Ariel Zilber
The New York Times said it is “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-bylined a controversial Times report on alleged mass rape committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, became the subject of an internal probe after an X user posted screenshots of Schwartz’s social media activity, which included “liking” posts with a clear pro-Israel bent.
One post called for Israel to “turn the [Gaza Strip] into a slaughterhouse” and to “execute” alleged Palestinian terrorists.
“Violate any norm, on the way to victory,” read the post that was liked by Schwartz.
“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 told The Post in a statement.
“Those ‘likes’ are unacceptable violations of our company policy. We are currently reviewing the matter.”
According to Ryan Grim, a reporter at the Intercept, Schwartz will no longer contribute stories to the newspaper.
When asked about Grim’s report that the Times had cut ties with Schwartz, Rhodes Ha declined to add to her previous statement.
News of the investigation into Schwartz was first reported by the Daily Beast.
The Post has sought comment from Schwartz.
Schwartz also appeared to endorse an X post that was authored by the Israeli government’s official account.
The post from Oct. 10 amplified a conspiracy theory that Hamas terrorists had beheaded 40 Israeli babies during their cross-border assault on towns and kibbutzim along the Gaza frontier.
Initial claims of Hamas slaughtering dozens of babies went viral, but there has been no official confirmation of this from the Israeli government.
A December report which appeared on the English-language news site Times of Israel stated that out of fewer than 1,200 Israelis who were killed by Hamas terrorists, two of them were infants and 12 were children under the age of 10.
The report also stated that 36 civilians between the ages of 10 and 19 were killed.
An estimated 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died as a result of Israeli military actions following Oct. 7. At least 11,000 of those who died were children, according to aid groups and local authorities.
Last month, the Times’ popular podcast “The Daily” pulled an episode about alleged mass rape committed by Hamas terrorists after the newspaper’s staffers raised questions about a Dec. 28 story co-authored by Schwartz.
The story, which the Times said was the result of a two-month investigation, relied on interviews with soldiers and medics who reported that they saw dozens of bodies of women who had “signs of abuse in their genital areas.”
But critics of the story have noted that the rapid burial of the victims prevented authorities from collecting any forensic evidence that would have confirmed reports of mass rape.
Hamas has denied that its members raped Israeli women on Oct. 7.
Criticism of the Times story from newsroom staffers prompted “The Daily” to cancel a planned podcast episode that was scheduled for Jan. 9, according to the Intercept.
Before the decision was made to cancel the podcast, its producers had reportedly drafted a new script that included “major caveats” that “allowed for uncertainty” in the newspaper’s original reporting.
Last year, it was learned that the Times rehired a Palestinian freelance journalist who came under fire for praising Adolf Hitler in multiple resurfaced Facebook posts.
This post was originally posted by New York Post
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