A New York Times reporter who came under fire last year for a praising Adolf Hitler in multiple resurfaced Facebook posts was rehired by the Gray Lady to cover the Israel-Palestine war.
Palestinian filmmaker Soliman Hijjy hailed the Nazi leader as recently as 2018 in a post on Facebook, when he shared a photo of himself captioned that he was "in a state of harmony as Hitler was during the Holocaust," per a translation from Arabic by pro-Israel media watchdog site HonestReporting.
That same year, Hijjy was hired by the Times as a freelance journalist and worked on a slew of "visual investigations" published by the organization through 2021, including one on an Israeli airstrike that killed 44 people.
Hijjy's 2018 post -- including a 2012 Facebook post where he wrote, "How great you are, Hitler" in Arabic alongside a photoshopped image of Hitler seemingly taking a selfie -- were unearthed last year, when pro-Israel outlets called out the Times for hiring antisemitic journalists as freelancers.
At the time, Hijjy didn't appear to be working for the Times anymore, and had since taken down his controversial pro-Hitler posts.However, the Times rehired the antisemitic freelancer last week.
A Times spokesperson defended the outlet's decision to rehire Hijjy.
"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," the rep said.
"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.
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