South African presenter taken off the lineup for confronting Holocaust denier during interview

During an interview with Mamphela Ramphele, chairperson of the Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust, Newell questioned the decision by the trust to compare the Gaza situation to the Holocaust.

Ramphele answered Newell’s questions, claiming that “if you [Newell] look at the deliberate attack on children, on women, on unarmed citizens, and the starvation. Using starvation as a weapon of war. Tell me what that is.”

Ramphele continued: “It is by tolerating the killing of one person, two children, or 10 children that they add up to 6 million.

“If we are waiting for 6 million [people to die], then humanity has no right to call itself human because to be human is to feel the pain of every person as if it were yourself.”

Newell pushed back on that statement.

“I think they are two different situations. It is mischievous of you to bring them up and put them together as if they were the same thing."

After the incident, SABC decided that Newell should be taken off the schedule. “The South African Broadcasting Corporation is aware of the matter relating to the conduct of one of its news presenters in an interview conducted with Dr Mamphela Ramphele,” read an official statement.

“As such, SABC News management took immediate action in line with the SABC’s internal processes, and the presenter in question is currently not scheduled,” the statement concluded.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a pro-Palestinian NGO, also made a statement where they criticized Newell's interview and SABC’s coverage of the Gaza War in general.