While reporting from the West Bank on Friday, CNN correspondent Sara Sidner was confronted by Palestinian demonstrators, including one furious protester who shouted “fuck CNN” while calling the network “genocide supporters.”
Reporting from the streets of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory, Sidner took CNN viewers inside a Palestinian-led demonstration against the Israel-Hamas war. Protests have grown increasingly angry in the Arab world following the blast at a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead. Israel has denied responsibility, claiming it was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian militants, an assessment American intelligence agencies largely agree with.
Clad in a helmet and safety vest, Sidner was reporting live on CNN This Morning as she walked through the protest. At one point, a demonstrator accosted her and began screaming into her face.
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“You are genocide supporters. You are not welcome here, genocide supporters,” the protester screamed. “Fuck CNN! Fuck CNN! Genocide supporters!”
Sidner remained calm throughout the tense confrontation, even as the man put his face close to hers and began angrily pointing his finger at her.
Eventually, security personnel whisked Sidner and her crew away from the scene, especially as other demonstrators began gathering around her while attempting to block her camera.
“All right, you see that people are very angry,” Sidner said as she walked away. “They do not like the way in which CNN has been reporting the story. You hear that.”
With anchor Erin Burnett, who was hosting from Tel Aviv, expressing concern for her colleague’s safety, Sidner assured the CNN This Morning crew that she was okay while continuing to report.
“We’re fine,” she declared.”But what you are seeing is the heightened fear, anger, frustration with what’s happening in general.”
She continued: “The general anger people feel is that Israel is getting more support than the Palestinians, and the Palestinians feel they’re getting bombed and losing a lot of life. I mean, we’re talking upwards of 3,000 people now killed, 10,000-plus who have been injured in Gaza. In the West Bank, by the way, 67 people plus have been killed.”
Following the on-air confrontation, Sidner received praise from her colleagues for keeping her cool amid the fraught situation.
“Just incredible composure and poise from the incredible @sarasidnerCNN. Thank you for your incredible reporting,” CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin tweeted on Friday.
