Controversy over a campaign to celebrate a confessed member of the Palestinian Islamist Jihad (PIJ) terror group – and to make him a central player in efforts to boycott Israel – spread yesterday to engulf CNN. Europe’s rising soccer stars are in Israel this week for the UEFA Under-21 Championships, Israel’s largest international sports event ever.

Hosting the popular tournament was considered a diplomatic and cultural coup by Jerusalem. Anti-Israel activists launched an unsuccessful campaign to cancel or secure boycotts of the event, and focused on making briefly-imprisoned PIJ member Mahmoud Sarsak the face of their efforts. They resoundingly failed in preventing the tournament from taking place as planned, but they did succeed in securing positive coverage from multiple outlets – including the BBC and the Guardian – as if they had actually succeeded.

Yesterday the Washington Free Beacon reported that the CNN International site was spotlighting a magazine-length story and photo gallery on those topics. While noting that Sarsak as an impressive soccer player imprisoned by Israel, CNN declined to note an array of information demonstrating that he was an active terror group member:

“The reporter makes a romantic figure out of someone with ties to Islamic Jihad and shows zero skepticism about Sarsak’s rendition of events,” said Andrea Levin, director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). “CNN shouldn’t be in the business of whitewashing. Viewers need the whole story.”… The terrorist-cum-athlete is portrayed as an unjustly imprisoned freedom fighter on a selfless crusade to expose Israeli racism. Rather than note Sarsak’s terrorist credentials near the beginning of the piece, CNN describes him as “a talented striker who had once been called up to the Palestinian national [soccer] team squad.”…

Sarsak has admitted he is a PIJ member and has been featured extensively on the website of Islamic Jihad’s Saraya, or military wing… Islamic Jihad organized a welcome-home reception for Sarsak following his release from Israeli detention in 2012. He has been celebrated on Saraya’s website multiple times. Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam praised Sarsak during the reception as “one of our noble members,” according to reports.Sarsak can be seen in pictures taken at the time wearing a PIJ scarf and being held aloft by fellow members of the terror group. Sarsak told the Israeli Supreme Court in 2011 that he was connected to PIJ, leading it to extend his detention and deny his appeals for release.

CNN was also faulted, as other outlets have been, for its uncritical portrayal of boycott efforts that watchdog groups have criticized for being perniciously anti-Semitic. More from the Free Beacon:

Cooper said that while it is completely fair for CNN to cover Sarsak “they probably could have done a better job explaining what Islamic Jihad is… They [also] could have spent a bit of time on the idea a boycott [on Israel] is anti-Semitic,” Cooper said. “Anytime they’d like an explanation, CNN Sports can come by and we’ll explain it.”

PIJ is backed by Iran and has been designated as a terrorist entity by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Israel.

The controversy comes in the aftermath of other media-based scandals in which outlets manufactured and then were forced to apologize for accusations revolving around sterilization, apartheid, and civilian targeting.

[Photo: Jazz in Black ‘n White (et autres choses…) / Flickr]