The Washington Post allowed a pro-Hamas intern to cover an anti-Israel rally in Washington, and then apologized to readers for the oversight. Photo: The Gateway Pundit / Screenshot.

The Washington Post apologized to readers on Monday for sending a pro-Hamas journalist intern to cover an anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.

In a statement posted online under the byline of author Britain Eakin, The Post wrote:

“EDITOR’S NOTE: The Post covered a protest outside the State Department on July 20 against U.S. policy in the Middle East and Israel’s actions in Gaza. One reporter sent to cover the protest, Britain Eakin, is an intern who has written opinion pieces elsewhere that sharply criticize Israel in the conflict. The Post should not have sent her to cover the protest and, had it known of her writings, would not have done so.”

Eakin had published two anti-Israel opinion articles in the past week, one at Al Jazeera America, ‘Israel’s War of Disproportionate Force on Gaza,’ and the other at Counter Punch, ‘What’s Needed for Real Peace in Gaza.’

On Monday, Newsbusters questioned The Post‘s journalistic ethics, and the statement was appended to the online article a few hours later.

In addition to the opinion pieces, Newsbusters reported that Eakin appealed to President Obama on Twitter, writing, “Mr. Obama, spend one night with us in Shifa (Gaza) hospital, it would change history.”

On Counter Punch, Eakin wrote:

“For the third time in less than six years, Israeli airstrikes are pounding Gaza. That means six-year-old Palestinian children have lived through 3 major Israeli military assaults in their short lives. Every few years now, the same nightmare replays, along with the familiar news chorus of Israeli propaganda: Hamas is to blame for all of it, including civilian Palestinian deaths, because it hides behind civilians who support the organization.”

…”Although Israel would like us to believe it’s done everything to avoid the current bloodshed and offered Hamas calm in exchange for calm, it’s critical to call this what it is— a blatant lie. Israel and Hamas entered into a cease-fire in November 2012 following Israel’s last assault on Gaza. The agreement stipulated that all hostilities between Palestinians and Israelis would end, and that Israel would ease the blockade and facilitate the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza.

“Yet Israel committed more than 200 violations of the agreement, according to statistics gathered by the Palestine Center. It never took meaningful steps to end the siege, even when Hamas stopped the rocket fire. This is the context the Palestinian rockets emerge from—they are an attempt to extract concessions from Israel given the inability of the international community or the peace process to do so.”

The Gateway Pundit blog flagged the controversy in a post on Monday, noting, “Yes, Eakin says that the poor Hamas terrorists are reduced to indiscriminate rocketing of Israeli civilians because they can’t catch a break from the international community. And this is who The Post sends out to cover an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protest in our nation’s capital.”