On 20th October, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan lambasted The New York Times for rehiring a reporter from Gaza, Soliman Hijjy. Hijjy has a notorious track record of praising Hitler and taking a pro-Hamas stand. As per his author profile, he has resumed contributing to the New York Times after a gap of two years to ‘cover’ the Israel-Hamas war.
‘Maintains high standards of Journalism’, NYT defends its decision to rehire Hitler-fanboy and pro-Hamas ‘journalist’
Responding to the criticism, NYT issued a statement defending its decision to rehire Soliman Hijjy. It claimed that after a review of his “problematic” social media posts which came to light in 2022, they took various actions following which Hijjy adhered to their standards of journalism.
In its statement, the New York Times said, “We reviewed problematic social media posts by Mr Hijjy when they first came to light in 2022 and took a variety of actions to ensure he understood our concerns and could adhere to our standards if he wished to do freelance work for us in the future.”
It further claimed that he maintains ‘high standards of journalism’ and has delivered impartial work for them even by putting his own life at risk in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The statement added, “Mr. Hijjy followed those steps and has maintained high journalistic standards. He has delivered important and impartial work at great personal risk in Gaza during this conflict.”
Earlier, the Israeli Envoy Erdan slammed NYT for rehiring a Nazi. He highlighted that as soon as Soliman Hijjy started contributing to the news portal, NYT immediately ran Hamas propaganda. He asserted that it carried out Hamas propaganda regarding the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza and falsely accused Israel of the attack. He also noted that Hijjy had a contribution in NYT’s reportage on the Hospital attack which later turned out to be false. However, despite facts coming to the fore on the al-Alhi hospital attack, NYT has not retracted its fabricated report, Erdan noted.
It is important to note that on 17th October, a rocket attack took place on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza after a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket misfired and hit the parking space of the Hospital killing several civilians.
Initially, NYT promoted Hamas propaganda without verifying the details. Titled “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinian Officials Say,” the article laid the blame for the hospital attack on Israel. Later, when the lies were busted, it changed the title to “Hundreds Dead in Blast at Gaza Hospital, Palestinians Say.”
Regarding NYT’s decision to rehire Hijjy, the Israeli Envoy tweeted, “The New York Times has just rehired a NAZI. Let that sink in. Soliman Hijjy praises Hitler, and the NYT rehired him. We all saw how the NYT immediately parroted Hamas’ lies regarding the al-Ahli hospital (which Hijjy contributed to) and still refuses to retract these fabrications. Spreading Hamas propaganda and rehiring a Holocaust-praising terror supporter, actively stokes anti-Semitism.”
The @nytimes has just rehired a NAZI
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 20, 2023
Let that sink in.
Soliman Hijjy praises Hitler, and the NYT rehired him.
We all saw how the NYT immediately parroted Hamas’ lies regarding the al-Ahli hospital (which Hijjy contributed to) and still refuses to retract these fabrications.… pic.twitter.com/7WaCDm2YdX
Targeting the NYT for being a mouthpiece of the Palestinian terror outfit, the Israeli Ambassador urged every Jew to stop reading or giving advertisements to the mouthpieces of Hamas. He added, “Every Jew must understand that not reading or advertising in Hamas mouthpieces is an integral part of our right to self-defence. And we must defend ourselves!!!”
Hitler-praiser and pro-Hamas ‘journalist’ Soliman Hijjy
As per Hijjy’s byline (archived) on the news website, he began contributing ‘greatly’ to the NYT on 12th October this year after a long hiatus of two years. Interestingly, the majority of his work with the Times has been centred around the Al-Ahli hospital attack which was exploited by Hamas to falsely blame Israel for the attack.
Prior to giving ‘contribution’ to the hospital attack in Gaza, Hijjy had last reported for NYT way back in July 2021, as per his byline on the news portal.
In August 2022, HonestReporting, a pro-Israel media watchdog, revealed the controversial past of Hijjy whose work had been featured by the New York Times between 2018 and 2021.
HonestReporting highlighted that in 2012, Hijjy shared a Facebook post praising Adolf Hitler. In his 2012 FB post, Hijjy wrote, “How great you are, Hitler” in Arabic. In the post, he also attached a photoshopped image of Hitler seemingly taking a selfie.
The Israeli outlet also highlighted that the Palestinian filmmaker Soliman Hijjy hailed the Nazi leader as recently as 2018. In a 2018 post, he shared a photo of himself with a caption that translated to either “I’m in tune like Hitler during the holocaust” or “in a state of harmony as Hitler was during the Holocaust”, as reported by Fox News.
In a separate post, Hijjy referred to the terrorist group Hamas’ rocket fire toward Israel as “the resistance.”
In 2018, the same year when he had praised Hitler and the Holocaust, Hijjy was hired by the Times as a freelance journalist. Afterwards, he worked on a slew of “visual investigations” published by the organisation through 2021.
However, after his anti-Semitic posts praising Hitler came to the fore, his work didn’t appear in the Times anymore. Meanwhile, he also took down his controversial pro-Hitler posts. But he was recently rehired by the Times following the 7th October terrorist attack on Israel and his first work appeared around the same time when reports of purported attacks on Hospitals started coming to the fore from Gaza. Out of which, it was later revealed that the Al-Ahli attack occurred because a PIJ’s rocket misfired and hit the parking area of the hospital.
