(A7) The New York Times has terminated the employment of a freelance Israeli reporter for liking pro-Israel posts on X, including a tweet calling to turn Gaza into a “slaughterhouse” in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of October 7, Ynet reported.
Anat Schwartz began writing for the Times in November as part of the paper’s coverage of the Israeli response to the massacre of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of over 240 hostages. She was one of several writers bylined in the paper’s investigation into the Hamas mass rapes and sexual assaults on October 7.
The Times announced an investigation against Schwartz in February. “We are aware that a freelance journalist in Israel who has worked with The Times has ‘liked’ several social media posts,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhodes Ha said in a statement at the time. “Those ‘likes’ are unacceptable violations of our company policy. We are currently reviewing the matter.”
One of the tweets Schwartz liked was posted by Israeli journalist David Verthaim in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacre saying that if Hamas did not return the hostages, Gaza should be turned “into a slaughterhouse.”
