CNN fires contributor with long history of anti-Semitism: 'The world today needs a Hitler'
CNN has fired a Pakistan-based freelance contributor who has long tweeted his praise for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and his dislike of Jews.
Adeel Raja, who, according to his LinkedIn account, has worked as a freelancer for the major news agency since 2013, was terminated following his posting of a since-deleted Sunday tweet in which he stated: "The world today needs a Hitler."
As Daily Caller contributor Greg Price points out, this was not the first time Raja had spoken positively about the German WWII-era leader who led a genocide that resulted in the death of millions of Jews.
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In July of 2014, during the World Cup tournament, Raja reportedly tweeted: "The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals — Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews."
He tweeted "Hail Hitler!" on the following day.
This guy has 54 articles under his byline at CNN. They should probably fire whoever does their background checks. pic.twitter.com/yNr7iT29nD
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 16, 2021
The network said in a statement to The Washington Examiner that Raja's "reporting contributed to some newsgathering efforts from Islamabad.”
“However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity,” a CNN statement reads.
Raja tweeted his most recent remark only to take it down a few hours after he posted it.
On Saturday, he compared what is happening in Israel to the region of the world where he is based. He tweeted that "what the Jews are doing in Palestine is similar to what Indian Hindus are doing in Occupied Kashmir.”
“Same tactics,” he declared.
Two days before, Raja retweeted former vice president Mike Pence's tweet that stated that the U.S. stands with Israel.
"A history of creating terrorists and standing with them!" Raja wrote.
The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, one of the parties trying to broker a peace deal in the conflict, expressed optimism that a ceasefire between the Israelis and Palestinians may be within reach.
"Egypt is going to great lengths to reach a ceasefire between the Israelis and Palestinians — and hope still exists that a collective action could end the conflict," al-Sisi said in an interview with the Al Arabiya.
"It is increasingly important to calm the spirits and end the violence and the killing.”
Israel's military maintains that Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip and regarded by many nations as a terrorist group, and other allied extremists launched over 2,900 rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory over the past week.
The latest conflict began in mid-April at the start of the Islamic month of Ramadan when Israeli police erected barriers at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, where Muslim worshipers assemble following evening prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount, which is also home to the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, is arguably the most contested piece of real estate globally.
Although Israel retook Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967, the Temple Mount was returned 10 days after the battle concluded and has since then been controlled and managed by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, an Islamic religious trust.
Also contributing to the conflict is an ongoing dispute over Sheikh Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a lengthy legal case that left some Palestinian families facing eviction from their homes.
The homes are on land Jewish settlers claim, and the case is supposed to be adjudicated in Israel’s Supreme Court. But the judicial proceedings have been delayed amid the rising violence.
The health ministry in Gaza reported Monday that Israeli airstrikes killed at least 200 people, and over 1,200 have been injured. Additionally, over 38,000 have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
