Shocking new details of an Emmy-nominated Palestinian filmmaker’s alleged links to a terrorist group have been unearthed by pro-Israel nonprofit groups.
Bisan Owda was nominated last month for an Emmy in the News and Documentary category, for her film ‘It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive’, aired on the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera channel AJ+.
But pro-Israel groups uncovered videos and photos showing Owda giving speeches at four rallies for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US government-designated terrorist group – including one event where children were pictured wielding swords and attendees waved terror group flags.
Last month a pro-Israel group of top Hollywood professionals, the Creative Community For Peace (CCFP), called on Emmy runners to take back the gong nomination, claiming that Owda had given multiple speeches at PFLP rallies in Gaza.
But the organization behind the Emmys, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), doubled down, saying the claims were uncorroborated and from several years ago.
Now, researchers at US nonprofit the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) have documented further incidents they claim show Owda’s support for PFLP, and the CCFP have renewed their calls to rescind the Emmy nod.
Videos and pictures uncovered by MEMRI and the CCFP appear to show Owda speaking on stage at the terror group’s 2015 anniversary rally where children were photographed holding daggers and wearing PFLP bandannas, and masked men brandished swords.
Posts on the terror group PFLP’s own website describe the celebrated filmmaker as ‘Comrade Bisan Owda’ and picture her in military outfits giving speeches at the 2014, 2015, and 2016 anniversary rallies for the terror group in Gaza.
A 2018 PFLP post referred to Owda as a member of the organization’s youth wing, publishing pictures of her taking part in a panel discussion for the PFLPs Progressive Youth Union.
AJ+ said the claims of Owda’s terror links were ‘baseless allegations’.
Owda did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The controversy was first sparked on August 19, when CCFP wrote an open letter to the Emmy organization calling on them to rescind Owda’s nomination over her alleged PFLP links.
In an August 20 email obtained by DailyMail.com, Academy President Adam Sharp replied to CCFP that they were ‘unable to corroborate these reports’ and found no ‘contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organization’.
‘NATAS is aware of reports, cited in your letter and initially surfaced by a communications consultant in the region, that appear to show a then-teenaged Bisan Owda speaking at various PFLP-associated events between six and nine years ago,’ Sharp wrote to the CCFP.
‘NATAS has been unable to corroborate these reports, nor has it been able, to date, to surface any evidence of more contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organization.
‘NATAS has found no grounds, to date, upon which to overturn the editorial judgment of the independent journalists who reviewed the material.’
Researchers at US nonprofit the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) found more recent controversial statements by Owda – including a reported Instagram post in which she appeared to justify the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel last year that killed 1,139 people.
‘For every action, there is a reaction,’ Owda posted on social media following the attacks, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In an August 20 email obtained by DailyMail.com, Academy President Adam Sharp replied to CCFP saying the claims were uncorroborated and from several years ago
‘This means: What was expected after 75 years of occupation and 17 years of siege?… What was expected of us?… Would the families of the prisoners remain silent?’
And MEMRI researchers highlighted that the day before her Emmy nomination, Owda posted a video on Instagram in which she repeatedly said: ‘Free Palestine from the River to the Sea’ – a phrase often interpreted to mean the eradication of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
As well as giving speeches and even allegedly helping organize the three PFLP anniversary rallies, MEMRI said Owda ‘hosted’ a fourth event in 2016 ‘held in honor of PFLP operatives who had been wounded in a ‘Day of Rage’ against Israel organized by the PFLP’, and published pictures of her speaking at the event.
MEMRI documented photos and videos from the 2015 anniversary rally where Owda gave a speech dressed in military camouflage clothing.
Attendees waved flags for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, and masked PFLP operatives brandished swords and knives.
One photograph even shows a young child holding a dagger and wearing a PFLP bandanna.
The PFLP’s website described her as the ‘master of ceremonies’ at the 2016 anniversary rally.
The PFLP was designated a terrorist group by the US government in 1997. The group was behind two hijackings in 1968 and 1969, as well as a Rocket Propelled Grenade attack on planes at Orly Airport in Paris in 1975.
The PFLP was held responsible for assassinating Israeli lawmaker Rehavam Ze’evi in a Jerusalem hotel, conducting suicide bombings at a bus stop in 2003 and a Tel Aviv market in 2004, as well as a shooting in Jerusalem in October last year.
According to the US Office for the Director of National Intelligence, a PFLP bomb killed a 17-year-old girl near an Israeli settlement in August 2019, and ‘two PFLP-affiliated Palestinians’ killed three Americans and two other worshippers and injured 12 at an Israeli synagogue in 2014.
In an August 21 press release, the channel that aired Owda’s documentary, AJ+, said the allegations of her links to the PFLP were ‘baseless allegations’ and ‘an attempt to silence Bisan’.
‘The call for the Emmy nomination to be rescinded is nothing more than an attempt to deny an important perspective to the global audience on the war and its devastating impact on innocent civilians,’ AJ+ said.
Despite the new controversy surrounding Owda, her work has already received accolades and notoriety.
Her Emmy-nominated documentary It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive, which has received over 40 million views, was given a 2023 Peabody award, a coveted journalism gong, as well as the prominent Edward R. Murrow Award.
The Peabody website said it awarded Owda ‘for showing bravery and persistence in the midst of imminent danger, and for carrying a heavy journalistic burden as the entire world looks on’.
‘Owda’s frequent video and livestream reports from the Gaza Strip vividly document the Palestinian civilian experience under Israeli siege following Hamas’ attack on October 7,’ the organization said.
‘Reporting from her makeshift tent outside the medical center, she shows what survival looks like for her and the masses around her, reporting through tears and horror when Israeli forces strike an ambulance nearby.’
CCFP executive director Ari Ingel told DailyMail.com that he supported other Palestinian Emmy nominees, but that Owda’s terror ties should have ruled her out.
‘There are two other documentaries nominated in the same exact category about the war in Gaza, which we have no problem with, since these are voices that should be heard and stories that should be told,’ he said.
‘The NATAS decision to nominate Owda — whose goal with this project was to spread PFLP propaganda — alongside respected journalists and storytellers seeking the truth, sets a dangerous precedent for the future of objective journalism.
‘She is a longtime proud member of the terrorist group and supports their tactics wholeheartedly.
‘The Emmys have decided that supporting a member of a terrorist group that murders innocent men, women, and children is not a dealbreaker for their award.’
Owda’s documentary was aired on AJ+, a media organization owned by the government of Middle East nation Qatar.
In 2020 the Department of Justice ordered AJ+ to register as a foreign lobbying agent, saying it conducts ‘political activities’ on behalf of Qatar’s government and is designed to ‘influence American perceptions’ of ‘domestic policy’.
The CCFP says that AJ+ promotes ‘anti-Semitic’ content and even suggested Jews ‘benefited’ from the holocaust.
‘In 2019, AJ+ released a video captioned The Gas Chambers Killed Millions of Jews – That’s How the Story Goes. What Is the Truth behind the Holocaust and How Did the Zionist Movement Benefit from It?’ the organization said in a statement.
‘In December 2023, AJ+ released a 17-minute video downplaying the genocidal nature of [Palestine terror group] Hamas, arguing that they are merely ‘freedom fighters’ who are ‘resisting occupation and colonial violence.’
CCFP said that in a seemingly innocuous February 2024 Instagram post, AJ+ wrote: ‘People around the world demanded an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza this weekend. This is what global solidarity looks like.’
But behind the text was a photo of protesters holding placards that said in Arabic: ‘God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel. Curse the Jews, victory to Islam.’
AJ+ said that they deleted the 2019 holocaust video and suspended the journalists who produced it in May 2019. The outlet declined to comment on CCFP’s other allegations.
NATAS did not provide a further response to DailyMail.com, but pointed to their August 20 letter to CCFP, which says that all submissions are ‘judged by experienced journalists from across multiple news organizations, serving in an independent, volunteer capacity’.
‘It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive was reviewed by two successive panels of independent judges, including senior editorial leadership from each significant U.S. broadcast news network,’ NATAS’ letter said.
‘It was selected for nomination from among more than 50 submissions in one of the year’s most competitive categories.’
