Industry Demands ITV Ban Nadia Sawalha Over Posts

Leading figures in the entertainment industry have today called on to ban from appearing on the channel after she was accused of posting antisemitic content on social media.

The actress and presenter came off the panel last month after she defended her husband Mark Adderley’s anti-Israel rants and shared a number of ‘unhinged’ videos on her Instagram account.

While she has not appeared on the ITV daytime show since the end of April, bosses are thought to be in talks to reinstate her in the coming weeks.

Now, a number of leading Jewish figures have presented ITV executives with a 15-page letter, outlining their concerns over this prospect, following her ‘repeated examples of conspiratorial rhetoric, inflammatory commentary, disinformation, and antisemitic discourse.’

Former ITV executive Claudia Rosencrantz, former Director of Television Danny Cohen and Fulwell Entertainment co-CEO Leo Pearlman are among the signatories. 

Ms Sawalha, they claim, has not been raising ‘criticism of Israeli government policy’ or ‘debate surrounding the conflict in Gaza’, which would have been ‘legitimate political expression.’

Their main concerns arise from her ‘repeated promotion, legitimisation and endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy narrative’ as well as the ‘amplification of inflammatory disinformation and false claims relating to Israel and Jewish people.’

She has also been accused of being ‘mocking, dismissive, or trivialising treatment of antisemitism allegations and concerns’ as well as ‘inflammatory conduct and gestures widely interpreted by viewers as threatening, hostile, or intimidating toward Jewish people.’

Ms Sawalha, 61, and Adderley, who was recently suspended from the Green Party after comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, often share online platforms.

They have recently appeared side-by-side in videos, some of which referred to 'Israeli false flag' operations being behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a missile attack on a British base in Cyprus.

Following Adderley’s suspension from the party, Ms Sawalha publicly defended him as ‘the most decent kind, super smart man with the hugest of hearts.’ 

The lengthy letter highlights a number of these videos as evidence that the pair have ‘extremist sympathies.’

The group claim that ITV’s decision to reinstate her on the channel ‘risks significant reputational damage to both ITV and its programming.’

Her appearance on the light-hearted daytime panel would be ‘incompatible with the standards of judgement, responsibility, sensitivity, and public trust expected of a mainstream daytime television presenter associated with a major national broadcaster,’ says the letter.

'Nadia Sawalha has been posting vile, unhinged rants online for some time now. It is time ITV took action against her,’ Alex Hearn, from advocacy group Labour Against Antisemitism told the Mail last month.

Ms Sawalha has been contacted for comment.