those comments. Sky News would like to apologise unreservedly for the comparison and to Mr Danon personally for making the comparison.”
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Belle Donati is a dual British-French national who has worked for several international and domestic news stations including Al Jazeera, TRT World, France 24, BBC and ITV.
She has made no public statement since the interview.
Mr Danon was appearing on the programme after Israel was told by the UN’s top court to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 41,000 as of this week, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Danon himself is considered to be on the right of Israeli politics. He is opposed to a two-state solution and argues for extending Israeli sovereignty over the majority of the West Bank.
Danon has advocated for punitive attacks against Palestinian civilians and infrastructure, including a suggestion that Israel “delete” one neighbourhood in Gaza in response for every rocket launched by Hamas.
In July 2014, Danon advocated cutting off all electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza to induce Hamas to request a ceasefire. Subsequently, on August 1, 2014, after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, Danon was quoted as saying “If we don’t get the soldier back within a few hours we should start levelling Gaza.”
