Washington
CNN freelance Pakistani journalist, Adeel Raja, has been fired after his anti-Semitic remarks. The reporter tweeted, ‘the world needs a Hitler,’ as he criticized Israeli attacks on Palestine.
Although Raja deleted the tweet, CNN fired the freelancer. Social media criticized the tweet of the journalist saying that it was unethical to say this.
German dictator Adolf Hitler had been responsible for the death of ~6 million Jews in what is called ‘the Holocaust.’
CNN officials in a statement announced ending its ties with raja.
‘Adeel Raja has never been a CNN employee. As a freelancer, his reporting contributed to some newsgathering efforts from Islamabad. However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity.’
According to his LinkedIn account, Raja has freelanced for CNN since 2013, working on several stories for the network during that time, the report said.
It was reported that Raja has been posting anti-Semitic posts for quite a while. Adeel has a verified account with 81.5K followers.
In 2014, while presumably watching the FIFA World Cup, Raja tweeted, ‘The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals — Hitler was a German and he did well with those Jews.’ The next day, he tweeted, ‘Hail Hitler.’
The tweet comes amid increasing tensions between Israel and Palestine, which is being seen by many as the most violent conflict between the two nations since the 2014 Gaza War, as they each fire a barrage of rockets at the other.
Over the past week, at least 188 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, including 55 children and 33 women.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing violent struggle between Israelis and Palestinians.
Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
It has been referred to as the world’s ‘most intractable conflict’, with the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip reaching 54 years.—Agencies
