BBC dismisses Palestinian journalist over criticizing Israeli war on Gaza

London (QNN)- The BBC has dismissed Palestinian journalist Tala Halawa over an angry tweet that criticized the 2014 war on Gaza. The tweet was posted three years before Halawa was hired.

In a Facebook post on her account, Tala Halawa said that she has been dismissed by the BBC over a tweet that she posted during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in 2014, three years before she joined the BBC.

“I was judged based on a single offensive and ignorant tweet posted seven years ago during the traumatic Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in 2014, specifically during the Shujaiyya attack where 55 Palestinian civilians, including 19 children and 14 women, were killed in 48 hours by Israeli strikes”, Halawa wrote.

“Israeli settlers had also kidnapped and burnt alive 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in East Jerusalem. I was a young Palestinian woman tweeting in the heat of the moment as I witnessed horrific, undeserved deaths met with international media silence and used a popular hashtag at the time without thinking”, she added.

Tala expressed her disappointment that ” the BBC, instead of seeking avenues for apology, reconciliation, and dialogue, unfortunately opted for trial with social media, amplifying troll voices and capitulating to pressure from external pro-Israel interest groups and right-wing media outlets determined to eliminate Palestinians from public life.”

“The BBC’s immediate dismissal at the whim of a pro-Israel mob is all the more absurd given the actual reason pro-Israel groups trained their sights on me: I recently published a video report for the corporation about celebrities being criticized, trolled and cancelled for supporting Palestinian self-determination. But I am not alone. This pro-Israel censorship campaign is industrial in scale and international in its reach.”

Tala Halawaon Wednesday

باللغة العربية تالياً

I was recently dismissed by the BBC over a tweet I posted during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in 2014, three years before I joined the organization. I was judged based on a single offensive and ignorant tweet posted seven years ago during the traumatic Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in 2014, specifically during the Shujaiyya attack where 55 Palestinian civilians, including 19 children and 14 women, were killed in 48 hours by Israeli strikes. Israeli …See More

Halawa’s termination reignited the discussion about the double-standards applied objectivity and past activism by journalists in Western media.

While Halawa was sacked over an old tweet, numerous journalists have ties to pro-Israel groups and the Israeli government.

Also, several reports stated that the BBC is biased towards the Israeli narrative. In 2014, during the Israeli war on Gaza, hundreds took to the streets of London, protesting against the organization’s bias.

(Source / 15.07.2021)