Channel 13’s U.S. correspondent Suleiman Maswadeh is at the center of a storm following an investigation published Tuesday night in Haaretz, which revealed he stayed for about two weeks at the home of Jay Footlik, an American lobbyist who worked for Qatar and is linked to the Qatar affair. The report raised questions about Maswadeh’s personal ties to a figure involved in the sensitive scandal, in which Maswadeh himself previously gave testimony to police.
According to the investigation, last September, after moving to the United States for his new role, Maswadeh stayed at a Virginia property registered in Footlik’s name. During his time there, he broadcast at least twice from the home’s yard. According to real estate documents cited in the investigation, the property’s address also served as the office for Footlik’s lobbying firm, Third Circle, which worked with Qatar’s embassy in Washington.
Footlik is one of the figures whose name came up in the Qatar affair, which involves suspicions of promoting Qatari interests through people in the prime minister’s circle. Footlik’s name was linked to transferring funds to Eli Feldstein and promoting messages on behalf of Qatar. Maswadeh himself previously gave testimony to police as part of the investigation, during the period when he worked at Kan 11, Israel’s public broadcaster.
In response to the report, Maswadeh explained that he and Footlik are longtime personal friends, and that his stay at the house was a temporary living arrangement during his transition period in the United States. According to him, he paid for his stay at the property, and it was not a favor granted to him in connection with his journalistic work.
Channel 13 did not deny the details of the stay, but acknowledged it was an error in the reporter’s judgment. In a statement issued by the company: “Maswadeh never covered Footlik, his businesses, or any of his clients, and never broadcast information that came from him, but he erred in judgment. The news company stands behind Suleiman and fully supports his professional work.”