A former Al Jazeera reporter that was recently hired by Twitter to oversee its news coverage of the Middle East and North Africa was forced to issue an apology after her history of anti-Israel tweets resurfaced on social media last week.
Fadah Jassem, a London-based former television producer and editor came under fire after announcing her role as Twitter’s new "Editorial Curation Lead" on the platform. The announcement was accompanied by 17 flag icons representing various countries in the region, with the obvious exception of the trademark blue and white Israeli flag.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a news release Tuesday addressed Jassem's appointment, writing, "No TWITTER, a person who erases Israel from the map cannot be Twitter’s Middle East gatekeeper. What’s next? Longtime Twitter user Ayatollah Khamenei on your board? Twitter empowers every anti-Semite by elevating this bigot to censor Middle East news."
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Jassem eventually apologized for the omission, but not before GnasherJew, a UK investigative organization exposed a long history of tweets laden with anti-Semitism and bias against the Jewish State dating back to 2010.
In September of that year, Jasser wrote on Twitter that Israel was "not born" but "dropped like a bomb in the middle of Palestine." Several other tweets quote Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan – including one that takes issue with U.S. support for Israel. Farrakhan has openly promoted hatred against "the synagogue of Satan" and "Satanic Jews," as documented by the Anti-Defamation League. In that same year, Jassem refers to Farrakhan as a "great example of faith transcending boundaries."
Jassem, in her new role will be responsible for curating stories Twitter displays on its platform, and highlighting the "best, most relevant, and timely content that reaches, engages and delights one of the largest daily audiences in the world," according to her job description.
In an exchange last week with Emanuel Miller of Honest Reporting, a group devoted to calling out what it identifies as anti-Israel bias in media, Jassem responded to the criticism stating that "I can see that I have been ill-informed with some tweets when younger,"
"I apologise for any offence caused by these particular tweets and like I said for forgetting the Israeli flag with reference to MENA as I did others," she wrote.
In a subsequent tweet, Jassem said she had "a fascinating day," but decided to change her personal profile setting to private due to what she called "horrible allegations" levied against her.
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StopAntisemitism, a U.S. based watchdog organization demanded Jassem’s "hateful views" be examined, arguing that her "history of public antisemitism disqualifies her from being an unbiased party able to source content relating to the Middle East and Israel in particular."
Twitter did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.