In May 2022, Shireen Abu Akleh, a reporter for Al-Jazeera, was shot and killed, during an Israeli raid on the town of Jenin, a hotbed of terrorist activity. Abu Akleh’s primary existence was to create anti-Israel stories for her network’s audience, something Al-Jezeerah is known for. Last month, Abu Akleh’s “PRESS” colleague, Shatha Hanaysha, toured the US to speak at different functions, including those sponsored by terror-linked groups, about Abu Akleh’s death, as she was with Abu Akleh at the time of her passing. However, Hanaysha is no credible source. Her work is as much, if not more, about championing the terrorists as it is about condemning Israel.

Shatha Hanaysha (or Hanaysheh) is a “journalist” for Ultra Palestine, a “news” organization that spends much time “reporting” on the killing of Palestinians, whom the group repeatedly refers to as “martyrs.” This author put the words “journalist,” “news” and “reporting” in quotes, because Ultra Palestine openly supports terrorists, which cannot, under any journalistic criteria, be considered legitimate journalism. Even the Palestinian Authority, in October 2019, questioned Ultra Palestine’s “professional and ethical standards” and moved to block the group’s website and others, as they “appeared to be Hamas websites or those sympathetic to” Hamas.

Hanaysha began working for Ultra Palestine, in December 2014, following her graduation from Jenin-based Arab American University (AAUP). Like her employer, Hanaysha’s main focus is on Palestinians killed by Israel. Also, like her employer, she labels all of them “martyrs,” including dead members of known terrorist groups, whom she refers to as “resistance martyrs.”

In April 2022, Hanaysha posted on Facebook a photo of sobbing women crowding around a dead Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighter, discussing how she personally has observed several distraught mothers while attending these funerals, writing “Every mother of a martyr is a love story for her son…” In October 2022, she spoke of terrorist leaders being “martyred” during battle, writing “[H]e continues to resist until the last breath until he becomes a martyr… Mercy to the martyrs and healing to the wounded.”

In December 2022, Hanaysha wrote about her presence at “military shows,” from where she can remember only people’s eyes, as the terrorists’ cover their faces with masks. She posted a photo of a female member of PIJ amongst other members, stating “These two eyes, one of the few eyes I remember well. I don’t know the owner but I was relieved when I saw her still among the groups.”

This past July, Hanaysha posted a photo of deceased PIJ fighter Magdi Ararawi, who was eliminated during an Israeli counter-terrorism operation, proclaiming above the pic, “Glory to the martyrs.” Hanaysha’s employer, Ultra Palestine, complained that Ararawi’s death prevented him from taking the Tawjihi exam, an annual scholastic exam for Jordanians and Palestinians. Neither Hanaysha nor her employer mentioned the fact that Ararawi was the member of a vicious terrorist organization that has been known to deliberately target civilians.

This past August, Hanaysha posted an image on different social media containing around four dozen Palestinian terrorists of various factions posing for the photo. A number of pics of Hanaysha, including one taken in the same place as this group photo, depict her wearing her “PRESS” outfit while holding a wide-angle lens camera. Were these fighters posing for Hanaysha? Above the image, she wrote “Jenin camp.” It seems Hanaysha’s view of Jenin is the same as Israel’s – that it is a terrorist haven – except that she is happy of it being so.

With all of Hanaysha’s twisted views proudly intact, a number of anti-Israel entities, including groups tied to terrorism, wished to exploit Abu Akleh’s death by having Hanaysha come to the United States to speak and spread what has been called a false narrative – that Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted by the IDF. According to the IDF, following a series of internal investigations, “there is a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen, during an exchange of fire in which life-risking, widespread and indiscriminate shots were fired toward IDF soldiers.”

In September, Hanaysha spoke at the Palestine Writes Festival in Philadelphia alongside Marc Lamont Hill, who was previously fired from CNN for making an extreme anti-Israel statement that many consider to be a call for the destruction of the Jewish state. She addressed the Columbia Journalism School, in New York City. And she had events in New York and Boca Raton that were organized by the anti-Israel terror supporting group Al-Awda and sponsored by Islamist organizations linked to Hamas, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

In the course of her speech given at Al-Awda’s New York event, Hanaysha repeatedly referred to herself as a “journalist.” Journalists, though, have a responsibility to uphold ethical standards and adhere to the principles of objective and responsible reporting. Supporting terrorism or engaging in activities that promote violence or harm goes directly against these principles.

What Shatha Hanaysha does and Shireen Abu Akleh did is not journalism. In essence, the “PRESS” sign that they wear/wore acts as a weapon used to condemn their perceived enemy, Israel, and at the same time, a shield to protect the terrorists, whose cause it appears they embrace. Their “journalism” is not only ‘fake news,’ but a dangerous and deadly lie. They shamefully and perhaps criminally put themselves in the line of fire to safeguard terror.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.