A Palestinian freelance journalist working for NBC News has been arrested in Israel on charges of inciting terror and identifying with a terrorist organization.
Mirvat al-Azzeh was detained after sharing four Facebook posts that incite terror, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Following her arrest Friday, NBC cut ties with her. Network officials said that they had been unaware of her social media activities.
“Before we recently retained Marwat Azza for services as a freelance producer, we were not aware of her personal social media activity that provided the basis for the Israeli investigation,” an NBC spokesperson said.
“We understand the material under investigation is not related to any services she provided to NBC News.”
Al-Azza, who lives in East Jerusalem, began working for NBC shortly before the war on Gaza, after the Hamas terror attack on October 7.
Her most recent byline on Nov. 12 reported that newborns at the al-Shifa Hospital were dying as the facility ran out of resources.
Police described the posts at a hearing at the Jerusalem Court as “inciting and glorying the horrible acts committed against civilians.”
Her arrest comes as other mainstream media outlets have come under fire over using journalists who have expressed antisemitic beliefs.
The New York Times recently rehired a Hitler-praising filmmaker to cover the Israeli-Hamas war.
Soliman Hijjy — who praised Hitler as recently as 2018 on Facebook — had a byline at the Times nearly every day between Oct. 12 and Oct. 19, from Gaza
NBC News has cut ties with a Palestinian journalist after she was arrested by Israeli authorities Thursday for glorifying the Hamas attacks. According to the Jerusalem Post, Mirvat al-Azzeh, a 45-year-old freelance producer, was booked on suspicion of inciting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization after sharing four posts on Facebook.
''These are very serious offenses during a time of declared war when the respondent lives and makes a living in the same country that is under attack and yet chooses to incite and glorify the horrible acts committed against civilians,'' a police spokesperson stated in court, as per New York Post.
On October 7,al-Azzeh wrote on Facebook about an elderly woman who was kidnapped, "It's killing me, it's a black comedy, the old woman looks happy, a bit of action before she dies."
She wrote in another, ''Sirens all the time, the Jews are hiding and the Arabs are out drinking coffee on their balconies.'' She also said she felt like she was ''watching a movie where the director is Palestinian and the protagonists are from Gaza.''
A police representative at a Friday hearing of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court claimed that she chose "to incite and glorify the horrible acts committed against civilians.''
Her defense attorney said that al-Azzeh confirmed that the posts were hers.
''This is a normative woman, engaged in journalism, and her role is very important to everyone. She was asked in her investigation about her work. I believe that in the things attributed to her, she cooperated fully. She did not try to hide, saying 'I had a hacker,'' her defense attorney claimed.
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