BBC Investigating Journalist Who Said ‘Hitler Was Right’ About Jews
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BBC News said Sunday it was investigating an employee who previously opined on the conflict between Israel and Palestine with a comment that said “Hitler was right.”
“#Israel is more #Nazi than #Hitler!” the employee, Tala Halawa, wrote in a July 2014 remark on Twitter. “#Hitlerwasright #IDF go to hell.”
The comment was unearthed on Sunday by media watchdog Honest Reporting. A spokesperson for the BBC said in a statement that the tweet came before Halawa joined the network: “These tweets predate the individual’s employment with the BBC, but we are nevertheless taking this very seriously and are investigating.’
Tala Halawa is a “digital journalist” for the @BBC.
Halawa directly influences and creates news content watched by many millions around the world.
In what world can someone like this work for a professional news outlet? pic.twitter.com/r2LIHmZfF2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 23, 2021
Halawa, a digital journalist, works for the BBC as a “Palestine specialist” based in Ramallah, a Palestinian territory in the West Bank. She authored the comments while she was working for Palestinian radio station 24FM, according to a since-deleted LinkedIn account, and during the 50-day Gaza War between Israel and Palestine. She expressed more than one critical opinion of Israel during the period, writing in another post, “Zionists can’t get enough of our blood.” She added, “They’re crying the holocaust every single moment but they’re practicing it every single moment as well.”
The incident is the third of its kind to embroil media outlets this month. CNN cut ties with Adeel Raja, a freelancer based in Pakistan, after he wrote “the world needs a Hitler.” And the Associated Press fired a reporter, Emily Wilder, after she criticized terms used to describe the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
