Palestinian activist Omar Mofeed succeeds in forcing Jewish Chronicle to remove a defamatory article

AUK Editorial 23 December 2022

The British activist of Palestinian origin, Omar Mufid al-Mukhalalati, managed to force the Jewish Chronicle to delete an article it published against him after it was proven that he fabricated incorrect information about him about a year ago.

The activist Omar Mufid holds a master’s degree in accounting and has been residing in London for several years and has a presence and activity in several organizations working for Palestine in Britain, such as the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Britain (PSC).

As well as his activity in the British Labor Party, and when the possibility of the party’s nomination of Omar for local councils for one of his constituencies in London, the newspaper rushed to publish an article about him and his father, Dr. Mufid Al-Mukhalalati, who was a minister for health in Gaza

About a year ago, the Jewish Chronicle, Britain’s oldest pro-Israel newspaper worked more than 180 years old, published a report about activist Omar Mufid containing a lot of misinformation, to threaten him and others to stop activism in solidarity with Palestine.

Omar Mufid defeats Jewish Chronicle

Omar provided a great example of defending his right and not being silent about false accusations against him and his father, so he pursued the newspaper through the British Newspaper Standards Authority (IPSO), an independent foundation that sets standards for the work of British journalism according to professional controls.

He explained in his complaint how that newspaper violated professional standards for publishing, defaming him with false information, and violating his privacy by publishing private information such as his home address, phone numbers, and professional accounts such as LinkedIn, which caused great harm to him and forced him to change his residential address and phone numbers, in addition to defaming his father and falsely describing him as an undesirable activist in Britain, a global surgeon who lectured at prestigious universities.

“Over the past years, the Jewish Chronicle has deliberately discredited activists in solidarity with Palestine, and called for supporting those voices and standing by them in the face of that distortion”, Omar Mufid said in a tweet.

On the other side, he thanked the European Legal Support Centre for the support and assistance it had provided over the past twelve months.

Omar Mufid’s statement to AUK

It took me and ELSC 12 months to make this achievement!
For the past few years, pro-Israel news outlets have brutally targeted Palestinian🇵🇸voices in the UK. It is our duty to, support the Palestinian voices and make them heard. 3/3

— Omar Mofeed (@OmarMofeed1) December 22, 2022

Omar Mufid said in a special statement to the Arab platform in Britain AUK that the legal settlement he reached with the newspaper included deleting the article and communicating with the newspapers that used the article to confirm the invalidity of the article and the Standards.

British Newspaper Standards Authority (IPSO) revealed that the information contained in the article is incorrect and published in an unprofessional manner while retaining his research in filing a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.

Omar highlighted the need not to retreat in front of the pressures of the Israeli lobby in Britain, which is active in intimidating activists defending Palestine in various ways, and highlighted that its success in extracting this settlement is evidence of their weakness and not based on facts and legal methods, but rather to follow devious methods of defamation and breach of the privacy of others.

Omar Mufid thanked all those who stood with him during the past 12 months, which were painful and difficult, and caused him psychological and moral damage, especially as it affected his late father.