Liberal Senator Admits Error After Misidentifying Gaza Journalist’s “Hamas” ID
Senator Sarah Henderson corrected her claim that a slain Palestinian journalist held a Hamas ID card during a heated Senate estimates hearing.
During a fiery Senate estimates hearing, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson asserted that the late Palestinian journalist Roshdi Sarraj – who had filed video for the ABC from Gaza – possessed “a Hamas ID card.”
The claim prompted a headline in The Australian reading “ABC investigates whether it hired Hamas terrorist for Middle‑East coverage.” Henderson backed her allegation with a printout of an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) report, stating, “Their work includes the fact that Sarraj has a Hamas ID card. And you don’t think that’s sufficient evidence?”
After the hearing, Henderson realised she had erred. She contacted ABC managing director Hugh Marks to acknowledge the mistake and later told Weekly Beast that she had referenced the wrong journalist. She added that she had written to the Senate communications committee to correct the record in Hansard.
“While the IDF concluded Mr Al‑Sarraj was a Hamas military operative, I incorrectly said he held a Hamas ID card rather than the two Al Jazeera journalists I referenced in the hearing who had Hamas military ID numbers,” Henderson said.
The dispute centred on ABC’s editorial director Gavin Fang, who had been challenged by Henderson over the broadcaster’s response to IDF claims that 170 media workers – including Sarraj – killed in the conflict were Hamas operatives. Henderson described Fang’s stance as “flippant,” accusing him of dismissing “very, very serious and significant evidence” that the ABC had hired a Hamas terrorist.
Fang countered that the IDF had not supplied the ABC with any proof of Sarraj’s active links to the organisation. So for the best of our knowledge [Sarraj] was a legitimate journalist who was tragically killed, he told estimates. “Until we are able to find something that goes to the veracity of that claim, I don’t think it’s incumbent on us … to declare that that person was a member of Hamas.”
In a separate note, the article mentioned Offsiders presenter Abbey Gelmi and her compliance with ABC’s external‑work guidelines, but provided no further detail on that matter.
Henderson’s admission closes a brief but intense episode of parliamentary scrutiny over the ABC’s Gaza coverage and the provenance of its stringers.
