Israeli guest tells TV anchor wearing grandmother’s green and red saree to ‘save it for another occasion’

Journalist says her garment did not ‘signify support for any side’

An Indian TV anchor who was reportedly wearing her grandmother’s heirloom green and red saree was told by her Israeli guest during a broadcast to “save it for another occasion”.

The guest, identified as Israeli Intel Special Forces member Frederic Landau, suggested that executive editor of Mirror Now, Shreya Dhoundial, was wearing some of the Palestinian flag colours of green and red.

“Blue and white will always prevail,” he said. Blue and white are the colours of the Israeli flag, while the Palestinian flag has green, white, red, and black.

Dhoundial responded: “Let’s not divide colours on the basis of religion, Frederic. It sometimes happens in my country as well. The garment I am wearing is a saree. And it is my grandmother’s.”

She continued that the saree did not “signify any support for any side”.

The exchange comes as Israel’s president accused the BBC of “atrocious” coverage of the Hamas-Israel conflict following the corporation’s decision not to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Isaac Herzog said Israeli families had been “wiped off the face off the earth” and asked what else the BBC needed “in order for them to admit that we are dealing with the worst terrorist organisation in the world?”

Dhoundial continued: “What I am wearing right now is simply my grandmother’s saree,” the TV host said. “If she would have been alive, she would have been 105 years old today. She didn’t know what the Israel – Hamas conflict was.”

The guest, who was invited to the show to talk about the Isreal-Hamas conflict, told the anchor to “save it (the garment she was wearing) for another occasion”. To this, Dhoundial responded: “No Frederic, I will not let you choose what I wear. And I will not let you choose what I say.”

On her social media, the journalist posted a clip from the show and wrote: “My dear departed grandmother’s saree upset my guest from #Israel this evening. For once, I was at a loss of words.”

Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden backed Israel’s account of the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital that killed at least 500 people, saying that the “other team” were behind the explosion as he visited Tel Aviv. He later backed his claims saying they were based on “data from my Defence Department”.

A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter on Tuesday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military blamed a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.

Before the al-Alhi Hospital deaths, Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700 and nearly two-thirds of those killed were children. Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians who were slain in Hamas’s 7 October attack. The assault also resulted in some 200 being taken captive into Gaza.

(With additional inputs from agencies)