NY Times fires Palestinian journalist for supporting Palestine
The New York Times has terminated the employment of Palestinian photojournalist Hosam Salem because of remarks he made on social media endorsing Palestinian resistance to Israeli oppression.
Palestinian photographer Hosam Salem, like Jewish American journalist Katie Halper who was fired by the Hill two days ago, is unable to express his opinion on matters related to the Israeli apartheid regime while maintaining his employment, in yet another violation of press freedom this week by US mainstream media.
The journalist from Gaza who had been a freelancer for the US newspaper for four years was let go after a pro-Israel group informed the paper about his Facebook posts supporting Palestinian resistance.
“After years of covering the Gaza Strip as a freelance photojournalist for The New York Times, I was informed via an abrupt phone call from the US outlet that they will no longer work with me in the future,” Salem wrote on Twitter.
Salem claimed that he and two other Palestinian journalists who worked for the Times had been successfully discredited by the Israel lobby group Honest Reporting, which works to destroy the Palestinian narrative in the west.
In the details, he stated that the choice was taken in accordance with a report written by a Dutch editor who two years ago became an Israeli citizen and works for Honest Reporting.
“My aforementioned posts also spoke of the resilience of my people and those killed by the Israeli military — including my cousin — who described Honest Reporting as ‘Palemian terrorists,’” Salem said on Twitter.
NY Times fires Palestinian journalist for supporting Palestine
Salem claims that Honest Reporting has deliberately discouraged other international news organisations from working with him and his two colleagues in addition to cancelling his contract with The New York Times.
Salem has covered important events in Gaza since joining Time in 2018, including the weekly protests along the border barrier with the Israeli occupation. He investigated the Israeli execution of Razan Al-Najjar, a field nurse, as well as the more recent Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip in May 2021, which resulted in the deaths of at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly people.
