A BBC journalist who was sacked by the corporation for tweeting “Hitler was right” has blamed her dismissal on a “pro-Israel mob”. 

Tala Halawa, formerly a Palestine Specialist for BBC monitoring, wrote in 2014 that “Israel is more Nazi than Hitler” and used the hashtag “Hitler was right”.

The antisemitic statements were posted on social media prior to Ms Halawa joining the national broadcaster in 2017.

After the reporter’s tweets were brought to light in May this year, the BBC launched an investigation and subsequently sacked Ms Halawa in June.

Now, in a new statement on her dismissal, Ms Halawa has accused the BBC of “capitulating to pressure from external pro-Israel interest groups and right-wing media outlets determined to eliminate Palestinians from public life.” 

The journalist has also accused “pro-Israel groups” of “train(ing) their sights on me” and launching a censorship campaign “industrial in scale and international in reach”. 

Ms Halawa said: “The trend of bad-faith intimidation of reporters from the region by jostile actors and organised public flogging are aimed at setting the parameters of acceptable journalism to suit Israel, and policing international media to maintain institutional pro-Israel bias.

“I will continue to believe and fight for honest and brave journalism regardless of these menial attempts at character assassination.”