UN agency fires anti-Israel tweeter

JERUSALEM (JTA) – A UN agency employee based in Jerusalem who tweeted an incendiary anti-Israel photo nearly a year ago was removed from her position.

Khulood Badawi, the information and media coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem, was dismissed on Wednesday. The OCHA explained Badawi’s removal as a contract non-renewal, according to The Jerusalem Post, which was the first to report the firing. The office had launched an internal investigation into the incident, and Badawi was sent on an extended vacation, according to the HonestReporting monitoring agency.

Badawi’s tweet last March 10 showed a dead, blood-covered Palestinian girl in the arms of her father who Badawi said had been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. It turned out to be a 2006 Reuters photo and the girl had died in a playground or car accident, according to various reports, including information supplied by HonestReporting.

In her tweet, Badawi wrote “Palestine is bleeding … another child killed by #Israel … another father carrying his child to a grave in #Gaza.”

Badawi neither retracted nor apologized for her inaccurate tweet.