World
UN employee blames ‘hack’ for pro-Hamas posts
Lamia Burkart’s X profile posted messages comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and attacking a Jewish man
January 5, 2024 10:32
Lamia Burkart’s X profile posted messages comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and attacking a Jewish man
January 5, 2024 10:32The United Nations has claimed antisemitic posts and a message backing Hamas sent from an employee’s social media account were written by a hacker.
An X/Twitter profile created by Lamia Burkart, who has worked for the supranational body in Geneva and New York, posted a string of tweets comparing Israel to Nazi Germany following the October 7 attack.
In December, in response to a photo contrasting an image of the Brandenburg Gate draped in Nazi flags to a contemporary photo of it with a menorah, the account said: “Oh I get it now: Nazi then and Nazio now, right? [sic]”
Later that month, sharing a photo of a billboard with a message declaring that Hamas raped and murdered Israeli women, Burkart’s profile wrote: “Can you think of a better illustration of this basic rule of propaganda: ‘Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth’ May not be a coincidence that it’s often attributed to Nazi Goeballs #DismantleZionism.”
The account later demanded, “DISMANTLE THE NAZI ISRAEL STATE NOW!” and insisted, “We prefer Hamas to Israel 1000 times.”
The Lamia profile also attacked former Board of Deputies representative Khaled Hassan after he announced that an Egyptian academic had left his job following accusations of antisemitism.
It accused him of likely being paid by the state of Israel and of being a “3rd Reich agent x Kristallnacht reveller” supporting a genocide in Gaza.
Minutes later, Hassan told the JC, a LinkedIn profile under Lamia’s name viewed his profile on the business networking site.
The X profile registered under the UN employee’s name then mocked Hassan again, this time referencing the university he attended — a detail available on his LinkedIn.
A UN Human Rights Office spokesman said Lamia’s social media accounts with X and LinkedIn were hacked without her knowledge and that she did not make the abusive posts in question.
They said: “We were very concerned about the allegations and immediately followed up with Ms Burkart, who assured us she had not used her X account in years.
“Upon checking, she said she discovered a data breach involving both her X and LinkedIn accounts. She has subsequently closed her X account to prevent any further hacking.”
The UN has faced repeated accusations of bias in the months following Hamas’s attack against Israel that saw hundreds of civilians killed.
Earlier this week, the body admitted that a senior official breached their code of conduct over liking a series of anti-Israel tweets, including one accusing the Jewish state of funding “genocide” in Gaza.
Sarah Douglas, the deputy chief for peace, security and resilience at UN Women, liked one tweet posted on 16 October that read: "We are currently witnessing all the forces of empire team up to annihilate the Palestinian people and struggle for freedom."