The New York Times said it was “reviewing” its contract with an Israeli freelance reporter who clicked “like” on a social media post calling for the Gaza Strip to be turned into a “slaughterhouse.”
Anat Schwartz, a 45-year-old film director who co-signed a controversial Times report on an alleged gang rape by Hamas terrorists on October 7, was arrested after an X user posted screenshots of Schwartz’s social media activity. The company was the subject of an internal investigation. included “liked” posts with a clear pro-Israel slant.
One post called on Israel to “turn around.” [Gaza Strip] “Sent to the slaughterhouse” and “execute” Palestinian terrorist suspects.
“The path to victory must not violate any norms,” said a post that Schwartz liked.
“We are aware that an Israeli freelance journalist who worked with the Times ‘liked’ some social media posts,” Times spokeswoman Daniel Rose Ha said in a statement to the Post. told.
“These likes are an unacceptable violation of our policies. We are currently considering this matter. ”
Intercept reporter Ryan Grimm said Schwartz no longer plans to write for the paper.
When asked about Grimm’s report that the Times had cut ties with Schwartz, Rose Ha declined to add to her previous statement.
News of the investigation into Schwartz was first reported by The Daily Beast.
The newspaper has reached out to Schwartz for comment.
Mr. Schwartz also appears to support the X post, which was created by an official Israeli government account.
The Oct. 10 post amplified a conspiracy theory that Hamas terrorists beheaded 40 Israeli infants during cross-border raids on Gaza border towns and kibbutzim.
Initial claims that Hamas massacred dozens of infants spread quickly, but there has been no official confirmation of this from the Israeli government.
A December report in the English-language news site The Times of Israel said that of the less than 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists, two were infants and 12 were children under 10. said.
The report also said 36 civilians between the ages of 10 and 19 were killed.
Israeli military operations since October 7 have left an estimated 30,000 Palestinians dead in Gaza. At least 11,000 of those killed were children, aid groups and local authorities said.
Last month, the paper’s popular podcast, The Daily, featured an episode about the alleged gang rape by Hamas terrorists after the paper’s staff raised questions about a Dec. 28 article co-authored by Schwartz.
The story, reported by the Times, is the result of a two-month investigation and calls into question soldiers and medics who reported seeing the bodies of dozens of women with “marks of abuse in their genital areas.” Based on interviews.
However, critics of this story point out that the victim’s quick burial prevented authorities from collecting forensic evidence to corroborate reports of gang rape.
Hamas denied that its members raped an Israeli woman on October 7.
Criticism of the Times article from newsroom staff led “The Daily” to cancel a podcast episode scheduled for January 9. According to The Intercept.
Before the decision was made to cancel the podcast, producers were reportedly drafting a new script that included a “serious caveat” that “allowed for uncertainty” in the paper’s original report.
Last year, it emerged that The Times had rehired a Palestinian freelance journalist who came under fire for praising Adolf Hitler in resurfaced Facebook posts.
